Custom Bartolini pickguard mount :: 2009 Eastman Pagelli PG2 [5.1 lbs]

View fullsize

A noisy pickup was found to be the cause of a loud buzz / hum while playing unless the tone was rolled completely down.  The pickup was both screwed and glued to the pickguard, so heat was required to remove the pickup.  The player chose to replace the Kent Armstrong pickup with a Bartolini 5J.  Unfortunately, Bartolini only offers a fingerboard mount so I needed to make a custom pickguard mounting bracket out of brass.

View fullsize

The fret ends were sharp in the cutaway so they were dressed and the guitar strung up with flats.

View fullsize

View fullsize

K&K Devinity pickup & new frets :: 1939 Gibson L-7 [5.5 lbs]

View fullsize

A big and beautiful 1939 L-7 archtop on the bench for a bunch of repairs.  You can see some of the work done here.  These repairs include new frets, new relic Waverly tuners, back binding repairs, side cracks and a K&K Devinity system pickup installation.  I must say that I'm not normally impressed with acoustic pickups but this newer K&K pickup sounds very warm and transparent.  I installed one of the older K&K archtop pickups in a 1940's Epiphone Emperor years ago and found it sounded very hollow and out of phase (even with correcting the phase with a preamp).  Archtops can be difficult to amplify acoustically.  After hearing this pickup I recommend that you give the K&K Devinity a try.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Side cracks :: 1939 Gibson L-7

View fullsize

Three areas of the sides were cracked so I glued them up with hot hide glue and a few spool clamps.  This is in for new frets as well.

Full fret level :: 2015 Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor II Pro/NA

View fullsize

Another fret level in the jig since I have it out.  Here's a new Epiphone Joe Pass model with some uneven frets.  This needs a full level, crown and polish to get the action nice and low for this player.

Slip sliding bridge :: 1957 Gibson ES-175 [5.7 lbs]

View fullsize

This nearly 60 year old beast came in strung with 10s which was not enough tension to hold the floating bridge in place during bends and heavy strumming. We switched to 12s that added roughly 40 lbs of tension and locked the bridge down solid. The frets are pretty chewed up so when this guy gets new ones in the future it will play like butter. Love, love this guitar.

View fullsize

The serial number dates this gorgeous Gibson ES-175 to 1956, but it's most likely a 1957 since research tells me Gibson switched from P90's to humbuckers in 1957.

Setup video from the daily vlog.