Chubbuck Guitars / Kevin Chubbuck, making & repairing guitars in an old building just north of Boston, Massachusetts.
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bench
Here is a left handed Gretsch Duo Jet with a Bigsby. The tailpiece was mounted slightly off so it pulled the strings towards the bass side of the fingerboard. The floating bridge was double stick taped down, but had shifted over. I ended up shimming the Bigsby tailpiece to better center the strings down the neck and the bridge was remounted as well.
A late 70's Ibanez Artist on the bench for a setup. The output jack plate has a mounting screw that was broken flush with the wood that the customer wanted addressed. I used my shop made screw extractor to remove the screw and plug the hole. The hole is then drilled to accept a fresh screw. Click here for more details on another project involving broken screw removal.
A local player wasn't digging these mini humbuckers and wanted to install full size humbuckers in his Gibson 1970's Tribute Les Paul Studio. This involves enlarging both pickup cavities with a router. I used a straightedge to guide my cuts.
Next is installing corner blocks in order to mount the pickup rings.
The player supplied a Gibson PAF for the neck and a WCR Icebreaker for the bridge. New cream pickup rings were fit to the top before the pickups could be mounted. Making the solder connections at the pots finished off the mini to full size humbucker conversion.
I used this video from the Youtube channel of Paoson WoodWorking for inspiration on this project.
A local player was not digging the stock Expression System 2 pickup in his Taylor (pictured above) so he wanted to swap it out for a LR Baggs Anthem.
A common complaint of active acoustic pickups is having to change the battery, usually done through the soundhole. Players know that everytime the sound guy is troubleshooting an issue with you, he's going to make you check your battery (or outright replace it). It only makes sense in this situation to take advantage of the easily-accessed tail mounted battery box. This also means modifying the Taylor jack to work with the new LR Baggs jack.
Above is the modified Taylor battery box / end jack with the new LR Baggs connections installed. The right angle plug is the LR Baggs jack connection and the small white clip connection is spliced into the battery box. Zip ties are used to keep the wiring clean.
Initially I thought of plugging the Taylor's bridge pickup holes but opted to just reinstall the original pickup, though disconnected. I wanted to give the player the option to return to the stock pickup if he ever wanted to. The LR Baggs Anthem has an undersaddle pickup and an internal microphone. Normally the microphone is installed on the bridge plate underneath the saddle. The original Taylor pickup however prevents this so I installed the Baggs mic between the bridge plate and the x brace. Placement is not critical with this mic.
Note that I really dislike the idea of three 1/4" holes running clean through the bridge, top and bridge plate.
You can see the Baggs controls mounted in the soundhole. The Taylor upper bout controls were left installed but disconnected (again to be able to easily return to stock).
Both the player and I found the Baggs Anthem to be a great improvement to the amplified tone. Much warmer and dynamic than the stock pickup to our ears.
Troy VanLeeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age signature Jazzmaster in for a setup. The bridge pickup is a Curtis Novak. I really dig the vibe of this JM. Yet another guitar that was "play tested" quite a bit before it left the shop.
![Lefty setup :: 2006 Gretsch Duo Jet G6128TLH [7.6 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1484203422392-TYVF0QK8582NLCFC740R/20160902_2006_gretsch_duojet_lefty_bench.jpg)
![Broken screw & setup :: 1977 Ibanez 2618 [9.4 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1479273003129-UHLZAD0RVDNLAC96ZMLK/20160831_1977_Ibanez_Artist_2618_bench.jpg)
![Mini to full size humbucker conversion :: 2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio 70's Tribute [9.0 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1479272532485-IZUVUSRA46P7EHY4XP40/20160828_2012_Gibson_70s_RI_gold_hb.jpg)
![LR Baggs Anthem conversion :: 2015 Taylor 814CE [4.9 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1479134046049-DSQC5IG9EZ2USFNP8GVL/20160826_2015_taylor_814CE_jack_mod.jpg)
![2014 Fender Troy VanLeeuwen Jazzmaster [8.6 lbs] :: setup](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1478985852642-D1Z9WDF93X5XUAHS75VY/20160825_VanLeeuwen_JM_bench.jpg)