The Hub

Since most of us fix or make guitars, we have probably heard something about the cease and desist letters Fender has sent out concerning the Stratocaster. I thought I would offer some thoughts. As always, caveat emptor. There are three basic ways to protect intellectual property under Federal law. Patent, trademark, and copyright. Each protects different things, and has different underlying legal theories. Lets begin with pate…

Just sharing some info to procrastinate my nth attempt at getting this thing together. and some venting. If you get one of these in with electronic issues, estimate high. Customer brought in a Gretsch Rally in pieces that he picked up from the last repairman (who died), and just wants it to play. Minor binding repair and a weirdly-angled zero fret were relatively easy to deal with. The dead electronics are the main problem.…

Greetings fellow Looths! I recently received a request from a customer to replicate Kurt Cobains 59 Martin, starting with a Sigma DM3. I have pasted the customers email to me below. While I have been a looth hobbyist for many years, I just recently opened my official business, Finger Lakes Guitar Works, and am just getting off the ground and a good flow of repair work is already coming in. While I feel 100% confident in my abilities to…

Hello estimable friends, A very long-term friend of mine left us on Christmas Eve after a long illness. His sister tasked me with evaluating, restoring, and selling his stuff. Today I'm preparing to restore a 2008 Longhorn GOM to its original EMGs. Pulling out the humbuckers I see a Pearly Gates and… what looks like an original short-magnet PAF. Correct shape brass screws for the bobbins, UV light confirms sticker and tape, tooling mark…

So, like an idiot, I got well into the installation of an Anthem pickup system when I realized that the soundhole braces on this guitar are effing Lincoln Logs. They're easily a quarter inch thick (and feel like basswood). Because the Anthem preamp is designed to straddle the soundhole brace, I can't fit it as-is. Anybody got any experience with this? OPTIONS THE CLIENT WOULD NEVER GO FOR (and wouldn't thrill me either): 1. Replace the bra…

Hello! I have an Ovation CP-100 pickup. Its unsoldered and I can't seem to get the pickup to work again. There wasn't a spacer either. Which doesn't make sense because if the hot is soldered to the copper strip and the ground to the housing channel, it would just ground out. Any experience getting these back together? Said pickup: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CP100--ovation-cp-100-thinline-pickup-cream -Mike

Hey all, I have a client who wants a fishman soundhole pickup and a k&k mini wired to a volume pot on a Martin 000. Both pickups are pre-wired to their dedicated output jack, so I know some splicing has to be done. I wanted to reach out and see if anyone has any tips or tricks on how to make this smooth sailing?

Hi everyone, We’re really excited to be joining The Looth Group as new sponsors, and we wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves. I’m Ben, and together with Paul McGill we run Go Acoustic Audio. Paul is in his 50th year of guitar making — a milestone that speaks to both his craftsmanship and his persistence in chasing better sound. He’s spent a lifetime building instruments for players at every level, listening closely to what works…

Hi everyone. I've built a bunch of pickups, in a variety of configurations, but I haven't built a set of blade humbuckers yet. I usually make my own bobbins/flatwork, but since this is my first set of blades, I went ahead and purchased some bobbins to see what they're all about. Which leads me to my question: how does the bobbin retain the blade? With the parts I have, the blade just slides into the top of the bobbin. Not especially snu…

This may be a stupid question. A client has a Bartolini jazz guitar humbucker with no brackets, 5JNB: https://bartolini.net/product/5j/ They want to attach it to an ebony jazz guitar pickguard. How do you do that? My thought was to make a metal tray, bend it to the appropriate shape, screw it to the pickguard, and attach the pickup to the tray with double stick tape. Does anybody sell something like that? Or alternately, how do you attac…

2 GFS Surf City pickups. 3 way toggle switch 2 volume, 1 tone Can I wire this to make the volumes work separate for respective pickups and together in the middle position? Without a blender pot.

I have a customer bringing in a Taylor 410CE with intermittent problem pickup output cutting out. It has the 2 AA battery system I understand that Taylor no longer makes any repair parts for this system. If it is the output jack assembly causing the problem, I assume then that the whole system would have to be replaced. I have also heard the replacement system that uses 2 aa batteries does not have great reviews from customers online…

Hi everyone, Thursday we will be doing a video feed with Ian to discuss our work, Developing an Acoustic guitar amplification system that provides players a better option than the common concepts so exploited for so many decades. As part of this discussion we would like to have people offer there issues with pickups and their concerns about what we offer. Given Pickups are so much part of Acoustic guitar performance we would like to hav…

Hi there! I am trying to find an schematic to make a circuit I'd like to try. That would be the Gilmour neck PU always on Strat Mod but in a way that connects that extra pickup in series with the rest instead of paralel like in the original gilmour circuit. The thing is I don't even know if it possible to do it that way or how many switches woud you need to do it in the simplest possible way. If you have any feedback, clues, tips or whate…

Hi all, I'm looking for any advice on a guitar of mine I've been working on. I plan on replacing the neck pickup with Staple P90. I'll be putting this into my telecaster, which means I'm going to need to route the neck pickup cavity for it. As you can see though, the route seems like it would need a deep middle portion, and then a shelf for the pickup to sit on and screw into. Looking at where it will sit on the body currently though, I…