Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on April 12, 2019 at 6:49am

At one time Dearmond made pickups for 7 out of 10 companies except Fender & Gibson? They invented all the pickups that would make Gretsch famous in the 50’s & 60’s? Including all the Valco made brands- Harmony , Kay , Recording king, etc.....  I had one of those models from late 60’s, glad to see they haven’t changed much? Good score! I’m actually trying to buy a 65’ Guild Starfire right now, which has original Dearmond humbuckers & a Bigsby. I hope I get it?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 12, 2019 at 8:05pm

That would be a nice score.

Correct about DeArmond making pickups for just about everybody. Fender made their own, but some early Gibson Jazz Box guitars had DeArmond pickups that mounted on the end of the fretboard(you can get copies of these all over these days) and they made the Monkey On A Stick pickup too. Gretsch early pickups were DeArmond.

The Guild Starfire is a great guitar. I don't know if it's a semi-hollow or hollow body, but it kinda reminds me of a Casino.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on April 13, 2019 at 6:14pm

Hi, not CBG related, but it is a guitar and its on my bench. Just finished tuning this top and glued the back on, closing this acoustic guitar body, and thought I'd test its responsiveness. 

I tapped it whilst holding a lighted candle in front of the soundhole, and the air coming out as the top moved in blew out the flame. you can just see the remains of the smoke. I'm happy with that.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 14, 2019 at 7:12am

That's cool Taff.

Have you tried that test on any CBG's? I would think that there wouldn't be enough acoustic wave power to blow out the candle, but CBG's have a way of surprising you.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on April 14, 2019 at 11:43am

Hi Paul, yes I'm sure it could, if the top and back are given the same attention to  detail as this acoustic guitars top and back.

I've tried it with some Factory built guitars, But could not get the same result. On one guitar I did get the result but I don't know if it was the air exiting the body or the wind disturbance caused by my hand heading for the top, that blew the candle out. H ha, it made awful loud thump though.

taff 

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 14, 2019 at 8:51pm

I got the DeArmond cleaned up. The Rosewood fretboard is pretty dry, so I'll be picking up some lemon juice to apply to the fretboard. Lemon juice works great on Rosewood.

Then it's put the strings on time. Whoohoo

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 19, 2019 at 8:27am

I started taking the Johnson Strat clone apart and cleaning it up. The fretboard looked like it was played by a mechanic that hadn't cleaned it in 5 years. Very dirty.

It has a plastic nut that will be replaced with a Tusq nut. The tremolo block is some cast pot metal junk that's going to be replaced with a steel block. The bridge saddles and tuners are good. The pickups are cheap ceramic mag pickups, but they sounded decent. I'll use them on a CBG or 2. I have a set of custom pickups for this baby and it's getting wired with 3 toggles and a series/parallel option for the middle pickup. Yum, I can hardly wait for this.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 19, 2019 at 8:34am

The Black is scratched up a lot. I'm going to lightly sand it and spray some clear on it and see how it turns out. If it doesn't turn out good, I'll have to remove the finish and paint it. I've got a can of Rose Gold and a can of Medium Quasar Blue Metallic waiting to go on something.

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Permalink Reply by François on April 19, 2019 at 9:14am

Metallic blue should look nice.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 21, 2019 at 6:50pm

The Blue and the Gold would look good with a Black pickguard. I'm just having a hard time deciding on which because I like both choices. Arrggh!

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on April 27, 2019 at 10:04pm

Everything looks so much easier on the net. People who know what they're doing make everything look easy. I've come to the conclusion the only way to get a fretboard and a fretboard sander to line up is to buy them. :) I can get 12 in radius un fretted boards for a bit over $15. I can easily cut these down to fit. Then all I'll have to learn is fretting and leveling. 

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 28, 2019 at 8:48am

So much work goes into a neck and fretboard.

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