It’s been quite a while since our last post, but for good reason: we have been the busiest we’ve ever been. Not only are our wares selling like hotcakes (Fortune 500 here we come?) but there has been a marked increase in patrons to our humble store. Some come in for work on their prized amp or guitar, some come to browse, and a few come in just to have a drink and hang out – exactly the kinds of things we’re about!
When you own a shop in a street-level garage that’s around 500 square feet, two or more customers can make it feel very, very busy. Add to this the army of gear we’ve acquired and a veritable mountain of repairs, and I think you could begin to infer just how busy we’ve been.
Even so, I thought I’d take this opportunity to update both the website and our faithful readers on just what the heck we’ve been doing this holiday season. I mean, it’s not all eggnog and carols and flasks of whichever alcohol we’re drinking these days!
The Modified Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster
December marked the end of a months-long project, one that took far longer to complete than I had expected. Why? Well, it’s because of that dad-blasted Gold Foil.
Our friend John (the owner of this fine machine) saw what we did ages ago with the Skyemaster and wanted something similar but tweaked to his personality. Two additional pickups were to be installed – a total of four on the guitar – to augment the already wide range of tones available to him. He provided a cool old Framus/Guyatone pickup for the middle position, and installing that required routing out the body and pickguard. Pretty straightforward.
However, John was really into the ethereal, otherworldly sounds that came from the Skyemaster’s behind-the-bridge unit, so finding a thin, small pickup that would fit under the adjusted string length of this model was a bit of a problem. We eventually decided that an old Dearmond/Rowe Gold Foil would do the trick, but that would present its own challenge: finding one for a good price.
John and I agreed that, with the recent spate of popularity surrounding these pickups, it would be a game of waiting to pounce on an under priced pickup to keep his already high costs down. I was more than happy to save my customer some money, but between searching and all of the other jobs I’ve had, it started to feel hopeless there for a bit. Luckily, after some time I was able to track one down that was in need of a rewind.
From then on it was smooth sailing. Here’s a brief rundown of what we have going on with this one:
-Stock neck and bridge pickups
-Added Guyatone/Framus pickup in the middle position
-Gold Foil (no base) mounted directly to the wood, no routing required!
-Three way toggle functions normally (N, NB, B)
-Two additional pickups are selectable via two push-pull pots on the Volume (middle) and Tone (behind-the-bridge) pots
So, how does it sound? It’s amazing. The middle pickup lends a quacky sort of darkness to the overall characteristics of the stock pickups, and the BTB unit enables all of the weird, Waterphone-like tones you’d expect. This is certainly one of my favorite mods, and it’s surprisingly useful. I’ll get around to doing this to my own guitar soon enough, I’m sure. Wanna hear how it sounds? Check it out:
There are three more videos detailing some of the quirky sounds available via the modified electronics. Feel free to watch!
I’m going to do a couple more quick updates in the next few days or so. Keep your eyes peeled! Lots more cool stuff on the way!
UPDATE: Special thanks to our pals over at Ampersand Amplification for this custom meme! We think it’s appropriate!
Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar 
John calls it the Jazzmonster. He’s taking it out to Idaho to impress his guitar playing brothers.
This is just plain stupid, sorry.
So why take the time to comment? You’ve succeeded in wasting everybody’s time.
Not for you? Great! Find things that interest you and comment on them. Feel free to pass us by.
dude. The sound possibilities are amazing. You’re not getting it.
How’d you mount the behind-the-bridge pickup?
On this Blacktop, we mounted an old DeArmond Gold Foil directly to the body, no routing or any of that. We’ve previously routed out a cavity on some guitars and installed a lipstick.
So good. I can’t wait to stick a lipstick into my frankenmaster Squire. I’d looooove it if, if you have time and have the schematics around somewhere you could email em to me. Be forevs grateful! -kp