Daily Guitar Repair Blog

I am not sure how us Guitar Repair shops got along before Stewart-MacDonald.  They are the one stop shop for pro’s and hobbies to pick up anything and everything having to do with stringed instrument building, maintenance, customization, and education.                      Check them out here… Stewart MacDonald

Before them, when I needed something that we take for-granted now like nut files, to cut the individual size slots for the strings in the nut.  I would have to go to the best hardware store in town and they would help me order files from Switzerland to do the job.

Click Here for a great slide show Erick took of the shop while out here.  He also has a bunch of great tech tips on the Stewart MacDonald site.

From Left to Right, holding some Stew-Mac tool samplings from the bench……… Erick Coleman, super repair guy, Customer Support and Product development and testing for Stew-Mac.  Me, GB.  And Jay Hostetler, Vice President, Product Development and everything guy for Stew-Mac.

Erick and GaryOur new pal,  Very in demand New York City Guitar Repair dude and super nice guy Evan Gluck.  Here we are doing that pointing thing!

I asked Rob to describe what he heard as the difference between the old P-90′s and the new Lollar Mini Humbuckers……………..”More upper mids and output. Neck p/u is tight and focused, not as woofy. Sits great in the band mix. No 60cycle hum (hooray)”.

“More Thin Lizzy a little less Cream”

The mounting screws for the P-90′s go into threaded inserts pressed into the body.  On rare occasion they do pull out if you are not careful how you mount the p-90′s

Lollar really thought this out.  They are nice enough to include all the parts needed to mount the new Mini-Humbuckers in the ring.   The pickups are hard mounted to the new ring with a screw, spacer and nut.  The nut is secured to the screw so it can still turn and the pickup is solid in the ring.  The pickup and ring assembly then screw into the new universal mounting plate as one piece.

Notice the spacer, the length of the spacer determines how much of the pickup cover extends out the top of the ring.  A nut gets glued into place on the end of the screw.

(the screw actually sticks out much more than in the photo. that’s what screws into the guitar)

The new universal mounting plate is in place.  Depending on what screw holes you use to mount it to the body it will hold a P-90 or mini-hum.

Rob is all giddy with excitement ready to take it on the road with his band ATOMIC WAFFLEHAUS!!!

A while back Trevor, before moving back to the East Coast,  got a request to see what would happen if a piezo pickup was put under the nut.  We read up on Frank Zappa putting something like a Barcus Berry on the peghead of his guitar.  Fred Frith (cool article here) has a magnetic pickup over the strings in front of the nut.  We asked Pick Up The World to make a piezo to fit.  The sound was amazingly responsive and picked up the string mainly behind the fretting hand and acoustics off the neck.  Trev ran a channel down the neck just under the fingerboard to run the cable down to the control cavity.

Here at Gary Brawer Stringed Instrument Repair we celebrate the Winter Solstice, Hannukah, the North American Christmas and the New Year by soldiering on, digging into the stuff, sifting through the detritus, filtering out the dross and aligning the inventory.  Just because it’s December 24th doesn’t mean it’s time to rest.  Guitars won’t wait!  Thanks for your support, your patronage and we look forward to a fantastic 2012!!!

The simplicity of the construction of this pickup give it a wonderful and unique sound.  The coil wire is wound directly onto the magnet then fully shielded in the tube.  This is one of the harder pickups to rewind due to lack of coil form.  We have to build a wire form onto the magnet, rewind it, attach the in and out wires, and somehow fit it back into the “tube”