My 5th Avenue Is NOT Loud Enough!

[Elias Graves]

So I'm gonna make it that way!

Ordered a Kent Armstrong floating mini for this bad boy.
The victim, er subject....


The pup, from the backside. Epoxy potted.


Had to make a little room on the pickguard.


The pickup, attached...


EG

[Elias Graves]

The endpin jack, wired up...


And a big honkin hole to put it in. You can also see a small hole I drilled through to run a ground from the tailpiece.


Pickup and guard in place...


EG

[Elias Graves]

Tailpiece reinstalled...


Tailpiece and jack...


Complete wiring harness...



Pots and knobs, with everything back together...




And finished. Not too bad of a project. All together, maybe $100 in parts plus my labor.
The sound is great. Can get anything from a nice acoustic sound, super sweet cleans and, of course, the dreaded "wall of sound" with the gain cranked up. I'm lovin it.

EG

[Blue4Now]

Love it, but that is a strange spot for the knobs no?

[GreenKnight18]

Originally Posted by Blue4Now

Love it, but that is a strange spot for the knobs no?

I agree, but with no cutaway, I guess it's not that bad.

[The Cowboy Poet]

Ahhh!!! That is AWESOME.

I have a Gretsch archtop not too different than that. I've wanted to put a pick up in it for some time now but I've never done any guitar modifications. Would you mind if I PM you with some questions once I'm ready in a few months??

Never the less, good work, I'd love to hear how it sounds.

[Elias Graves]

Originally Posted by The Cowboy Poet

Ahhh!!! That is AWESOME.

I have a Gretsch archtop not too different than that. I've wanted to put a pick up in it for some time now but I've never done any guitar modifications. Would you mind if I PM you with some questions once I'm ready in a few months??

Never the less, good work, I'd love to hear how it sounds.

Feel free. I'm just an ameteur hack though. :lol:

Clip? The only thing I have right now is acoustic. I just finished up last night. I'm in the middle of moving right now, so gear access is limited.

Hopefully in a few weeks, I'll have some more.

An original of mine...it's not much more than a scratch recording of a WIP, but the guitar sounds pretty good.
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getpl...d=9445159&q=hi

As far as knob placement, they get in the way a lot less there than low and back. I taped the knobs on in different locations to see how I liked them and found this placement to be the least in the way. I'm making a new guard for it soon and may move them yet.

EG

[sega]

Nice, I always admire people who mods something so it fits their personnality.
Great work!!!

[musicofanatic5]

The knob location would be so in the way for me!! They're kinda close together, too, in terms of ease of use.

If you didn't like them in the more standard location ("low and back" as you put it), I would suggest a lower profile knob. I did one of these and took strat knobs and cut the skirt off. That left me with a nice little knob for p.g. mounting.

Additionally there are some "stealth" thumbwheel knob/pots from archtop.com:

http://archtop.com/ac_access.html

This all presuming you eventually find you do not care for your selected location. I cannot imagine that working out for you, but it does, ignore the above.