I know you've received my email, but I figured someone else in the future might want to see some answers, so here we go:
On Sat, January 16, 2010 9:19 am, you wrote:
>
> Basically I wanted to ask a question about my newly acquired “old” guild
> Ashbory.
>
>
> (call me old fashioned but I still like to buy old USA stuff. My kid
> thinks am crazy … he thinks everything good ALWAYS came from overseas and
> I had to
> give him a history lesson on how things made in the US years ago were
> actually good. Anyway that’s another subject)
>
I'm with you on that more than I'm not. The Ashbory is an exception,
however (more below).
>
>
> I saw the article on retrofitting the tuners which didn’t seem difficult
> as I have done lots of basic work on my guitars over the years. I will
> definitely do this as I do not like to spend an hour with those banjo type
> tuners (or whatever they call em).
>
The Guild tuners are crap! I'd like to hear your take on the tuner swap
when you're done.
>
> Upon playing the bass, the active electronics switch work and the
> light comes on and the sound gets appreciative louder, but the G string
> sounds about ½ the volume of the other strings. I was thinking it could
> be a broken bridge. But I noticed that when the active bridge is turned
> off, although I still get decent sound (with lower volume), the g string
> is STILL one half the volume of the other strings. So I don’t l know if
> it’s the bridge or not.
>
Almost guaranteed to be the bridge. Here's my personal experience:
http://www.largesound.com/ashborydoc/other/1996rebuild/The crappy Guild tuners and the crappy Guild bridge pickups go bad often.
My Guild is museum piece these days, and when I play I grab the DeArmond.
>
>
> From what I have read, … if it is a bridge issue, the new bridges will
> not work on a guild and any links for Ashbory electronics to get a new
> bridge appear dead. Any advice on this?
>
>
Well, Alun Ashworth-Jones, the man of Ashborth Electronics, passed away in
2008:
http://www.largesound.com/ashboryarticle/general/alun-ashworth-jones/I haven't received any more recent information on Ashworth Electronics,
other than it appears to have gone away with Mr. Jones. He was a great
guy.
>
> I also noticed you sell circuit board assemblies, but I did not see any
> mention as to whether or not they will work with a guild .
>
>
They are missing the active/passive toggle. Beyond that, I don't know how
they'd drop in or not (knob spacing, etc.). Your circuit board is probably
not a problem though, so I wouldn't worry about that.
>
> I would appreciate any tips. Thanks.
>
The bridge is plastic. If you think you can shave a DeArmond down to fit
into a Guild body, and that might be a reasonable option. Odds are
extremely high that your bridge is messed up. Like with the tuners, I'd
love someone to actually do this so we can see how it works.
As to the tuner spacing issue Bill Puig notes (
http://www.largesound.com/ashboryarticle/mod/tunerretrofit/ ), if you take
the spindles off the tuner posts, and grind the posts down in height, the
spindles will be lower when reattached. The posts won't be covered black
on the ends anymore, but the spindle will cover this when it's screwed
back onto the posts. That's how I'd do it.
>
> Before ordering any tuners or string accessories etc, I also need to get
> my name password thing straightened out as well.
>
Let me know how all that goes, and I'll set up whatever necessary.
>
> Looking forward to your reply.
>
Let me know if you have any other questions. I can dig out the calipers
and get bridge measurements if you'd like, for example. I'd love to see
someone attempt the bridge mod.
Feel free to ask any other questions. I'm fascinated by your DeArmond part
upgrade mission. The tuners and pickups are notably better on the
DeArmonds, no doubt about that. The Guild headstock is superior in that it
is lower than the DeArmond, but it's smaller, which may have some
unwelcome consequences with the DeArmond tuners. I think the headstock is
probably large enough to work, however.
-Brock
Author
Topic: need advice on bridge pickup of an old guild ashbory and more (Read 1013 times)