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Thank you, Joe! I enjoy doing projects like this.
Originally Posted by Max405
And yes, I have LED back lighting above my bookcases. How can you tell?
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03-31-2023 07:43 PM
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Thanks Roli. Originally Posted by rolijen
I thought so because the sharpness of your photos told me so. A good friend who is a photographer told me I can sharpen up my videos if I used LED lighting. I have a couple of LED light panels and they really give off the perfect lights for my cameras.
Anyhow, beautiful guitar buddy. I like the one in your Avatar especially.
JD
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Two quickies…
I know nothing about the Epiphone product line. Do/did they offer a companion archtop similar to the L-5C as compared to the L-5CES? Maybe the Broadway with no pickups?
Bridge….will you stay with the wood or change to a TOM variant?
I have a 1952 L-5C with a single Pete Biltoft CC replica pickup and I plan to keep the rosewood bridge and base. On the hunt now for a period correct Gibson amp, maybe GA-50. I’m not a collector, the L-5C is my only guitar. I’m an old, home doodler only.
Thanks!
Tom
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Yes. At least they used to make one called the Emperor Regent. Very much like the Broadway but with a Johnny Smith style floating pickup attached to the end of the neck overhang. No holes—apart from the f-holes of course—in the guitar top (volume and tone are mounted on the pickguard). The Made in Korea Emperor Regents are very decent large-bodied archtops. Laminated construction, but quite nice. I always wanted to make a poor man’s Wesmo out of one. There are usually some for sale on the ‘bay or the ‘verb. Originally Posted by TMA
I’d like to try a TOM, just for a direct comparison to my Tal Farlow, but the wooden saddle sounds really good. Originally Posted by TMA
I have a buddy here in town selling a GA-20… Originally Posted by TMA
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Roli,
Thanks for the responses.
I’ve seen a few back and forths on our forums about the preferred choice for a bridge on an archtop. If electrified, a metal bridge seemed to win, and then for the non-pickup situation, the wooden saddle was preferred. The wood was also liked a bit more if using a single “floating” pickup. But do another poll another day and who knows. For me I don’t want to invest in a TOM just to evaluate the differences. The way mine is now sounds good (to me). But if I was still playing out, I might.
Does the GA-20 have a tone control? My guitar only has a volume control so the only amp I eventually have, needs to have a tone control. Looking at the Gibson Garage amp site, there are at least (3) versions of a GA-20. I might be interested if the price is digestible.
By the way, that Broadway you are diving into, is a very nice looking guitar! I’ll be looking here to see how things progress.
Thanks!
Tom
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Thank you! Originally Posted by TMA
The top panel on my friend’s GA-20 has a pilot light, switch, fuse, 3 knobs (Tone, Instrument Volume, and Microphone Volume), 3 instrument inputs, and 1 mic input.
IM me if you’d like to look into it.
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Update: I’m trying a new bridge.
I posted some initial findings and asked for feedback on this new bridge in another post, but thought I would add to this thread that I’m experimenting with a composite bridge made by Graph Tech. They call it the RezoMax archtop bridge. I don’t love how it bends slightly to conform to the arch of the guitar top (I worry that the posts will bind inside the saddle).
But, so far it sounds pretty good. And as far as I can tell, the bridge feet are making full contact with the guitar’s top. I’d assess the impact on tone as follows: a little less bright than the ebony bridge I was using for the past couple weeks, and a little brighter than the rosewood bridge that Epiphone put on it at the factory.
As mentioned early in this thread, this Broadway is very alive acoustically, but the treble strings (particularly the plain E and B strings) were bright bordering on tinny with the ebony bridge. This composite (dare I say Plastic) bridge mellows the first two strings in a good way.
The slots are either molded into the saddle or cut very well on all but the high E. The high E appears to sit a little too far into the material. That, and the flex of the feet are my only real concerns. However it sounds good enough that I’ll keep it on for a while to see if it grows on me. Thank you for responses to the other thread. A few forum members have shared their experience with this Graph Tech archtop bridge there.
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I love projects like this and I am quite addicted to upgrading cheap guitars to make them better (my success story is my $275 Ibanez AF55 has become a professional instrument that sounds and plays great!).
You did a great job! Parallelogram tailpiece looks so much better (I put one on my Ibanez as well).
I put a solid foot bridge on my Ibanez, because I didn't like the flexing of the split foot base at all. I have the impression the solid foot bridge contributes to a better tone and in my reasoning is also more constructionally sound, since it sits on the braces and doesn't want to deform the arch of the top.
A pet peeve of mine: please use black pickup rings screws, the chrome ones scream cheap asian guitar....... ;-) (if you care for that kind of thing).
Concerning electronics: I found modern log pots have a different taper than vintage log pots and hooking up modern log pots 50ies-style does not result in the same behavior. Ironically modern wiring with treble bleeds comes much closer!
And I don't believe in tone cap mojo either.... after quite some experimenting with different type of caps (paper in oil, foil, polypropylene, ceramic) and different vintages, I have come to the conclusion that I am either already deaf or there is no difference, because I can not hear any difference as long as the values are more or less the same.
Enjoy your Broadway!
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Little Jay, thank you for the great addition to this discussion! I have followed your AF55 thread since the beginning. Very cool!
For me, half the fun is gaining an education on guitar maintenance, modification and repair on an instrument that I dare mess around with. I’ve done it enough now that I feel very confident with fret leveling and crowning, fret end dressing, all aspects of setup (relief, action, intonation, pickup height, pole piece height, etc.), wiring, electronic components, finish repair, hardware (tuners, tailpieces, pickguards, brackets, etc.).
It gave me the confidence to handle all but the most demanding jobs on my other, more valuable guitars. Plus, it’s very enjoyable.
I’m still on the fence about this plastic bridge. I’ve noticed some weird buzzing that doesn’t appear to be from the typical culprits. I have a message in to Graph Tech (evidently the tech team is out at some big musical instrument industry event?) about sanding or modifying the ResoMax archtop bridge for a more complete contract with the guitar’s top. I’ll try to wait for a response. If none comes and the buzzing indeed is coming from the bridge, I’ll put the Ebony bridge in the earlier photos back on. It sounded pretty good albeit a little brighter on the treble strings. First world problems!
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Heard back from Graph Tech today: Originally Posted by rolijen
”Light sanding will not be a problem as it is made of the same material we make our nuts and saddles from and is easy to work with.”
I’ll probably shape the bridge feet to fit the arch next week. Glad this can be fit like any other bridge. I’ve used the flexible “universal fit” rosewood bridges in the past and they have always sounded better after being fitted to the arch of the particular guitar.
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Yes, fitting it to the arch is important, even with the ‘adjustable’ split foot design.
But if you feel like experimenting, do try a solid foot bridge. For $5-10 on AliExpress it is absolutely worth a try!
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Agreed. I shaped the OEM bridge base (solid, full-contact style) and it improved the sound. Then I shaped an Ebony bridge (also a solid foot, full-contact bridge base) to fit this guitar. That’s what I had in it until the tinkerer in me had to try out this ‘composite bridge’. That ebony bridge is nice but it’s not compensated. However it will be the one I go back to if I’m not satisfied after experimenting with fitting this Graph Tech bridge. Originally Posted by Little Jay
Here’s the ebony bridge:
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Question from the peanut gallery….
My L-5C bridge is rosewood and is not a “split foot” design. How do you confirm that there is no clearance between the underside of the bridge base and the arch of the top? If you cannot slide a very thin piece of rigid material under the bridge base, all the way around the perimeter of the base, is that enough to assure uniform contact between the two surfaces?
Thanks!
Tom
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If you can't slip paper under the bridge you're all good, Originally Posted by TAA
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I have used light and paper to look for gaps. On many more affordable arch tops (particularly Ibanezes and Epiphones) I have found some pretty poor fits with gaps or unevenness. If you can slip the edge of a sheet of paper under the foot or anywhere under the bridge where it contacts the arched-top of the guitar, it means it needs a little improvement. If there aren't gaps, you're good to go. Not saying they're all perfect, but the Gibson archtops I've owned have typically had well fitting bridges from the factory. Originally Posted by TAA
On guitars that need bridge fitting, I use the Dan Erlewine method to ensure a perfect match of the bridge base to the curvature of the top of the guitar.
Here's a video showing how it's done:
Of course, you don't need the special jig Dan uses in the video. if you are steady and careful, you can get great results just using your hands to hold the base as you sand it. Just pay attention to what you are doing and it'll turn out really well. I've done this many, many times over the years always to good results. That said, I plan to buy one of these bridge jigs at some point.
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I worked on the bridge base today and got it perfectly matched to the top and it noticeably improved the volume, tone and balance of the guitar. I think it will stay on the Broadway. It just kicks the feel and tone up a notch. Using a bright light, you can see the exact fit:
Pretty much done with upgrades until I work up the courage to refret it. I’ll update this thread if/when that day comes.
Thanks for following and commenting!
Roli
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Well done! Enjoy it!
I haven’t found the courage to do refrets… it’s not rocket science but I’m lacking the tools.
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You did great work on that Broadway! These are lovely guitars!
I'm also a member of the "Broadway-Modder-Club"
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Super nice! Love that tailpiece! Originally Posted by Webby
You did great work on that Broadway! These are lovely guitars!
I'm also a member of the "Broadway-Modder-Club"
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I've always used a short length of slotted angle stock. It's dirt cheap, solid, and easy to hold. You can use the bridge height adjusting nuts to secure the base to the tool, but I like to leave them on under the tool as a secure base and use knurled nuts (which are less than $2). Originally Posted by rolijen
For a really nice home made tool, cut a 6" length of slotted strut channel (all of which has 2" slot spacing, as far as I know). Use a cutting wheel on a Dremel or similar tool to open a window into each side wall for your fingertips, and use knurled nuts to lock the tool to the bridge posts. Unless you want to go to a lot of trouble to make retainers for the nuts, just tape them against the slotted bottom when you put it away. Loose nuts have a very high vapor pressure if not secured in an easy-to-find location.
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Great way to hold the bridge base securely for more accurate sanding. Love it!
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Love that tailpiece, I want one, too Originally Posted by Webby
You did great work on that Broadway! These are lovely guitars!
I'm also a member of the "Broadway-Modder-Club"
Where did you get it, if I may ask ?
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Per Little Jay’s suggestion, I replaced the gold pickup ring mounting screws with black and it looks a lot better.
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Hey Roli… don’t you have a nicer natural now to play with? ??
jk
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Thank you! Originally Posted by 339 in june
I got lucky. A friend of mine put a bigsby on his samick L5 copy, and sold me the tailpiece. They are really hard to come by, but sometimes they pop up on eBay. I recently scored a second one which I'll put on my eastman once it's gold plated.
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