It’s a genuine privilege to listen to you talk about guitars Ken. Listening a legend like you talk about the nuances of being a luthier is the best reason for UA-cam to exist!
When I was a kid in the '70s I saw the documentary "The New Yorker Special" featuring Jimmy D'Aquisto working in his shop. It is one of the pivotal moments that lead me to guitar making. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this guitar, as well as sharing your methods and insights.
Hello! You are right, having all the electronics in one piece, that can be separated from the body without the mess of a bunch of wires, is very elegant.
Yep, except the working pros hate it, and demand a 1/4" jack elsewhere. For many years Gibson put them in the treble side partway between the endblock and the widest part of the lower bout. The eventual result is a charming array of garage fixes using 3" X 4" bent plates of you-name-it screwed on to support the jack and cover the tragically splintered hole in the (what were you thinking????) un-reinforced side. Gibson is great, but some of their decisions are stupefyingly dumb, like this one, decade after decade. Ralph Nader would have set them straight. Fortunately, there's a sturdy end block in very nearly every guitar that will do a fine job of safely housing the jack.
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 I remember servicing those pots thru the f hole of the guitar, not a pleasant experience. I can understand the preference for the 1/4 terminal tho.
I noticed that even though those two screws are completely hidden, Jimmy clocked them so they pointed along the neckline. I also love how someone has painstakingly saved those two grungy pieces of tape in an envelope for posterity!
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 Oh, I bet. I've never had the pleasure of playing either a D'Angelico or a D'Aquisto. But I'm enamored with great archtops. My friend, Evan Ellis, was Bob Benedetto's shop foreman in Savannah, GA. when Bob started the business down there. Thanks again for these videos.
Dear Ken now I can see where you got the inspiration to your own pickup plate installation and how nicely you push the concept to a very elegant combination
If you analyze the Johnny Smith Gibson model, the input, output jack was centered in the tailpiece near the strap button location... maybe that modification relieving pressure off the pick guards ? Ken's work and craftsmanship is excellent... sincerely,JD
@KenParkerArchtoppery really cool video as usual, I just discovered the channel and went binge watching all weekend. I would be really curios to learn more about the story of that inductor coil. Also, I would be even more curious to hear your opinion on how guitars and wood age, how the sound changes over time (this guitar could be a great example), torrified wood that many builders are using now and composite materials that are your speciality in that respect. It would definitely worth a separate video. Thanks!
For some reason it seems like the traditional pickguard is used to secure the right pinkie rather than protect the top. More selective presentation of the plectrum and stabilization of the fingers, and the binding is classic. Surprisingly rough inlay below the string ends, rework do you think? Or customer was in a real hurry and sez “ it’ll be fine, string it up I have a record to cut” or such……… the rest of the guitar is drop dead gorgeous, but the clipped wires show invasive action was performed at a later date. Film faster, tens of late night insomnia victims await the next installment of the Jimmy Restoration. And from earlier visits, your sense of humor duly noted, and much appreciated. This is like luthier college 401 with metallurgy and machinist training thrown in for “ kicks”. Yer Da Man Mr. Ken!
Thanks! Yeah, more finger-rest than pick-guard, I suppose. By inlay, I suppose you mean the ramped surface in back of the ball ends that Jimmy scraped cross grain with a chisel? No rework here, for certain. I'll address old school methods of work and tolerance in a later vid.
those inductive coil experiments came back on the scene with the new yamaha revstar guitar line... in a way, did this line of reasoning work out in lace's alumintone?
I am not sure what Jimmy has intended, as not enough details are visible in the video. Lace pickups are extremely low impedance pickups (the sensing coil consists of one “wind”, compared to a few thousand in standard pickup designs), so they need a step-up transformer to match impedance and voltage with that of a guitar amp. It is the same concept as a ribbon microphone. A step-up transformer is needed, as the ribbon between magnets is in practice the one-turn coil. If well designed they are great mics, though. Maybe the originally installed pickup was a low impedance pickup? Low impedance pickups are difficult to design because matching step-up transformers can be tricky. And there is another “problem”. Well-designed low impedance pickup is a hi-fi pickup. It has extended, practically flat high-frequency response, well beyond traditional pickups. And this feature, this benefit is frequently recognized as a problem, because guitarists like the colorization of traditional, in fact, low-fi pickups. Specific inductance/capacitance creates a low pass filter, which creates a "valuable sound". I like hi-if pickups. Many guitarists do not. They prefer traditional, low pass filtering, characteristic of old designs. You can achieve all these traditional sounds by filtering the hi-fi pickup. Not vice versa. So maybe a previous owner didn't like the original pickup and requested a change to what looks like a traditional humbucker?
For something like this, would you make a whole new assembly to have it more efficient as a working man's (or woman's) instrument? Seeing that you can always pop the original back on and I know you could replicated that gorgeous pickguard to look exactly the same.
Jimmy was always trying nrew things! The story I heard is that Bill Lawrence worked for Gibson in the early '70's and tried to help Gibson introduce some newfangled, not-at-all-Les-Paul things like the L 6S. Bill was tasked with expanding tonal offerings, and was also told that he couldn't spend any money, or something like that. So Bill came up with the little choke coils which were very cheap to make, and used hardware (mostly nuts, a bolt, and washers) from the hardware store, and it was supposed to be less than a dollar, so Bill did his job, and the guitars did alright for a minute, mostly due to Carlos Santana. I'll have to tap my collaborator, Bob Palmieri of Duneland Labs to take this one on, and tell you what it does & why.
So glad you asked! This has been a puzzlement to many of us forever. Nearly every solidbody has a string ground, it's just part of the package. In the Archtop, there isn't always an easy way to achieve this, depending on the details of the construction, attachment method, and materials of the tailpiece. Then there's the chore of sneaking the wire elegantly to the control area of the pickguard, which is sometimes an awkward path. Sometimes, when you put your new guitar all togther, there just isn't any noise, and so nothing to worry about, and no need to connect the strings to ground, while other-times a string ground will be needed to quiet down some annoying buzzing. Howcum? First I looked online and found this explanation... ua-cam.com/video/xS_5K5YEYv8/v-deo.html and this accompanying text,... " So, the string ground puts the player in a electrical circuit that extends back through the cord, to the amp and to the electrical wiring of the building. If all is well, that also extends to a ground rod that is hammered into the ground outside the building, near the electrical meter. But if all doesn't go well, as in the case of the OP, and things get wired incorrectly (or an amp--usually a tube amp--malfunctions), then the strings of the guitar can be electrically energized, and when you touch them, you become energized. And that electricity sits there waiting for you to find "ground", at which point the electricity will flow through your body (that's a bad thing). This is why it ain't such a good idea to play barefoot. Playing without shoes makes it more likely that your body might become grounded, and provide a path to ground for that electricity. It's also why I refrain from touching anything that might be grounded (or energized), while touching my guitar strings. This may sound a bit paranoid, and I'll admit the circumstances that can cause shock are not found in the average day of playing guitar. But having worked with electricity, you kind of train yourself to avoid unnecessary risks. " Whew, a little scary! Feeling out of my depth to fully address this subject, I reached out to my associate Bob Palmieri of Duneland Labs. Bob and I have worked together since the mid '80's, and I'm very happy to say he's the designer and builder of the amazing "Bronzeville" magnetic pickup that I now use on my acoustic archtop guitars. Here's the definitive scoop from Bob.... "String grounds are, at best, a means to remedy the work of guitar designers and electricians who have failed, and at worst, create a potentially disastrous condition. If the tasks of shielding and grounding within the guitar have been addressed with the necessary level of integrity, and the wall sockets/amps are running properly grounded configurations, touching or not touching the strings will have no effect on buzz, which just won’t be there. With the Bronzeville System as installed on the Parker Archtops, we’ve taken care of every aspect of shielding & grounding that’s under our control. As regards external transgressions such as unconnected third prongs in wall sockets, I’m afraid we have no control over such things, which brings me to the second issue - shocks from ungrounded power feeds. In such cases, a string “ground” can actually become a direct connection to high voltage potential, which, as previously stated, can really dent your day as a player." Hmmmm, seems like in the worst case, "dent" could be an understatement! I would say that a cheap, simple plug-in socket checker would be an easy way to stay safe. Stay Safe! www.amazon.com/Bastex-Tester-Receptacle-Indications-Electric/dp/B071FVB35Q/ref=asc_df_B071FVB35Q/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693596122465&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17947144535690969519&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001928&hvtargid=pla-760589153952&psc=1&mcid=945c66e9d6ec3e08aae43935b4d01478&gad_source=1
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 Here is a better copy just got published on the 8th of April :-) ua-cam.com/video/WDcb2EExMSI/v-deo.html D'Aquisto seems like a chracter with real character, Some of the stories are pretty amazing (the companies not interested selling him tuners...). It's a struck of luck someone had enough good senses to make this documentary, I bet there are gems left out on editors desk.
Fortunately, it's not really lost, maybe just unappreciated, or under - appreciated. As it turns out, a whole lifetime is needed to gather expertise in many of our pursuits, and, as I like to say, the achievement of excellence is its own reward.
It’s a genuine privilege to listen to you talk about guitars Ken. Listening a legend like you talk about the nuances of being a luthier is the best reason for UA-cam to exist!
Thanks!
When I was a kid in the '70s I saw the documentary "The New Yorker Special" featuring Jimmy D'Aquisto working in his shop. It is one of the pivotal moments that lead me to guitar making. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this guitar, as well as sharing your methods and insights.
Wonderful! Jimmy set us on course.
I saw the the same video, I actually rewatched it again a couple of weeks ago. I very much enjoyed the video !
Hello! You are right, having all the electronics in one piece, that can be separated from the body without the mess of a bunch of wires, is very elegant.
Yep, except the working pros hate it, and demand a 1/4" jack elsewhere. For many years Gibson put them in the treble side partway between the endblock and the widest part of the lower bout. The eventual result is a charming array of garage fixes using 3" X 4" bent plates of you-name-it screwed on to support the jack and cover the tragically splintered hole in the (what were you thinking????) un-reinforced side.
Gibson is great, but some of their decisions are stupefyingly dumb, like this one, decade after decade. Ralph Nader would have set them straight.
Fortunately, there's a sturdy end block in very nearly every guitar that will do a fine job of safely housing the jack.
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 I remember servicing those pots thru the f hole of the guitar, not a pleasant experience. I can understand the preference for the 1/4 terminal tho.
I noticed that even though those two screws are completely hidden, Jimmy clocked them so they pointed along the neckline. I also love how someone has painstakingly saved those two grungy pieces of tape in an envelope for posterity!
Actually, that was me on the slot alignment, guilty as charged.
There is no greater guitar education than this.
Aw shucks, Just trying to shed some light!
It's a real treat to hear your thoughts and insights about this beautiful D'Aquisto guitar.
My Pleasure! What a wonderful instrument.
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 Oh, I bet. I've never had the pleasure of playing either a D'Angelico or a D'Aquisto. But I'm enamored with great archtops. My friend, Evan Ellis, was Bob Benedetto's shop foreman in Savannah, GA. when Bob started the business down there. Thanks again for these videos.
Great informative video again Ken, thank you - really appreciate all your videos 👍🏻
Glad you like them!
Dear Ken now I can see where you got the inspiration to your own pickup plate installation and how nicely you push the concept to a very elegant combination
Thanks! Yeah, Jimmy took this seriously, and was trying to solve the problems involved with the cockamamie D'Armond pickup mounting bracket systems.
I love the glow of this guitar.
Me 2
It’s beautiful
Power Object
great! thank you Ken.
My pleasure!
it’s beautiful
Yes it is!
If you analyze the Johnny Smith Gibson model, the input, output jack was centered in the tailpiece near the strap button location... maybe that modification relieving pressure off the pick guards ? Ken's work and craftsmanship is excellent... sincerely,JD
Thanks!
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 I highly admire your craftsmanship! Need apprentice?
How serious are you? My email is on my site.
@KenParkerArchtoppery really cool video as usual, I just discovered the channel and went binge watching all weekend. I would be really curios to learn more about the story of that inductor coil. Also, I would be even more curious to hear your opinion on how guitars and wood age, how the sound changes over time (this guitar could be a great example), torrified wood that many builders are using now and composite materials that are your speciality in that respect. It would definitely worth a separate video. Thanks!
Well, that's a lot of good inquiries, stay tuned, we'll get there.
Beware the Torrifier!
For some reason it seems like the traditional pickguard is used to secure the right pinkie rather than protect the top. More selective presentation of the plectrum and stabilization of the fingers, and the binding is classic. Surprisingly rough inlay below the string ends, rework do you think? Or customer was in a real hurry and sez “ it’ll be fine, string it up I have a record to cut” or such……… the rest of the guitar is drop dead gorgeous, but the clipped wires show invasive action was performed at a later date. Film faster, tens of late night insomnia victims await the next installment of the Jimmy Restoration. And from earlier visits, your sense of humor duly noted, and much appreciated. This is like luthier college 401 with metallurgy and machinist training thrown in for “ kicks”. Yer Da Man Mr. Ken!
Thanks! Yeah, more finger-rest than pick-guard, I suppose. By inlay, I suppose you mean the ramped surface in back of the ball ends that Jimmy scraped cross grain with a chisel? No rework here, for certain.
I'll address old school methods of work and tolerance in a later vid.
those inductive coil experiments came back on the scene with the new yamaha revstar guitar line... in a way, did this line of reasoning work out in lace's alumintone?
Good question. Anyone?
I am not sure what Jimmy has intended, as not enough details are visible in the video. Lace pickups are extremely low impedance pickups (the sensing coil consists of one “wind”, compared to a few thousand in standard pickup designs), so they need a step-up transformer to match impedance and voltage with that of a guitar amp. It is the same concept as a ribbon microphone. A step-up transformer is needed, as the ribbon between magnets is in practice the one-turn coil. If well designed they are great mics, though.
Maybe the originally installed pickup was a low impedance pickup? Low impedance pickups are difficult to design because matching step-up transformers can be tricky. And there is another “problem”. Well-designed low impedance pickup is a hi-fi pickup. It has extended, practically flat high-frequency response, well beyond traditional pickups. And this feature, this benefit is frequently recognized as a problem, because guitarists like the colorization of traditional, in fact, low-fi pickups. Specific inductance/capacitance creates a low pass filter, which creates a "valuable sound". I like hi-if pickups. Many guitarists do not. They prefer traditional, low pass filtering, characteristic of old designs. You can achieve all these traditional sounds by filtering the hi-fi pickup. Not vice versa. So maybe a previous owner didn't like the original pickup and requested a change to what looks like a traditional humbucker?
For something like this, would you make a whole new assembly to have it more efficient as a working man's (or woman's) instrument? Seeing that you can always pop the original back on and I know you could replicated that gorgeous pickguard to look exactly the same.
Mind reader. This is mos def the way to go, and I'm discussing the details of this with the new owner, so stay tuned.
what does the choke do? cut down the lows?
Jimmy was always trying nrew things! The story I heard is that Bill Lawrence worked for Gibson in the early '70's and tried to help Gibson introduce some newfangled, not-at-all-Les-Paul things like the L 6S. Bill was tasked with expanding tonal offerings, and was also told that he couldn't spend any money, or something like that. So Bill came up with the little choke coils which were very cheap to make, and used hardware (mostly nuts, a bolt, and washers) from the hardware store, and it was supposed to be less than a dollar, so Bill did his job, and the guitars did alright for a minute, mostly due to Carlos Santana. I'll have to tap my collaborator, Bob Palmieri of Duneland Labs to take this one on, and tell you what it does & why.
Thoughts on the no string ground, Ken?
So glad you asked! This has been a puzzlement to many of us forever.
Nearly every solidbody has a string ground, it's just part of the package.
In the Archtop, there isn't always an easy way to achieve this, depending on the details of the construction, attachment method, and materials of the tailpiece. Then there's the chore of sneaking the wire elegantly to the control area of the pickguard, which is sometimes an awkward path.
Sometimes, when you put your new guitar all togther, there just isn't any noise, and so nothing to worry about, and no need to connect the strings to ground, while other-times a string ground will be needed to quiet down some annoying buzzing. Howcum?
First I looked online and found this explanation...
ua-cam.com/video/xS_5K5YEYv8/v-deo.html
and this accompanying text,...
" So, the string ground puts the player in a electrical circuit that extends back through the cord, to the amp and to the electrical wiring of the building. If all is well, that also extends to a ground rod that is hammered into the ground outside the building, near the electrical meter.
But if all doesn't go well, as in the case of the OP, and things get wired incorrectly (or an amp--usually a tube amp--malfunctions), then the strings of the guitar can be electrically energized, and when you touch them, you become energized. And that electricity sits there waiting for you to find "ground", at which point the electricity will flow through your body (that's a bad thing).
This is why it ain't such a good idea to play barefoot. Playing without shoes makes it more likely that your body might become grounded, and provide a path to ground for that electricity. It's also why I refrain from touching anything that might be grounded (or energized), while touching my guitar strings.
This may sound a bit paranoid, and I'll admit the circumstances that can cause shock are not found in the average day of playing guitar. But having worked with electricity, you kind of train yourself to avoid unnecessary risks. "
Whew, a little scary!
Feeling out of my depth to fully address this subject, I reached out to my associate Bob Palmieri of Duneland Labs. Bob and I have worked together since the mid '80's, and I'm very happy to say he's the designer and builder of the amazing "Bronzeville" magnetic pickup that I now use on my acoustic archtop guitars.
Here's the definitive scoop from Bob....
"String grounds are, at best, a means to remedy the work of guitar designers and electricians who have failed, and at worst, create a potentially disastrous condition.
If the tasks of shielding and grounding within the guitar have been addressed with the necessary level of integrity, and the wall sockets/amps are running properly grounded configurations, touching or not touching the strings will have no effect on buzz, which just won’t be there. With the Bronzeville System as installed on the Parker Archtops, we’ve taken care of every aspect of shielding & grounding that’s under our control. As regards external transgressions such as unconnected third prongs in wall sockets, I’m afraid we have no control over such things, which brings me to the second issue - shocks from ungrounded power feeds. In such cases, a string “ground” can actually become a direct connection to high voltage potential, which, as previously stated, can really dent your day as a player."
Hmmmm, seems like in the worst case, "dent" could be an understatement!
I would say that a cheap, simple plug-in socket checker would be an easy way to stay safe. Stay Safe!
www.amazon.com/Bastex-Tester-Receptacle-Indications-Electric/dp/B071FVB35Q/ref=asc_df_B071FVB35Q/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693596122465&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17947144535690969519&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001928&hvtargid=pla-760589153952&psc=1&mcid=945c66e9d6ec3e08aae43935b4d01478&gad_source=1
It's a honey...no doubt about it:-)
A fine example, for sure!
Looks like a humbucker from a Gibson Howard Roberts.
I bet you're right about that. I don't know for sure, but maybe somebody at Gibson sold them to Jimmy? Anybody know?
and...the first part:
ua-cam.com/video/AuCeVZH-fNQ/v-deo.html
Worth watching a couple hundred times or so, in my opinion. Too bad it wasn't 4 hours long. Anybody got a better copy?
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 Here is a better copy just got published on the 8th of April :-)
ua-cam.com/video/WDcb2EExMSI/v-deo.html
D'Aquisto seems like a chracter with real character,
Some of the stories are pretty amazing (the companies not interested selling him tuners...).
It's a struck of luck someone had enough good senses to make this documentary, I bet there are gems left out on editors desk.
Work and craftsmanship like this is a lost art... unfortunately... sincerely, JD
Fortunately, it's not really lost, maybe just unappreciated, or under - appreciated.
As it turns out, a whole lifetime is needed to gather expertise in many of our pursuits, and, as I like to say, the achievement of excellence is its own reward.
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 your humbleness is the mark of a Genius. Sincerely. JD