'52 L-48

[slowhand6]

After waiting and searching for the right one to come along I recently bought this guitar.

It plays great- no fret problems, good action, body is solid with finish cracking, but not

through wood. Original tailpiece, tuners, bridge, pickguard. I have a few questions and

ideas that I would like some input on, if anyone is interested.

 

1) Contemplating a pickup. I have a five or six year backgroung in lutherie and am confident

in installing a non-invasive pickup, such as the Fishman floating bridge replacement, which

would then require proper seating to the top, or possibly a Benedetto pickguard pickup,

which would be even less invasive- just adhering to the pickguard.

 

Does anyone have any experience with either one of these, and if so, can you offer any advice

as to which one makes more sense and why?

 

2) I am a little disappointed with the amount of finish checking on the front and back. I am strongly

considering a refin, but speaking from my own experience, I immediately turned away from buying a

great guitar, strictly because it was a refin. I would really like to hear soem opinions on what you

think of why you would or would not do this.

 

3) Selling the original chipboard case to help buy a new better-protecting case. While the guitar

is not that valuable, I have qualms about storing it in its original case. No humidity control,

which I feel may be to blame for the finish problems. There are a ton of great cases out there

that could really help this guitar last another hundred years. But they are so damn expensive.

I hesitate splitting up the case from the guitar, as it is original.

 

Here are some pictures of it. Thanks! Brian

 

 

 

 

 

 

[L5Larry]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

 

1. Pickup:

I have no knowlege or experience with the Fishman bridge pickup, although I have tried a couple of Fishman systems on a banjo. I was not happy with the "passive" unit, but have been very satisfied with the high dollar "active" system on the banjo.

 

I do have the Duncan made Benedetto S-6 on a 1947 Gibson L-7, and love it. The tone, clarity and voice that is amplified by that pickup from that 17" archtop (to me) is a perfect blend of the acoustic voice of the instrument and the ability to be plugged in. The installation was a very straight forward, but very time consuming for there are many things to consider when mounting a pickup to the pickguard. I "pattern cut" a repro guard from the original, mounted the pickup and vol control to the repro, and installed an endpin jack. I've used this guitar for many blues and jazz performances (and recordings), and it never fails to get good comments from audience members and fellow guitar players.

 

I also have an old Silvertone archtop setup with a fingerboard mounted Kent Armstrong. A nice sound and setup, but not comparible to the Benedetto pickup. I main guitar is an L-5CES, so I kind of have the archtop amplification methods covered (except the Fishman type you mentioned). I find my go-to guitar for performance is the L-5CES, but for recording it is the L-7 with the floating Benedetto. A pickguard mounted system does have it's frailties due to all the hardware and weight hanging off the guard, and can be somewhat un-roadworthy.

 

Here's a photo of the Benedetto on the L-7.

 

 

2. Refinish:

A refin will kill the value of the guitar, usually by about 50%. Although an L-48 is not a high dollar archtop, it is still most valuable in it's original condition. A refin can also (and probably will) change the voice of the instrument. If your happy with the way it sounds now, don't mess with it. Battle scars are expected on an instrument of this age. But as a furniture maker friend of mine said one time about some old furniture I wanted to refinish (from blonde to black), "if you plan to use and not sell it, do whatever you want to it".

 

3: Although the original chipboard case may not be suitable for protecting the guitar any longer, you should tuck it away in a closet. It will not bring much money if sold separately, but will help the value of the guitar if sold in "original condition, with original case". Of course if you refinish the guitar, there is no reason to keep the original case. There are many "aftermarket" cases available, most for under, or around, $100. A good case is always a sound investment.

 

Good luck, and keep us posted on your project.

[JimR56]

Great post, Larry, and thanks for posting the photo of your L7. Love those 40's sunburst finishes.

 

Brian, I think it would be a shame if you refinished your L-48. The wear and the checking are part of its character, and to my eye are nowhere near significant enough to warrant a refin. That guitar looks just fine, in my humble opinion. I agree with what Larry said about that case, too.

[slowhand6]

Larry, Thanks for the quick feedback. That is the pickup I am leaning toward installing. Question: Are those two metal screws in the pickguard to anchor the pickup to the pickguard? If so did you go in to the top? And does that pickup require that (presumably) volume knob, or did you do that optionally? Also, when you installed the endpin jack, did you go through the existing endpin hole, and then presumably, have to go through the tailpiece too? Or did you have to drill a new hole through the end block (or somewhere along the side lower bout) because the tailpiece got in the way?

[L5Larry]

The two mounting screws shown go only through the pickguard and thread directly into the tongue of the pickup, not into the top of the guitar.

 

The control knob shown is a volume control. It is not needed for any technical/operational requirements, but as a "working" guitar, I need the convenience of a volume control at my fingertips. I did not see the need for a tone control, as I put both a tone and volume control on my Silvertone setup, and never use the tone control. With the L-7 I just set the amp, or most often the PA channel, for my tone requirements. The volume control is very handy to have available, and in my case is pretty much a requirement. Both the pickup and volume control are mounted directly to the pickguard only, nothing even touches the soundboard of the guitar.

 

The endpin jack is installed through the center of the tailblock and tailpiece. The tailblock had a hole all the way through it when I received the guitar, whether a factory hole or a previous mod, I don't know. The mounting flange of the tailpiece had a factory hole in it for the strap button. BOTH these holes had to be reamed out (enlarged) to accomodate the endpin jack. The endpin jack mounted through the tailpiece in this manner also serves to ground the strings, an added bonus by design. The wiring goes from the pickup to the volume control across the bottom of the pickguard, and then into the body through the f-hole to the endpin jack. It is possible to mount a mini jack to the bottom of the pickguard (I believe that's how the Gibson Johnny Smith model was), so as to avoid drilling the tailpiece and tailblock. The guitar would then require a special cord or adapter, which was not suitable for my purpose.

 

As I said in my previous post, this is a very intricate installation, for as to avoid sound dampening, rattles and buzzes, the pickup and volume control must not touch any part of the neck or body of the guitar. In fact even the wire laying inside the body of the guitar can cause a rattle if not cut to proper length and routed properly.

 

Probably the hardest part of the installation of this design is the alignment and location of the pickup. The pickguard must be notched to align correctly side-to-side under the strings, and the mounting angle from the pickguard to under the strings is very crucial to accomplish even tone and no touchy. The mounting tongue of the pickup is angled to help achieve this, but micro adjustment through shimming will be required.

 

A couple of additional notes: To mount this hardware to the pickguard, the pickguard must be strong and stiff enough to accomodate it. The pickguard I made for the L-7 project was standard five-ply tortoise (t/w/b/w/t), and require a stiffener which I made out of a piece of aluminum plate. I have since aquired an very thick (1/8") bound L-5 non-cutaway pickguard for a refit. Allparts sells a nice assortment of very fine repro pickguards (under $100), and I will eventually change out the one shown with the Allparts L-5 repro.

 

Once I do the refit, the pickguard shown will be available and might fit your L-48. It's basically 9 5/8" (across the straight edge) x 3 1/2", with the pickup notch at 3 1/4" - 4 5/16" down from the top. I don't know if this would fit a 16" L-48.

[slowhand6]

Wow Larry, Thanks for that very thorough and eay-to-understand explanation.

 

The reaming of the soundhole through the tailpiece is what has me most concerned right now. I don't want to go through that metal. The end block is no big deal. I consider that a minor mod that is both easy to do (with the right tools) and not devaluing to the guitar. The nice thing about the Fishman bridge pickup is that the wiring is designed to stay outside of the body, run from the back of the saddle, underneath the tailpiece, and installed near the end pin, with a metal ring holding the transducer around the end pin (securely) and the jack being next to it.

 

 

I tried pasting a picture from the installation guide, but it won't let me separate the image from the .pdf so here's a link:

 

http://www.fishman.com/uploads/products/documents/160.pdf

 

And to the product description:

 

http://www.fishman.com/products/details.asp?id=4

 

This pickup would require properly seating the feet against the top, in essence, replacing the entire bridge, and not just the saddle. However, I want to find out if the saddle can sit on my bridge (separate it from the one it comes with). The problem there is that the posts not align, and that the saddle is ebony and my bridge is rosewood. I guess you can wake up with bigger problems though . . . It would also require intonating the new saddle and I would worry about the filament inside becoming dislodged or something from the filing near it.

 

Please let me know if you want to get rid of that pickguard and how much you may want for it. I just might be your huckleberry.

[L5Larry]

About the Fishman:

 

You will have to "contour" the bottom of the base to properly fit the arch of the top of your guitar, the tech diagram shows they have accomodated for this (the Piezo element is near the top of the base).

 

The post spacing looks to be very close to Gibson specs, your existing bridge may slip right down on the posts with little or no modifications (if you prefer to use your existing bridge).

 

The product info page states that an "impedence-matching preamp is recommended, but not required". This is the problem I had with the Fishman passive banjo pickup I tried, it really is "required". Any Piezo type pickup element really does need a preamp, which means a battery powered "active" system. Most factory installed Piezo pickups in acoustic guitars have the battery and preamp built in as part of the system. What the preamp is really doing is boosting the signal to be equivalent in volume to that of a "regular" guitar, as the impedence and output or pickups are directly related.

 

The passive Fishman on my banjo was completely unexceptable without the preamp, and instead of buying the preamp and having more stuff to tote around, AND having another element in the signal chain, I ****-canned the pickup and bought an "active" system with it all built in. The other thing about having a piece of outboard electronic gear to tote around to make your guitar work is that if you forget it, your SOL.

 

The in-line jack show on the Fishman page is a good alternative to drilling the tailblock, OR installing the mini on the pickguard. This type jack and mounting can be used with any pickup, including the Benedetto we're talking about. In any and all cases, this will leave an exposed wire running across the top of the guitar. This was unexceptable to me, but then I am VERY particular (probably anal) about the cosmetics and aestetics of my guitars. The in-line jack shown is a Switchcraft #121, easily aquired on-line or from an electronic parts dealer.