Bigsby setup question

[teleharmonium]

I just got a second Kustom K200, sans the spring and arm for the Bigsby. So I got a replacement arm and a "hardware kit" which consists of the main screw that holds the arm to the unit, plus a plastic washer, a metal retainer washer (not sure of the proper terminology), and a nut. My main question at the moment is, what is the best way to use these ? I'm not sure what order to put them in nor which ones go on top of the arm vs. on the underside underneath the nut.
My first attempt goes like this, from top to bottom - screw, plastic washer, arm, Bigsby unit, metal retainer, nut. It seems to work OK but I am getting a little more friction when moving the arm side to side, compared to my other Bigsby.

Also, in the unlikely event that anybody has an original Kustom K200 DeArmond pickup, I'm in the market. The bridge pickup coil on this guitar must have internal shorts because it has almost no output. I'm going to try and get a partial refund out of the seller, at least to cover sending this pickup to Seymour Duncan to rewind it using the same housing, which will not be as good as an original pickup, but it will hold me over until I can find an original. Maybe I'll buy a set of original Dynasonics from a Gretsch or Guild, or the similar pickups used on the old Martin electrics, and switch out the pair, so long as they have the same mounting hole spacing.

 

[Walter Broes]

Lindy Fralin does DeArmond rewinds too, I think you should probably be just fine with the rewound pickup.

The plastic washer goes between the arm and the part of the Bigsby that holds the arm. So it's screw, arm, washer, Bigsby, retainer, nut.

 

[teleharmonium]

Thanks Walter, I'll be giving it another try tonight.

Re the pickup, I'm going to go with Duncan in this case because he builds repros of those pickups, so if he needs to replace a bobbin or one of those weird polepiece adjusters, he'll have a correct type of replacement on hand. Those sorts of things can easily happen in a Dearmond due to the way they are glued into the covers.

I'm one of those people that isn't likely to be satisfied unless it is a real, original part. I've yet to meet the rewound pickup or reconed speaker that was as good as before. As far as pickups are concerned, I attribute this to modern winding machines being "better", ie. more even in their operation. I'll ask Seymour to stop and start the winding machine extra times and slightly move the wire to introduce some vintage style randomness, along the lines of the Rickenbacker "Scatterwound" reissue toaster pickups, if he doesn't do that already. Or maybe he has an extra crappy, old rewinding machine, with some wobble built in to the parts that hold the wire and/or bobbin, that he can use for this one.

If it turns out well enough, I'll leave it in and stop looking for a replacement, because my criteria for success is the tone, not voodoo; I am just pessimistic that it will work out that way (yet, it would be great if it did). I have another of the same model of guitar that I can do side by side comparisons with, and of course an important way to test will be when I switch between pickups on the same guitar, since the neck pickup will still be all original.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Tele,

I have some Guild white dynasonics without the chrome mounting rings that screw down to the top. I'm assuming you could put them in the mounting rings you have now.

But I see nothing wrong with rewinding a pickup, and Seem More Drunken did a great job on two other white Guild De Armonds for me (which I don't have anymore). And personally, I'd rather re-wind a pick up than toss it and buy another one. I'd toss a De Armond only if it's not repairable.

 

[teleharmonium]

Hey Darryl, I won't be tossing any DeArmonds here, that's for sure. If I can get an original, the dead one will stay in the collection as a rewind and I'm sure it will make it's way back into a guitar sooner or later, just not this Kustom which I am envisioning as my main guitar for taking out of the house for shows/practice/recording. I picked up this guitar because I like my other one so much, but it's so clean and pretty I hate to risk it; the new arrival has some honest wear already so it will continue to be worked harder.

If you would be willing to part with those Dynas, please let me know. I would be happy to buy or trade, if there's something I could come up with. My spare pickup pile at the moment consists of a pair of new in box 2Ks, a pair of new in box DeArmond Goldtone hums, a previously installed single Duncan Seth Lover hum (the original version signed by Seth and Seymour, in case there are other variants), and a pair of previously installed Ric 330 hi gains. I've also got NOS EL84s and EF86s, and maybe 6V6s and EZ81, and a few speakers that could possibly be swapped.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

I have four without mounting rings. And they don't have the little spacers that go under the rings.

Pardon my ignorance, but how do I find out if these are in good working condition?

 

[teleharmonium]

The usual way to test pickups outside of guitars is to measure the DC resistance with a multimeter. You would take a meter, and set it to measure resistance (often this section will have the ohm symbol around the dial), in the range of thousands (you pick a range, on mine the range starts with 20, then 200, 2000, and up from there; I set it to 2000). This is because a healthy pickup of this type should be somewhere between about 8000 ohms to maybe 15000 at the most. (Some other pickups can be less than this, and the most I have heard of is about 17K or 17000 ohms). Now, with the multimeter ready to measure resistance in this range, you would take your test leads and touch them to the ends of the wires from the pickup - a pickup like this only has 2 wires, "hot" and ground, so you are measuring "across" the pickup by connecting one lead to each wire.
I'm no expert, but I don't think it matters which test lead contacts which wire on the pickup when you're doing this.

Pickups can go bad in various ways, but if you get a bad one, it will either have no reading whatsoever, or it will be very low, which indicates there is still some kind of continuity, but there are shorts in the windings that bring it way below what it should be. In these cases, the pickup will still produce a very low volume, thin, trebly sound when connected to an amp. This is what my bad pickup is doing; when I switch from the neck pickup to the bridge, the perceived volume is maybe 1/10 as loud. I then verified the problem is the pickup and not a wire, pot, or switch by measuring the leads in a couple of other places, at the volume pot and at the pickup itself, getting only a tiny reading.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Do you have the equipment to do all that?

 

[teleharmonium]

Sure, it just takes a multimeter, they're like ten bucks for a cheapie digital version. Some uses requre analog meters, or better quality digital ones, but for what I need to do - mostly measuring pickups, testing the occasional resistor, cable, or pot, and testing speakers, to make sure they are good or wired correctly, the cheap ones work fine. They come with test leads that plug into the meter, which are just wires with end connectors and metal contacts or alligator clips.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Then howz 'bout I send you the four I have, U test 'em, keep what you want, and send back what you don't want?

 

[teleharmonium]

Well, that surely sounds great Darryl, it's really nice of you to offer that. I'll send you an email through the board with my info.

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Tele (Savalas),

If you sent me an email, I didn't get it, maybe because I erased it due to my failing vision. my email: Darryl.Hattenhauer@asu.edu

 

[teleharmonium]

Hey Darryl, I tried again from my regular email account rather than through the board, hopefully it got through. cheers

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Tele,

People always have trouble getting through to me--bosses, girlfriends, parents.

When did you send it? And what's the return address and greeting? With my poor vision (I got an eye transplant, but they didn't know that the donor was Roy Orbison) I might have accidentally erased it. How about sending it again with a greeting like DE ARMOND PICK UPS, YOU BLIND BASTARD.

 

[teleharmonium]

Hey Darryl, I just tried it again with "De Armond Pickups" in the message title, it will be coming from my email account at AOL, which is named after a Pepperidge Farm cookie.
I know what you mean about not getting emails from the boss. Pagers and cell phones are prone to those sorts of technical glitches too. But, I'm sure my email account would work fine for girlfriends (depending of course on what the emails said).