More Newark Street X175 tweakage

[Walter Broes]

I've documented the different tweaks I've done to Newark Street X175's on here to get them closer to my beloved oldies, and this is the latest installment.

I've had this black one for a good while - and I had a pair of vintage Franz pickups in it, with the bridge pickup moved a little closer to the bridge as per the vintage originals. I've taken the vintage pickups out because they're moving to another project I'll hopefully be posting about soon-ish. So that left me with the original pickups that came with this guitar...
Except for the slightly different baseplate, the "reissue" Franz pickups are remarkeably close to the originals in construction, but wound a little hotter than the late 50's ones I'm used to and love so much.
So I asked my tech buddy to "unwind" them, take some wire off the coil until they measured out close to the 5K neck and 6K bridge I have in my beloved '62.

Glad to say they're close enough for Rock and Roll now - here's a little clip :



I just took it to a festival gig in Spain (flying gig where I had to check the guitar - don't take the vintage ones for that!) and I'm glad to report I was 100% in my comfort zone with it and the provided backline. (a reissue tweed bassman). Nerdy guitar modification yay!

 

[GGJaguar]

Very cool, thanks for sharing! I think you dialed in the black reissue so it's really close to the original. Did moving the bridge pickup towards the bridge leave a gap in front of the pickup?

 

[Walter Broes]

Did moving the bridge pickup towards the bridge leave a gap in front of the pickup?

No - it's largely a top-mount pickup, so there's no real cavity under it, just a "slit" for the polepieces and the wiring to protrude through. You can see half a screw hole peeking out from under the pickup cover, and I can totally live with that!