NUGD Newark St. Aristocrat Goldtop

[29er]

My new to me 2014 M-75 gold top arrived yesterday. It has barely been played with plastic film still on the pickguard. It's strung with 9 gauge strings so it will need some setup work once I install my preferred 11-48 set. I have read GAD's fantastic write up on his gold top and although I've owned mine less than 24 hours I agree with everything he writes. I do have an issue with the pickup height. IMO, the bridge pup needs to be lowered. It sits too close to the strings and consequently the output is quite a bit higher than the neck. Knowing what GAD reported upon digging into his guitar I realize this won't be a simple fix. I will take it apart in the next couple of days and investigate. Any advise or input on this issue is welcome!

 

[GGJaguar]

Nice goldtop, congrats!!

 

[shihan]

You got a real winner there! Hope it meets your expectations. Enjoy it in good health!

 

[davismanLV]

NICE!!! It's really a pretty thing. Congrats!!

 

[Stefan Eff]

Congrats, bought my Goldtop a few weeks ago. Lowering the bridge pickup means chisel some wood away. How low are your strings?
Wrong forum by the way, the M-75 is a full Hollowbody ;-)

 

[Default]

Yeah, but we can let this slide.

 

[29er]

Congrats, bought my Goldtop a few weeks ago. Lowering the bridge pickup means chisel some wood away. How low are your strings?
Wrong forum by the way, the M-75 is a full Hollowbody ;-)

Based on the photos that GAD had posted I was afraid of this. I don't really want to chisel any wood from the body & am hoping there is a spacer in there that can be removed but I won't get my hopes up.

 

[Default]

There was no spacer in mine.
A dremel with a sanding drum might work more delicately that a chisel.

 

[29er]

There was no spacer in mine.
A dremel with a sanding drum might work more delicately that a chisel.

Oh yes, a dremel will be used if needed. No hammer & chisel will come near this guitar! I'm not in a big rush to do anything to it but the strings are so close to the pickup my pick hits it when playing close to the bridge, which I like for certain things.

 

[Stefan Eff]

First I would try your preferred string gauge. The bridge seems maximal low from your picture.

 

[29er]

That's the plan. I'll get it set up properly before I do anything like wood removal.

 

[29er]

As expected, lowering the bridge pup will require removing some wood from the mounting area. I'm not sure I'm willing to do that, even to an affordable import, at least not right now. I will try to get used to it as is and maybe alter my picking technique near the bridge. The pic shows the difference in the depth of the routing between the neck & bridge pickups.

 

[Stefan Eff]

As expected, lowering the bridge pup will require removing some wood from the mounting area. I'm not sure I'm willing to do that, even to an affordable import, at least not right now. I will try to get used to it as is and maybe alter my picking technique near the bridge. The pic shows the difference in the depth of the routing between the neck & bridge pickups.

What about your string height? Due to the height of the bridge pkup it‘s not possible to set the high e‘ below 1.70/1.65 mm.

 

[Walter Broes]

Making that pickup cavity a little deeper won't hurt the structural integrity of the guitar.

 

[29er]

What about your string height? Due to the height of the bridge pkup it‘s not possible to set the high e‘ below 1.70/1.65 mm.

String height from bottom of string to pole piece is 4mm at low E and 1.75mm at high E. Pole pieces on bridge pup are screwed in as far as possible.

 

[29er]

Making that pickup cavity a little deeper won't hurt the structural integrity of the guitar.

Agreed. Still, I've only had the guitar a few days and don't want to do anything like that just yet.

 

[Stefan Eff]

String height from bottom of string to pole piece is 4mm at low E and 1.75mm at high E. Pole pieces on bridge pup are screwed in as far as possible.

4 mm is really high!
I‘ve tried to raise the polepieces as high as possible on the bridge and shimmed the neckpickup ~ 1mm for best tone (for my liking)

 

[29er]

It's not about the pole piece height, it's the fact that the pickup cover is so close. The pickup needs to be deep enough to allow me to raise the pole pieces to the correct spot.

 

[SFIV1967]

Since the bridge looks pretty low, is it possible the truss rod is not set correctly, so you set the bridge low to have low action instead of correcting the truss rod first and setting action second? Just a thought.

Ralf

 

[29er]

OK. It's been a couple of days after changing to the 11-48 strings and setup work. First thing, I'm not sure what I saw when I reported the 4mm gap on the low E, it's actually 2mm and that is after the string gauge change, truss rod adjustment and raising the bridge a bit. I attribute my reporting error to 60 year old eyes and probably a bad angle when I looked at the ruler.

The neck has just a bit of relief and looks dead straight to the naked eye. The guitar pays great all over the neck and I now have a bit more space between the strings and bridge pickup. I'd still like the pup to be a bit lower and I may well remove 1-2mm of wood from the body to allow that but again, I'm in no rush to do that right now. I just love the resonance of this guitar. I honestly thought it was a chambered design, hence my post in the incorrect forum Thanks for the input and help!