NUGD Newark St. Aristocrat Goldtop

[Walter Broes]

Maybe you could try swapping the pickups to put the hotter bridge pickup in the neck position and neck in the bridge. The difference in the number of windings on the pickups may be enough to balance the levels out.
M

The pickups on the Newark street M-75 have different pole spacing for neck and bridge pickups, so that wouldn't be ideal.

 

[matsickma]

Hey 29er,
As a matter of course when pickups are specified as "bridge" or "neck" it typically implies that the number of copper coil wraps around the bobbin are increased for the bridge pickup. That is why the basic measurement of pickup resistance is made. More wire means more resistance or Ohmic loss (related to Ohm's Law.) However the relationship between the number of coil wraps and the induced voltage at the output of the pickup is related to coil wraps. (I think this is Amperes Law.) The voltage is "Induced" by the movement of a metal conductor (i.e. the string) in the presence of a magnetic field (Faradays Law.) This is typically done to compensate for the reduced movement of the strings close to the bridge. In the vicinity of the neck pickup the string vibration is larger and that larger "amplitude" results in larger output voltage from the pickup. As you also indicated...moving the pickup closer will also increase the voltage or "volume" plus it can also begin to have secondary effects on the strings.

As Walter indicated the Franz pickups have a different pole to pole spacing to match the way the strings "spread out" from the nut to the bridge. Thus their is a difference in the Franz pickup pole spacing between neck and bridge pickups. However with anything sonic what the ears say sound aesthetically good is the driving factor. So experiment with position, pickup height, pole piece height to get the sound and tone you want.
M

 

[Stefan Eff]

Bad choice of words on my part. I don't think the bridge pickup is hotter, it just sits closer to the strings on this guitar than what I've seen on any other electric I've owned, hence the stronger signal to the amp. The design with this Aristocrat just doesn't allow for pickup height adjustment which, of course is why I performed the surgery on the body.

...do you think rough sandpaper (on a small woodblock) or a file will do the job too?

 

[29er]

I'm sure it would work but it will take longer and require more effort. I bet the final product would look great, though. I've been impressed with the work and mods you've done with your goldtop. You seem like a knowledgeable guy and I'm sure it will look great when you're done!

 

[Stefan Eff]

The vertical parts of the pkup routing are only 1 mm thick (on my guitar). I would have to cut them completely away to achieve a noteworthy lowering...

 

[Default]

Do a search for "cleat wood" on ebay. You could remove what you needed and then glue and clamp the cleat under the top.

 

[SFIV1967]

That's how it looks in my 1956 one.
13 mm deep at the neck pickup and 7.5mm deep on the bridge pickup at the short edges.

The bridge pickup cutout looks much different on the Newark St. model.

However on my one the bridge is pretty low and hence the bridge pickup as well. I guess the neck angle might be different on a Newark St. Aristocrat. (that's a compensated replacement bridge in the picture, I still have the original straight one, also it's an old picture when I got her, the pickup is fixed, so the pole pieces do not look out so much anymore.).

So I would simply cut it our like on the original version and lower it to the desired height, using shims on the two braces it can be set higher as well later on if needed.

Ralf

 

[Stefan Eff]

Thanks for the input. I‘ll have to see...I‘ve turned the polepieces as low as possible. Maintaining the comfortable and well sounding string height (1.8 mm low E/ 1.7 mm high E) the distance string/polepieces are similar to the suggestions from Warehouse:


Bridge pickup

Low E: 2.6mm / 0.10"

Hi E : 2.35mm / 0.092"



Neck Pickup:

Low E: 4.5mm / 0.18"

Hi E : 3.43mm / 0.135"

Even if there isn‘t any chance for a lower setting it sounds darn good. Since I don’t like more tinkering than needed I‘ll leave it that way.

 

[Stefan Eff]

Interesting: here‘s the bridgepickup routing of Gad‘s 2014 goldtop:

and my 2014 goldtop:

Different story!

 

[Walter Broes]

I'm not seeing the difference ...what did I miss?

 

[Stefan Eff]

I'm not seeing the difference ...what did I miss?

Different cutout!

 

[davismanLV]

Oh I see the difference now..... took me a minute.

 

[fronobulax]

Oh I see the difference now..... took me a minute.

I'm not, after several minutes. Clue me in, please.

 

[Stefan Eff]

I'm not, after several minutes. Clue me in, please.

 

[cupric]

Did you sell this guitar?

 

[Stefan Eff]

Did you sell this guitar?

Nope, I‘ve changed my mind. I got used to the slimmer neck and after changing the nut this Aristocrat sounds even better than before. Intonation is now spot on and all tuning probs are gone. She‘s a keeper and now I‘m gonna do some final mods.

 

[cupric]

Nope, I‘ve changed my mind. I got used to the slimmer neck and after changing the nut this Aristocrat sounds even better than before. Intonation is now spot on and all tuning probs are gone. She‘s a keeper and now I‘m gonna do some final mods.

Awesome!!!

 

[Stefan Eff]

So far so good. Since the routing wasn‘t perfectly straight it‘s much better this way. I‘ve removed the unnecessary piece of wood and sanded the upper part of the „mounting wood“~ 1 mm lower.
By the way- does it matter if I turn the pickup 180 degrees? I guess no or am I wrong?

 

[jp]

So glad you decided to keep yours Stefan. I'm quickly bonding with mine, and I'm almost of the mind that its the guitar I've really wanted for many years, but I just didn't realize it.

I would hazard a guess that it wouldn't really matter, as long as the pole pieces are adjusted to each string height to suit your taste.