I recently got my hands on a 1987 Guild Ashbory Bass. These things are great and a lot of fun to play! I've been wanting to get one of the original Guild versions, not the Fender/DeArmond releases, for a long time. I know... many people complain about the original Guild version banjo style tuners and the pickups. Well first of all these basses use rubber/silicone type strings with very low tension so the banjo tuners are just fine. I have had no problem keeping this bass in tune.
The second complaint, that of the pickup having issues, is a valid one. And this is to be expected from a piezo under saddle pickup from the 80's. There was a lot experimenting going on at that time with getting a balanced output as well as a larger signal from this relatively new guitar pickup material. Ashworth, was the main designer of this type of short scale "rubber" strung instrument. His company was also one of the early producers of string instrument pickups along with Barcus Berry and Fishman. I have worked on restoring a number of the early 80's Guild FS46-CE style guitar pickup systems and most have a similar problem with the under saddle pickup itself. (I have to mention that most of the original FS46-CE preamps I still use with small modifications. I acknowledge that this approach is not widely accepted for use in modern sound applications but my goal is to restore these guitars to their original use as much is possible.) My bass had a problem with the pickup having a low output in general and a very low E and G string output. The other issue was that output would rise and fall depending where on the neck I played. The bottom line was that after 35 some odd years the original pickup had deteriorated and was very unstable.
The Ashworth pickup used in the Guild Ashbory Bass is a complicated assembly compared to todays piezo under saddle pickups which are basically drop in and go units. I downloaded the original 1988 Ashworth patent for this bass to see how this pickup was constructed from the largesound.com website which is a great resource for the Ashbory bass, original and re-release. The option of repairing this pickup was not realistic. So a replacement had to found.
I have to say the 9vdc power preamp electronics on this bass work pretty well. The circuit has two sections. The first is a high impedance passive bass and treble tone control with volume control that is well designed for a passive circuit. The second is an amplifier, the active portion of the circuit. On the Guild Asbory bass you have a switch that enables you to select the signal from the passive portion of the circuit or the amplified portion. The newer Fender/DeArmond basses do not give you this option.
As it turns out the pickup replacement was cheap and fairly simple. Over the years some people have replaced the entire bridge/pickup assembly on the Guild versions with the DeArmond bridge/pickup assembly. This does work but the bridge units are different as well as the mounting hole pattern. My goal was remove the pickup and keep the bridge assembly as is. I was able to find a correctly sized pickup for under $10.00 that with a small amount of work turned out to be a great sounding solution. The main reason this was possible was the huge interest in ukes over the past 15 years or so. And not just ukes in general but the building of bass ukes. Now how do they make a small 21" scale bass uke work? Of course, with rubber/silicone low tension strings! Just like the 35 year old Guild Ashbory bass but acoustic/electric not solid body.
Basically I just had to remove the original pickup from both the plastic bridge and plastic saddle after disconnecting the pickup wires from the pcb. The pickup was attached to the bridge with an RTV type of adhesive which could be basically pried away and scraped from the bridge. The original pickup had a copper clad top plate, the same material a pcb is made from, that the saddle was glued to. To remove the saddle I used a single edge razor blade to separate it from the top plate. The saddle is very thin where the slots for the strings are so care has to taken not to crack the saddle. At this point the new piezo pickup cable could be run through the hole and the pickup be laid into the bridge. Because of the width of the bridge slot area the pickup is located on the treble end but can be laid in at an angle on the bass end if you want. In my case I angled the bass end of the pickup as far back in the slot as I could. The reason is that the original pickup and saddle were assemble parallel with the bridge. But this made for some intonation problems higher up the fret board. Now since the Ashbory bass is fretless you can learn to adjust positions as needed but I figured If I could get the intonation correct to begin with why not. So both the new narrower pickup and new saddle mounting enabled me to angle the saddle a fair amount. The other thing to mention is that I attached, with titebond, the saddle to a plate that was similar in size to the original copper clad pickup top plate. This is needed for stability so the saddle can sit perpendicular to the pickup while on top of it without tilting. I chose to use a 0.080" thick 2" long section of rosewood binding wood purchased from Stewart Macdonald. I wanted some wood warmth in the assembly since the both the bridge and saddle are plastic. You could use any material but I'm a nut about wood. Due to the stability of the new assembly I just rested the new wood base and saddle assembly on top of the new pickup. By mounting the saddle to the wood at the same angle as the pickup was laid in the slot, the string to string balance of the pickup output is aided. If you want to you could make a more elaborate mounting that would prevent the pickup from moving in the slot but I have found the entire assembly to be very stable once the strings are tuned. The pickup and saddle assembly seem to stay put very well.
This strings on my bass seem to be original or maybe original replacements and are in good shape yet so I am still using them but I did by a set of Pahoehoe Bass strings by Road Toad Music to try at some point. They come standard on the upper end Kala bass ukes.
I have included a few quick phone photos I took along the way.
The finished repair.
The new pickup/bridge assembly
The new pickup installed into the bridge
The new pickup
The new rosewood plate/saddle assembly
The original pickup channel housing and top plate
The second complaint, that of the pickup having issues, is a valid one. And this is to be expected from a piezo under saddle pickup from the 80's. There was a lot experimenting going on at that time with getting a balanced output as well as a larger signal from this relatively new guitar pickup material. Ashworth, was the main designer of this type of short scale "rubber" strung instrument. His company was also one of the early producers of string instrument pickups along with Barcus Berry and Fishman. I have worked on restoring a number of the early 80's Guild FS46-CE style guitar pickup systems and most have a similar problem with the under saddle pickup itself. (I have to mention that most of the original FS46-CE preamps I still use with small modifications. I acknowledge that this approach is not widely accepted for use in modern sound applications but my goal is to restore these guitars to their original use as much is possible.) My bass had a problem with the pickup having a low output in general and a very low E and G string output. The other issue was that output would rise and fall depending where on the neck I played. The bottom line was that after 35 some odd years the original pickup had deteriorated and was very unstable.
The Ashworth pickup used in the Guild Ashbory Bass is a complicated assembly compared to todays piezo under saddle pickups which are basically drop in and go units. I downloaded the original 1988 Ashworth patent for this bass to see how this pickup was constructed from the largesound.com website which is a great resource for the Ashbory bass, original and re-release. The option of repairing this pickup was not realistic. So a replacement had to found.
I have to say the 9vdc power preamp electronics on this bass work pretty well. The circuit has two sections. The first is a high impedance passive bass and treble tone control with volume control that is well designed for a passive circuit. The second is an amplifier, the active portion of the circuit. On the Guild Asbory bass you have a switch that enables you to select the signal from the passive portion of the circuit or the amplified portion. The newer Fender/DeArmond basses do not give you this option.
As it turns out the pickup replacement was cheap and fairly simple. Over the years some people have replaced the entire bridge/pickup assembly on the Guild versions with the DeArmond bridge/pickup assembly. This does work but the bridge units are different as well as the mounting hole pattern. My goal was remove the pickup and keep the bridge assembly as is. I was able to find a correctly sized pickup for under $10.00 that with a small amount of work turned out to be a great sounding solution. The main reason this was possible was the huge interest in ukes over the past 15 years or so. And not just ukes in general but the building of bass ukes. Now how do they make a small 21" scale bass uke work? Of course, with rubber/silicone low tension strings! Just like the 35 year old Guild Ashbory bass but acoustic/electric not solid body.
Basically I just had to remove the original pickup from both the plastic bridge and plastic saddle after disconnecting the pickup wires from the pcb. The pickup was attached to the bridge with an RTV type of adhesive which could be basically pried away and scraped from the bridge. The original pickup had a copper clad top plate, the same material a pcb is made from, that the saddle was glued to. To remove the saddle I used a single edge razor blade to separate it from the top plate. The saddle is very thin where the slots for the strings are so care has to taken not to crack the saddle. At this point the new piezo pickup cable could be run through the hole and the pickup be laid into the bridge. Because of the width of the bridge slot area the pickup is located on the treble end but can be laid in at an angle on the bass end if you want. In my case I angled the bass end of the pickup as far back in the slot as I could. The reason is that the original pickup and saddle were assemble parallel with the bridge. But this made for some intonation problems higher up the fret board. Now since the Ashbory bass is fretless you can learn to adjust positions as needed but I figured If I could get the intonation correct to begin with why not. So both the new narrower pickup and new saddle mounting enabled me to angle the saddle a fair amount. The other thing to mention is that I attached, with titebond, the saddle to a plate that was similar in size to the original copper clad pickup top plate. This is needed for stability so the saddle can sit perpendicular to the pickup while on top of it without tilting. I chose to use a 0.080" thick 2" long section of rosewood binding wood purchased from Stewart Macdonald. I wanted some wood warmth in the assembly since the both the bridge and saddle are plastic. You could use any material but I'm a nut about wood. Due to the stability of the new assembly I just rested the new wood base and saddle assembly on top of the new pickup. By mounting the saddle to the wood at the same angle as the pickup was laid in the slot, the string to string balance of the pickup output is aided. If you want to you could make a more elaborate mounting that would prevent the pickup from moving in the slot but I have found the entire assembly to be very stable once the strings are tuned. The pickup and saddle assembly seem to stay put very well.
This strings on my bass seem to be original or maybe original replacements and are in good shape yet so I am still using them but I did by a set of Pahoehoe Bass strings by Road Toad Music to try at some point. They come standard on the upper end Kala bass ukes.
I have included a few quick phone photos I took along the way.
The finished repair.
The new pickup/bridge assembly
The new pickup installed into the bridge
The new pickup
The new rosewood plate/saddle assembly
The original pickup channel housing and top plate
