T-500 internals

[GGJaguar]

I got new toy (endoscope) and the first "patient" was my 2012 T-500. So here are some (crapy) pix - still getting the hang of using this thing. Though not clear, the top is 3-ply and all 3-plies are spruce which is different than my 2001 X-500 which has spruce only for the top ply. There is a bit of shimming going with the kerfing and neck block. And speaking of kerfing, it is reduced in size around the output jack presumably for fit, but I'm not sure it was really necessary. The Duncan pickups lack Custom Shop stickers and the base plates look like the ones used for the Retrospec'd series not the Antiquity series. The strangest bit I found in the body was a rosewood bridge plate that sits between the parallel braces and just under the bridge. I have never seen a bridge plate on any archtop guitar that I've owned. The top is thinner than on my X-500 so perhaps the plate was needed to prevent the top from sinking under the bridge.

 

[AcornHouse]

It looks like some of the kerfing doesn't touch the back (top?). Send it back!

 

[Walter Broes]

That bridge plate is odd indeed.

Re : those pickups - has anyone ever taken a reading from them? Word is they were wound special for the T-500's, but measuring the DC output would/could confirm that, if they were modeled on Franz pickups, they'd read a little (or substantially) lower than the typical 8 to 9K of a Gibson P90.

 

[GGJaguar]

Re : those pickups - has anyone ever taken a reading from them?

Yes, on this guitar they read 6.3K (neck) and 7.3K (bridge).

 

[SFIV1967]

Word is they were wound special for the T-500's.

MJ from SD told me at NAMM 2013 she handwound all of them personally.
Ralf

 

[Default]

Darren Wallace told me they were wound to sound like the Franz on his personal guitar.

 

[guildman63]

I don’t know what mine read, but I had #2 off the line, and those pups were HOT compared to the numerous Franz equipped Guilds I have owned over the years. I let it go, and I want it back!