Vic Wong – Jazz guitarist, player of stringed things, engineer, maker
I started with volume/tone control boxes, then volume-only control boxes, and now it only seems natural to go the “purest” form: a simple 1/4″ input jack enclosure for the various pickups you might encounter. And if you’re like me, you no doubt have a dusty drawer full of them: Krivo, DeArmond, Stimer, Kent, and so on. Why do we do this? Who knows.
These are available in my store.
More news on the DeArmond control box front: I started making these more compact volume-only control boxes. Available in the store.
Why? The original DeArmond FHC pickups only had a single volume control knob. Minimalism at its best. After all, you can set tone on the amp. Personally, I don’t mess with tone much in the middle of my playing… too complicated. I’ll leave that sort of thing to Jerry Byrd and Danny Gatton.
Continue reading “DeArmond FHC-style Volume Control Box”
Well, it only took me 2-3 of years to get around to making those control boxes I hinted at! Available in the store.
Continue reading “DeArmond-inspired Volume/Tone Control Box”I love DeArmond archtop pickups! DeArmond “Monkey-on-a-stick” pressure rod mounting brackets are my preferred removable way to mount them, but nobody reissues them. So I made one from scratch with the help 3D printing.
They are available at my online store.
I also do control boxes now: tone/volume, and volume-only
Video demo:
Update 5/8/2019: I now offer replacement top plates and thumbscrews for original vintage monkey-on-a-stick. See my store.
Back in the good old ’30s and ’40s it was unthinkable to put holes in that pretty handmade archtop of yours. After all, who knew if this silly fad of guitar “electrification” was going to last? And what if you wanted to pass that pristine acoustic archtop on to your grandchildren? Trad jazz and swing was surely due to make a comeback in about 75 years.
Continue reading “Project: DeArmond “Monkey-on-a-stick” Reproduction”
