1960 T-100DP Questions on Bridge and Pickups

motopsyche

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Greetings all,

New Guild owner here, and couldn't be more pleased. An incredibly player-worn blonde '60 T-100DP literally jumped off the wall of a local guitar shop and into my arms a few weeks ago. It was clear that someone got a LOT of satisfied guitar playing time in on this one, and I hope to channel some of that music mojo into my own experience.

A few questions: I've strung it up with 11-46 strings and absolutely love the action and playability. But the higher guitar strings sound a bit dead and short of sustain, particularly the third string. I'm wondering if the original Rosewood bridge has anything to do with it. I notice this guitar can come with an aluminum Bigsby bridge for the vibrato. My guess is that would make a major difference in the tone and sustain. Are all Rosewood bridges about the same? Is it possible mine has worn to a point that affects tone? Of course, I've run into the intonation problems with the compensated bridge layout, but I'm considering an Ebony bridge rather than a metalic adjustable one. Advice?

The Franz pickups are really terrific, and I love it when they get down on the dirty side. But when I roll off just a hair on the volume, they seem to lose their definition and edge. Normal? Advice? I've read the very helpful posts on potting the pickups to ward off feedback, so that may be something to consider later. Right now I'm interested in how to find and manage the best tones of this wonderful instrument.

Many thanks to all for sharing your experience and enthusiasm!

Bill Stagg
 

motopsyche

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Greetings all,

New Guild owner here, and couldn't be more pleased. An incredibly player-worn blonde '60 T-100DP literally jumped off the wall of a local guitar shop and into my arms a few weeks ago. It was clear that someone got a LOT of satisfied guitar playing time in on this one, and I hope to channel some of that music mojo into my own experience.

A few questions: I've strung it up with 11-46 strings and absolutely love the action and playability. But the higher guitar strings sound a bit dead and short of sustain, particularly the third string. I'm wondering if the original Rosewood bridge has anything to do with it. I notice this guitar can come with an aluminum Bigsby bridge for the vibrato. My guess is that would make a major difference in the tone and sustain. Are all Rosewood bridges about the same? Is it possible mine has worn to a point that affects tone? Of course, I've run into the intonation problems with the compensated bridge layout, but I'm considering an Ebony bridge rather than a metalic adjustable one. Advice?

The Franz pickups are really terrific, and I love it when they get down on the dirty side. But when I roll off just a hair on the volume, they seem to lose their definition and edge. Normal? Advice? I've read the very helpful posts on potting the pickups to ward off feedback, so that may be something to consider later. Right now I'm interested in how to find and manage the best tones of this wonderful instrument.

Many thanks to all for sharing your experience and enthusiasm!

Bill Stagg
 

teleharmonium

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Hey Bill,

you have excellent taste in guitars. I own the same model, year, and color, so we should be able to make some helpful comparisons. Did you happen to pick it up in Cincinnat ? There was/is a T100 here fitting that description.

What kind of strings are you using, and what style do you play ? I use pretty much the gauge you listed and have the original bridge, but I'm using flatwounds and have that guitar set up for jazz, so sustain is not necessarily at a premium for me, but I like the tone and the stiffness of the strings with my setup. With heavier flats, you don't have to go hunting around for the string with your pick when you're trying to play fast.

I doubt there is anything wrong with your bridge as such, but it won't give you the kind of brightness or sustain that you can get from metal saddles. In my case, my pickups are very bright, so even with the wooden bridge and flatwound strings that are 10 months old, I still have plenty of high end, and I generally like a lot of high end. On the other hand, Franz pickups can vary, so maybe mine are wound a bit less hot than average.

The aluminum Bigsby bridge is cheap, so you might want to give one of those a try, if you'd like more highs as well as more sustain. When you take your bridge off, you'll probably see stains on the guitar top from the rosewood oil that leached out over the years, which is normal. You can also split the difference by getting a bridge with a rosewood or ebony base and a tune o matic type of top.

Regarding the issue with backing off the volume, does this happen in all 3 switch positions ? And, where do you have the tone knob at ?

You may be hearing something more clearly in this guitar, due to the high frequency clarity, that happens in all traditional guitar wiring schemes, where you do lose a disproportionate amount of high end when you back off the volume. If that's what it is, and it really bothers you, there is a fix for it, but it involves modifying the guitar, you would install small capacitors between the volume pots and the ground path to selectively discourage the high frequencies from being bled to ground. It's pretty hard to work on an archtop with no back access panel, so that might be a job for a pro. We have talked about that recently here on the board. I would encourage you to take some time and see if you get used to it, you might be able to adapt your playing style to just leave the pickups up all the way if you're using one pickup, or back the volume off slightly on one or the other, when you're in the middle switch position go avoid the phasiness inherent in that position with both pickups up all the way. I figure, the "gain" (not quite an technically accurate term here, but it works) from your magnetic coils is the cleanest there is (in terms of noise), you may as well take full advantage of it and turn it down later in the signal chain, like with a good quality volume pedal.

What amp are you using ?
 

teleharmonium

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Hey Bill,

you have excellent taste in guitars. I own the same model, year, and color, so we should be able to make some helpful comparisons. Did you happen to pick it up in Cincinnat ? There was/is a T100 here fitting that description.

What kind of strings are you using, and what style do you play ? I use pretty much the gauge you listed and have the original bridge, but I'm using flatwounds and have that guitar set up for jazz, so sustain is not necessarily at a premium for me, but I like the tone and the stiffness of the strings with my setup. With heavier flats, you don't have to go hunting around for the string with your pick when you're trying to play fast.

I doubt there is anything wrong with your bridge as such, but it won't give you the kind of brightness or sustain that you can get from metal saddles. In my case, my pickups are very bright, so even with the wooden bridge and flatwound strings that are 10 months old, I still have plenty of high end, and I generally like a lot of high end. On the other hand, Franz pickups can vary, so maybe mine are wound a bit less hot than average.

The aluminum Bigsby bridge is cheap, so you might want to give one of those a try, if you'd like more highs as well as more sustain. When you take your bridge off, you'll probably see stains on the guitar top from the rosewood oil that leached out over the years, which is normal. You can also split the difference by getting a bridge with a rosewood or ebony base and a tune o matic type of top.

Regarding the issue with backing off the volume, does this happen in all 3 switch positions ? And, where do you have the tone knob at ?

You may be hearing something more clearly in this guitar, due to the high frequency clarity, that happens in all traditional guitar wiring schemes, where you do lose a disproportionate amount of high end when you back off the volume. If that's what it is, and it really bothers you, there is a fix for it, but it involves modifying the guitar, you would install small capacitors between the volume pots and the ground path to selectively discourage the high frequencies from being bled to ground. It's pretty hard to work on an archtop with no back access panel, so that might be a job for a pro. We have talked about that recently here on the board. I would encourage you to take some time and see if you get used to it, you might be able to adapt your playing style to just leave the pickups up all the way if you're using one pickup, or back the volume off slightly on one or the other, when you're in the middle switch position go avoid the phasiness inherent in that position with both pickups up all the way. I figure, the "gain" (not quite an technically accurate term here, but it works) from your magnetic coils is the cleanest there is (in terms of noise), you may as well take full advantage of it and turn it down later in the signal chain, like with a good quality volume pedal.

What amp are you using ?
 

friendphil

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two cents worth, maybe more or less.

I'm a newby here as of today and sure appreciate the help I've already gotten gotten here as a recent Guild owner. I had a question earlier today about my 175 and intonation questions. One respondent pointed out that with the rosewood bridge (and my assumption here is that the bridges on our guitars may be similar) you need a wound G string. Maybe that's relevant to your situation.
 

friendphil

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two cents worth, maybe more or less.

I'm a newby here as of today and sure appreciate the help I've already gotten gotten here as a recent Guild owner. I had a question earlier today about my 175 and intonation questions. One respondent pointed out that with the rosewood bridge (and my assumption here is that the bridges on our guitars may be similar) you need a wound G string. Maybe that's relevant to your situation.
 

billydlight

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Hey Nice guitar! I have a few myself. I don't really fool with volume and tone contrls much. I go with the "volume is in the fingers school" Hit it easy for rythym, dig in for the leads. I like the way the pickup's respond to touch a lot more than the way they do to knob twidilling. I play rockabilly though so it is kind of aggressive. I personally like the way a bigsby bridge sounds. I don't find to much of a problem using an unwound G. I use .11's with an unwound G, the intonation thing is minimal. If I am by myself in quiet room playing with myself :twisted: I might hear a little something, but on a rocking stage, you would never hear it.
 

billydlight

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Hey Nice guitar! I have a few myself. I don't really fool with volume and tone contrls much. I go with the "volume is in the fingers school" Hit it easy for rythym, dig in for the leads. I like the way the pickup's respond to touch a lot more than the way they do to knob twidilling. I play rockabilly though so it is kind of aggressive. I personally like the way a bigsby bridge sounds. I don't find to much of a problem using an unwound G. I use .11's with an unwound G, the intonation thing is minimal. If I am by myself in quiet room playing with myself :twisted: I might hear a little something, but on a rocking stage, you would never hear it.
 

motopsyche

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Many thanks to everyone for the helpful info. Today I received an ebony bridge base I'd ordered to fit a Gibson-style tune-o-matic. Plopped the bridge on the base, swapped out the Rosewood, and voila! Great tone. I could not be more pleased. Like Billydlight, I lean toward Rockabilly and Blues, and I tend to play aggressively. This guitar is now producing the tones I was hoping for. Could be the start of a great relationship... Thanks all! Bill
 

motopsyche

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Many thanks to everyone for the helpful info. Today I received an ebony bridge base I'd ordered to fit a Gibson-style tune-o-matic. Plopped the bridge on the base, swapped out the Rosewood, and voila! Great tone. I could not be more pleased. Like Billydlight, I lean toward Rockabilly and Blues, and I tend to play aggressively. This guitar is now producing the tones I was hoping for. Could be the start of a great relationship... Thanks all! Bill
 
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