Epiphone Masterbilt Century Deluxe modification
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2023
- This acoustic Epiphone Century Deluxe comes equipped with a Shadow system bridge piezo pickup and active preamp with the volume and tone controls mounted in the bottom F hole. Unfortunately, the system is quite bright, with a tone that can be harsh and brittle. I wanted a warmer, punchier jazz tone, so I modified the guitar and added a mini humbucker attached to the end of the fingerboard. Then I cut a new pickguard out of solid flame maple, stained it ebony to match the fingerboard and bridge, and mounted a volume control. I ran the output to a new side mounted jack so the guitar pickups could be used in stereo or blended. Finally, to complete the look of the new pickguard, I cut a matching wood insert for the steel and aluminum tailpiece and gave the guitar a simple, elegant look.
Thank You guitar doctor I'm a new subscriber! What you did to this guitar would be exactly what I would do and now I'm thinking about getting one. Keep up the good work I hope you get a hundred thousand new subscribers tomorrow!
Your guitar sounds really good. That added pickup is really nice sounding. Acoustically it sounds really good. I bet "Tequila" sounds good on it.
Unbelievable work !
Thanks, I enjoy what I do!👍
Great video!! Great guitar ! I modified mine slightly, i put a frequensator tailpiece on and a period correct pickg guard. I love the sound of that pick up that you installed
I bought the De Luxe & the Olympic at the same time, I only kept the Olympic, I sent the De Luxe back, at the time I could only afford one, I wish I still had it. I had some work done on the Olympic. It took me a while, but I used it only acoustically until I could get it done. I had Rudy Penza's guitar tech put on a rosewood bridge and got rid of the composite Piezo bridge, upgraded wiring, removed the plastic battery compartment with a good jack, installed a DeArmond Rhythm Chief floating off the neck, two potentiometers on the Pick guard for tone & volume a couple of caps. Set it up for flats. It's my favorite guitar.
Sounds like you did a great job! Do you have any videos of you playing it?
I bought an Olympic a few years ago for $300 at a pawn shop. I’d love to do some modifications on the electronics.
@@drguitar9532 I don’t really , my chops have fallen by the wayside. I was never a jazzman, but I get into a nice groove on the guitar. I don’t play out anymore once upon a Time.
That’s night and day Better. Sounds fantastic with the mini humbucker. Great idea ! I will be looking for it in a Guitar stores soon. They have to build it, it’s that big a deal it is to me.
Great mods. I have the round hole. I ripped out the Shadow electrics, replaced the Bridge to a real Ebony one that's shaped and cut. Tuners went also. It's a guitar I am happy to gig with now.
The only tuners I could find that fit without modifications were the Hipshot with the universal mounting plate. I have a set of those in the satin chrome finish coming this week. What did you decide on? And are you using any pickup with your guitar when you gig?
@@drguitar001 I used the Groover deluxe square back that are shaped like the Klusons. The posts were smaller, so i had to modified them a little with painters tape! The holes were a match. No, i hate those fishman type/style pickups. i use a Shure SM57 mic. There solid. They project the real sound of the guitar. For a 100 bucks there hard to beat. Cable and small mic stand are also cheap.
Nice mod. Where is the instructions?
I have an Olympic masterbilt. I would love to switch out the pick up. Is it hard to do?
It was not particularly difficult installing a mini humbucker and running a separate volume pot and output jack. As far as replacing the bridge piezo with a different one, that should also be pretty easy ONLY if you know that the new bridge pickup actually sounds better (how you want it to sound) before tearing out the original. Otherwise you could end up with the new one sounding as bad or worse.
@@TheGuitarDoctor-zu3gs Great! Thank you for replying. I'm gonna give it a go! The bridge piezo isn't my favorite, but I love the smaller body of the Olympic. Dave Rawlings plays an original 1930's Olympic, and says the smaller body is good for cutting through the mix when soloing over a dreadnought for instance.
What pickup is that? I got a used one off a Gretsch but it’s too skinny.
I installed the Artec mini humbucker. It was also slightly narrow, but I was able to bend the humbuckers wings just enough to fit properly. The pole piece bolts were too long and would have scratched the top, so I shortened them and put a thick piece of felt on the back of the pickup to protect the top from getting scratched. The pickup sounds good, fits securely and the guitar is protected. 👍👍
If I bought one of these Epiphone's and sent it to you what do you think you would charge to make another one just like one you have. Of course I would pay for shipping to you and back and send it in the box that it came in. What do you think about a 30-day turnaround?
LOL, there was a time back in the late 1980s when folks were sending me guitars and basses from all over the US. It was exhilarating and humbling at the same time. You have a few different questions here. I'm not sure I would change anything from what I have already done. I left the original bridge pickup system in the guitar although I will probably never use it, so that might be a change I would make. In total, I installed a mini-humbucker pickup (Artec MHFA94) that was just $25). It had the right parameters (output and size) and I was lucky that it also sounded quite nice (that was luck as I could not get to hear it first). I then cut a new pickguard out of 1/8" flamed maple and stained it ebony then finished it in 6+ layers of shellac). I also made a tailpiece insert to spruce up the plain tailpiece out of the same flamed maple finished to match the pickguard. And then I replaced the poorly made original tuning machines with HipShot locking tuners in a satin chrome to match the metals on the tailpiece. I also installed a volume pot on the new pickguard and wired it to a output jack mounted on the side of the guitar next to the bridge pickup output jack. SO there was definitely some serious modification. I put Martin Monel (Retro) light gauge strings (12-54) on the guitar and set it up with easy playing low action. Of course, I did an advanced setup with fret leveling, crown and polish. I could have installed an much more expensive mini humbucker, but since I could not try any of them on the guitar, it did not make sense to me to spend $100+ on an unknown. As far as doing it again, I could but the guitar is no longer sold new (as far as I know) so you would be looking at a used instrument to start. It would take me about 2 weeks tops to do the work.
Too melllow