I bought a Kent bass brand new in 1966. I paid $70 for it and $15 for a hard shell case with thin felt lining. I was 15 and worked mowing lawns and selling grit papers to pay for it. It was a solid mahogany body and neck. The neck had a rosewood fretboard and the same square fret inlays as yours. It had no truss rod. The neck developed a down bow but it played great! I stripped the sunburst finish off and put 6 coats of auto lacquer on it. I later sold it. I still have the tailpiece cover with the original foam mute. Of course I wish I had kept it, but my wife at the time thought it was stupid to have more than 1 guitar at a time. I later was divorced and was able to collect guitars now. Played a lot of gigs with that bass! My brothers and Iplayed it and when we get together we always reminisce of the fun we had playing it. Thankz
I find those basses to be even more useful as everyday utility players than the guitars. Much more versatile. When you get them set up correctly, they are almost always great basses. Thanks for sharing the memories. Sucks about the ex-wife. Good riddence, by the sound of it. ;)
The Guitologist You might try a small resistor in line with that middle pickup. A 10k pot would let you dial in the correct resistance and then put that amount in line. Just a suggestion. You may have another maybe better way. I really like your videos! Thankz
I have one of these Kents. A friend saw the neck sticking out of the city landfill site and grabbed it. Someone had spray painted it with grey automotive primer then painted it with white latex paint.....and they painted EVERYTHING! I'm assuming it was a wall hanger in a restaurant or something. My friend also found a 1940 Harmony "Broadway" at the same time in the same condition. Mine has a big chrome tremolo that has "Kent" engraved on it. In reality it's not worth the time to restore it, however I bring it out from time to time to work on it (finally got all the paint/primer off it). It will be another year (or more) till it's done. So thanks for the video (and all the other stuff you post). I do not think I've ever seen a vid featuring this guitar.
I recently bought a near mint Americana 546 cherry sunburst with two gold foils. And I did exactly the same thing with my neck pickup as it had an open coil which I replaced with the guts out of the clip in magnetic pickup which is very similar to your replacement. The body is not thinline but a full 2 inch thick. It came with exactly the same 20 fret neck but I replaced with the LP style oak neck I built 15 years ago. Although the scale length is same, the one I built has 22 frets so had to move the bridge and the bridge pickup about 3/4 inch to the neck side. It came with a rosewood bridge which sort of dulled the tone so I made a bridge with a brass fret on top. The tailpiece is one piece solid metal. Had to shim the neck quite a bit so to achieve the 1.5mm string clearance at the 12th fret and to have enought clearance between strings and pickups. The knob/switch plate assembly is exactly same as yours except mine has 2 switches vs your 3. Wish mine was a thinline like yours. Anyway it is a very huge guitar and the side of the body hits my chest so I have to put some cushion between. I'm very lucky to own a ca 1964 guitar is such a near mint condition.
I and everyone else from my era started of on one these .Mine was an Aria 335 copy.It’s amazing to me that anyone would stick with guitar after trying to learn on one of these.Problems? Would never get or stay in tune ,intonation was unheard of ,tuners crap,bridge crap,pickups like cheap microphone,buzz hum crackle. I don’t miss these at all,not even for nostalgia.
I had a 2 pick-up version up until last fall. I got it for 20 bucks and got offered 260 for it and an Electra bass I had. The guitar's neck was replaced by a home-made neck with an Alvarez style headstock. It was great for slide but the fret board was too narrow for me to play it normally. I do miss it a bit.
Brad that's a beautiful guitar, and would have made a great TH-camr collaboration project with you and YT channel Dylan Talks Tone. A custom pup winder not too far away from you. That would have been a very cool project video! Bob in Germany
Hey, how about show the insides of the old pickups, maybe someone will try to reproduce them. A good look at the parts might make it possible, and then we would have some different parts to choose from out there. show more of your work on the amps and guitars. Thanks
Guitologists love their Japanese guitars. I had one pass through my hands... I made it play, and then sold it off to someone who would actually enjoy it... The pickups on mine were virtually microphones... don't hit them with a pick by accident or they go BANG!.... I like to tinker with stuff too... but once the fiddling is done......the sale begins.
Nothing wrong with that. They aren't for everyone, granted. I would hesitate to take 75% of them on a gig, but if you're recording and you want a certain tone for a track, American guitars just don't sound like that.
I had a kay telecaster copy that had pickups like that. Having said that they did sound great, kind of like mosrite pups. Shame about the rest of the guitar though, pure garbage.
Thanks, man. In Part 2 I'll get it looking better with a new, fresh-cut pickguard and some stain on those filled holes. I also will end up doing a bit more tweaking on my pickup design to increase the output.
I would have wax potted them to hold them in place but that's just my way of doing things. I'm sure Brad will come up with a reasonable alternative. :-)
Couple problems with using wax... One, wax potting will take away all the microphonics, and I don't want that in this case. It's part of the charm to have a little of that. Two, wax would have to be filled to capacity to hold it all together, and no way to do that. The screws that hold the pickups to the body are under the cover, so you cant pot the whole pickup with the covers on and still be able to install them on the guitar.
The Guitologist that makes sense. the original design of those pickups and how they were held in place is obviously a bit flawed. so the hot glue seems reasonable
Gotta be honest - we struggled with guitars of this quality in Jr High/High School garage bands and rejoiced on the day when our Silvertones and Kays could go back in the closet for good - and we had saved enough money from bagging groceries and doing janitorial work to buy Gibsons and Fenders. The pickups are junk... the hardware is generally not much better, and they're built as cheaply as they could be made and still called a guitar. Biggest problem - that type of PUP squeals like a stuck pig at any real volume. Not for me - I don't even like to work on them is someone brings one in for a setup, etc. I can't believe the collctor AND Player interest in these now - Silvertones you couldn't give to your kids a few years ago selling for $1000 on eBay LOL.
I realize this has been the prevailing perception for a long time among players who lived through the 60s. But I disagree with this assessment. I have a series of videos detailing Japanese guitars and demonstrating them with various lower powered amplifiers in a living room/studio setting. These pickups are not "junk", I assure you. Now, it's debatable whether the ones I've designed here from scrap parts will be. I don't know yet. But the original ones sound pretty good. Another reason for the bad rep for the Japanese guitars of the 60s is the near universal atrocious setups from the factory. Probably half or more of the ones I've owned, for instance, needed the bridges moved because they were in the wrong place for proper intonation. If the guitar cannot be tuned, it's not going to sound very good. If the action sucks and the frets have tool chatter marks on them, this is going to add to the problems. The reason people like this stuff is because after a good and proper setup and after some much needed fretwork, they can surprise the hell out of you. I mean, shit dude, GLENN effin' CAMPBELL played a Teisco on all those famous session recordings in the 60s, including the Beach Boys stuff. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand where you're coming from, and I used to agree with you. Somewhere along the line, I reassessed. th-cam.com/video/rN-6_Bl58lU/w-d-xo.html
The Guitologist Not a problem LOL - I was simply recounting MY thoughts as a 16 yr old. But it's still shocking today for me to see someone in the house band on a network talk show playing a Teisco solidbody that could have been had for $45 in 1970 from Montgomery-Ward. :-) I mean WHY? It's not like they're great instruments and it's not like he can't afford something mainstream. They sound awful don't stay in tune - so what the heck? No doubt there's some good ones - I'm just saying those of us from the era aren't wired to see them in any other light.
I love the old silvertones, I have a 1452 with the lipstick pickups super low output but with a cranked amp and a good drive pedal nice smooth overdrive can be had
The key phrase: "...after a good and proper setup and after some much needed fretwork..." There was a time when stock Fenders and Gibsons had some very bad factory setups, but usually not as bad as the cheaper imports. This is like going back to the sixties for me. :-)
Sadly, not yet. I got sidetracked and never finished it. I ran across this guitar while cleaning out and moving my work space though, so I might get back into it.
Confused and I cringed watching, why you didn't remove the pickups or at least mask them off, spreading putty on a finished surface use a plastic spreader (old credit card) But the end result looks ok, did you finish the restoration?
You don't have to "Cringe" or be "Confused" watching Brad do anything. He works with what he has on hand, and it always ends up being awesome when he is finished.
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I bought a Kent bass brand new in 1966. I paid $70 for it and $15 for a hard shell case with thin felt lining. I was 15 and worked mowing lawns and selling grit papers to pay for it. It was a solid mahogany body and neck. The neck had a rosewood fretboard and the same square fret inlays as yours. It had no truss rod. The neck developed a down bow but it played great! I stripped the sunburst finish off and put 6 coats of auto lacquer on it. I later sold it. I still have the tailpiece cover with the original foam mute. Of course I wish I had kept it, but my wife at the time thought it was stupid to have more than 1 guitar at a time. I later was divorced and was able to collect guitars now. Played a lot of gigs with that bass! My brothers and Iplayed it and when we get together we always reminisce of the fun we had playing it. Thankz
I find those basses to be even more useful as everyday utility players than the guitars. Much more versatile. When you get them set up correctly, they are almost always great basses. Thanks for sharing the memories. Sucks about the ex-wife. Good riddence, by the sound of it. ;)
The Guitologist You might try a small resistor in line with that middle pickup. A 10k pot would let you dial in the correct resistance and then put that amount in line. Just a suggestion. You may have another maybe better way. I really like your videos! Thankz
I have one of these Kents. A friend saw the neck sticking out of the city landfill site and grabbed it. Someone had spray painted it with grey automotive primer then painted it with white latex paint.....and they painted EVERYTHING! I'm assuming it was a wall hanger in a restaurant or something. My friend also found a 1940 Harmony "Broadway" at the same time in the same condition. Mine has a big chrome tremolo that has "Kent" engraved on it. In reality it's not worth the time to restore it, however I bring it out from time to time to work on it (finally got all the paint/primer off it). It will be another year (or more) till it's done.
So thanks for the video (and all the other stuff you post). I do not think I've ever seen a vid featuring this guitar.
I recently bought a near mint Americana 546 cherry sunburst with two gold foils. And I did exactly the same thing with my neck pickup as it had an open coil which I replaced with the guts out of the clip in magnetic pickup which is very similar to your replacement. The body is not thinline but a full 2 inch thick. It came with exactly the same 20 fret neck but I replaced with the LP style oak neck I built 15 years ago. Although the scale length is same, the one I built has 22 frets so had to move the bridge and the bridge pickup about 3/4 inch to the neck side. It came with a rosewood bridge which sort of dulled the tone so I made a bridge with a brass fret on top. The tailpiece is one piece solid metal. Had to shim the neck quite a bit so to achieve the 1.5mm string clearance at the 12th fret and to have enought clearance between strings and pickups. The knob/switch plate assembly is exactly same as yours except mine has 2 switches vs your 3. Wish mine was a thinline like yours. Anyway it is a very huge guitar and the side of the body hits my chest so I have to put some cushion between. I'm very lucky to own a ca 1964 guitar is such a near mint condition.
I and everyone else from my era started of on one these .Mine was an Aria 335 copy.It’s amazing to me that anyone would stick with guitar after trying to learn on one of these.Problems? Would never get or stay in tune ,intonation was unheard of ,tuners crap,bridge crap,pickups like cheap microphone,buzz hum crackle. I don’t miss these at all,not even for nostalgia.
where is part 2!!
I had a 2 pick-up version up until last fall. I got it for 20 bucks and got offered 260 for it and an Electra bass I had. The guitar's neck was replaced by a home-made neck with an Alvarez style headstock. It was great for slide but the fret board was too narrow for me to play it normally. I do miss it a bit.
Brad; That's not a pad under the pickup cover. It's actually old style double sided tape. They used it to keep the covers on.
Brad that's a beautiful guitar, and would have made a great TH-camr collaboration project with you and YT channel Dylan Talks Tone. A custom pup winder not too far away from you. That would have been a very cool project video! Bob in Germany
Love these guitars! I’ll bet you figured out after strumming it for five minutes why the previous owner moved that middle pickup forward! 😉
I'd have cut a plug from underneath one of the pickups and used that to plug the hole.
Hey, how about show the insides of the old pickups, maybe someone will try to reproduce them. A good look at the parts might make it possible, and then we would have some different parts to choose from out there. show more of your work on the amps and guitars. Thanks
Good job Brad and happy new year filled with lots of cool gear. thanks for sharing.
Thank Dave. Happy new year to you too! Glad to have so many of you regulars with me into 2017.
Guitologists love their Japanese guitars. I had one pass through my hands... I made it play, and then sold it off to someone who would actually enjoy it... The pickups on mine were virtually microphones... don't hit them with a pick by accident or they go BANG!.... I like to tinker with stuff too... but once the fiddling is done......the sale begins.
Nothing wrong with that. They aren't for everyone, granted. I would hesitate to take 75% of them on a gig, but if you're recording and you want a certain tone for a track, American guitars just don't sound like that.
I had a kay telecaster copy that had pickups like that. Having said that they did sound great, kind of like mosrite pups. Shame about the rest of the guitar though, pure garbage.
Great job: looking good ...!
Thanks, man. In Part 2 I'll get it looking better with a new, fresh-cut pickguard and some stain on those filled holes. I also will end up doing a bit more tweaking on my pickup design to increase the output.
Looking forward to it ! Cheers :)
Part deux ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Awaiting part deuce! Lol
Wonder if hot wax would have kept those pickup covers in place?
I would have wax potted them to hold them in place but that's just my way of doing things.
I'm sure Brad will come up with a reasonable alternative. :-)
Couple problems with using wax... One, wax potting will take away all the microphonics, and I don't want that in this case. It's part of the charm to have a little of that. Two, wax would have to be filled to capacity to hold it all together, and no way to do that. The screws that hold the pickups to the body are under the cover, so you cant pot the whole pickup with the covers on and still be able to install them on the guitar.
The Guitologist that makes sense. the original design of those pickups and how they were held in place is obviously a bit flawed. so the hot glue seems reasonable
Must have been Japans way of paying us back for Hiroshima at the time. :-)
Crazy Uncle Duke well they did give us Ultraman and the Fujigen factory
I would have just slapped some stickers over the holes and called it good.
Gotta be honest - we struggled with guitars of this quality in Jr High/High School garage bands and rejoiced on the day when our Silvertones and Kays could go back in the closet for good - and we had saved enough money from bagging groceries and doing janitorial work to buy Gibsons and Fenders. The pickups are junk... the hardware is generally not much better, and they're built as cheaply as they could be made and still called a guitar. Biggest problem - that type of PUP squeals like a stuck pig at any real volume. Not for me - I don't even like to work on them is someone brings one in for a setup, etc. I can't believe the collctor AND Player interest in these now - Silvertones you couldn't give to your kids a few years ago selling for $1000 on eBay LOL.
I realize this has been the prevailing perception for a long time among players who lived through the 60s. But I disagree with this assessment. I have a series of videos detailing Japanese guitars and demonstrating them with various lower powered amplifiers in a living room/studio setting. These pickups are not "junk", I assure you. Now, it's debatable whether the ones I've designed here from scrap parts will be. I don't know yet. But the original ones sound pretty good. Another reason for the bad rep for the Japanese guitars of the 60s is the near universal atrocious setups from the factory. Probably half or more of the ones I've owned, for instance, needed the bridges moved because they were in the wrong place for proper intonation. If the guitar cannot be tuned, it's not going to sound very good. If the action sucks and the frets have tool chatter marks on them, this is going to add to the problems. The reason people like this stuff is because after a good and proper setup and after some much needed fretwork, they can surprise the hell out of you. I mean, shit dude, GLENN effin' CAMPBELL played a Teisco on all those famous session recordings in the 60s, including the Beach Boys stuff. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand where you're coming from, and I used to agree with you. Somewhere along the line, I reassessed.
th-cam.com/video/rN-6_Bl58lU/w-d-xo.html
I appreciate the comment, by the way. Just because we disagree doesn't mean I don't value your commentary. I hope you know that.
The Guitologist Not a problem LOL - I was simply recounting MY thoughts as a 16 yr old. But it's still shocking today for me to see someone in the house band on a network talk show playing a Teisco solidbody that could have been had for $45 in 1970 from Montgomery-Ward. :-) I mean WHY? It's not like they're great instruments and it's not like he can't afford something mainstream. They sound awful don't stay in tune - so what the heck? No doubt there's some good ones - I'm just saying those of us from the era aren't wired to see them in any other light.
I love the old silvertones, I have a 1452 with the lipstick pickups super low output but with a cranked amp and a good drive pedal nice smooth overdrive can be had
The key phrase: "...after a good and proper setup and after some much needed fretwork..."
There was a time when stock Fenders and Gibsons had some very bad factory setups, but usually not as bad as the cheaper imports.
This is like going back to the sixties for me. :-)
Is there a par t 2 to this somewhere?
Sadly, not yet. I got sidetracked and never finished it. I ran across this guitar while cleaning out and moving my work space though, so I might get back into it.
good stuff
Confused and I cringed watching, why you didn't remove the pickups or at least mask them off, spreading putty on a finished surface use a plastic spreader (old credit card)
But the end result looks ok, did you finish the restoration?
You don't have to "Cringe" or be "Confused" watching Brad do anything. He works with what he has on hand, and it always ends up being awesome when he is finished.
I agree