Pimping my Maruejouls and Rhythm Chief mount.

crookedpinky

Having got my new to me Maruejouls I decided to change a couple of things and put a mount for the Rhythm Chief pickup. The original bracket which came with the pickup meant the pickup didn't sit well under the strings. When I tried to bend it for a better fit it just snapped. It looked like brass but it turned out to be a brittle cast metal.

Anyway, I changed the tuners for Schaller Selmer classics, the Maruejouls had Rubners installed but originally had Selmer style tuners judging by the existing holes beneath the Rubners.

I changed the wood tailpiece insert for another one which has a brass inlay of Djangos face, taken from the famous photo of Django with an archtop and smoking a cigarette.

Lastly I fashioned a mounting bracket from brass rod and, carefully, fitted it to the fingerboard. This means I no longer have to use blu tac/magic putty to mount the pickup.

Buco

Nice work, loving the tailpiece insert!

richter4208

hows it sound?

crookedpinky

richter4208 wrote: »

hows it sound?

If you mean acousticalky the guitar apparently sounds quite bright from a listeners point of view - maybe that should be point of hearing. From a players position it sounds quite well balanced to me with, I think, a strong bass. If you drive it hard you get a really dry bark and played softly it gives a mellow sound.

If you mean with the Rhythm Chief, as I said before it's a very "electric Django" sound depending on how the amp is setup. Again if you hit hard you can drive a bit more distortion into the sound. The string balance on the Rhythm Chief is not perfect with b string being slightly, but only just, hotter. However bearing that in mind it's easy to adjust picking to accomodate that. I've had a couple of Stimers and the string balance on those made them unplayable as far as I was concerned, the Rhythm Chief is a vast improvement. I might try the 1100 - the one with the adjustable pole pieces.

I might try and do some videos later.

crookedpinky

Buco wrote: »

Nice work, loving the tailpiece insert!

Thanks Buco. It was made by a guy in Ireland who was offering a brass Hendrix face on ebay. I asked him if could do a Django one and he said yes. I sent him the photo of Django with the archtop and smoking a ciggie and the insert arrived about a week later. He must have had some kind of very fine laser cutter as the insert was so finely cut and detailed. All I had to do was to cut out a corresponding shape from a wooden tailpiece insert, glue the face in and then sand it all back and, finally, polish it up.
I thought about getting another couple for other tailpieces but the supplier disappered from ebay and didn't answer subsequent emails.

I've attached the photo I sent him and I think the brass insert is just like it.