In order to make new designs for Fall, we’re running a sale on TK Smith’s Electronic Guitar Service T’s. Normally $25. they’re now $19.50 with Free shipping in the U.S. Both mens and woman’s shirts come in blue or white. Limited quantities and choice of color in some sizes. While supplies last.

I recently completed the modification of a ’53 Kay Crusader and wanted to share a few photos.

CAR pickup and custom bridge

Smith Special

Smith Special

Smith Special

Custom inlayed pickguard

Smith Special

When we recently received an order for a C.C.esque pickup from Paul Trigg in Australia, like always we were thrilled. Once it arrived, he had questions about the installation which caused a bit of concern. After TK responded, Pauls final message had us laughing out loud first thing this morning and made our day so we thought we would share. We love a guy with a great sense of humor who doesn’t take it all too seriously. Most of all, we’re happy that he’s happy!

hi guys,pickup arived today,thanks.but im having trouble fiting it.dose it/is it ment to come apart if i remove the 2 tiny allen key screws?. and if not how do i cut in to a tele pic guard?.paul

Glad the pickup made it. No, the pickup is NOT meant to come apart. If you haven’t  done a pickup installation I highly recommend bringing it to a qualified guitar luthier that has experience in guitar customizing. The body will have to be routed and the pickguard will have to be cut with a router or scroll saw. Below is the link to the pickup schematic thats on our website store. Again, I would NOT recommend you do this yourself if you don’t have experience. You could easily damage your guitar, the pickup or both.

Good luck!

I recently heard a Jack Hart and his Hired Hands tune named ‘Knock out the Lights (and Call the Law)’. I don’t recall ever hearing it before. The recording features a great solo by Jimmy Brant that reminded me of a musical break through I had years ago after learning his solo on Tennessee Ernie’s Rock City Boogie. It was the first time I realized you could solo over chords that the rest of the band wasn’t actually playing, especially if the rhythm section is just bass and drums. For instance the solos in both songs are over the basic three-chord 12 bar blues form.  On both solos at the ninth measure, Jimmy plays almost the same lick that’s basically a IIm7 arpeggio. Then over an altered V7 chord in the tenth measure.  It’s a useful trick if you’re a wannabe jazzer like myself.

Knock Out the Lights (and Call the Law)

Rock City Boogie

At the end of last year, I had the privilege of working on a vintage Bigsby pole piece guitar pickup for Deke Dickerson. I’m not sure where he got it but it’s going on the “Butterball Paige” guitar that is currently being restored. The work that I did required the pickup to be fully disassembled. At that time I was able to take notes on how it was constructed, accurately take all the measurements of the magnets, bobbin, base plate and aluminum housing. I think it’s obvious that I’ve been a Bigsby nut for a long time now, so with all of this information, the next logical step was to make my own reproduction of this legendary guitar pickup.  Now I’m offering it for sale as the C.A.R. Pickup.

TK SMITH C.A.R. ROUTER SCHEMATIC

The first step was to make the wood patterns for the aluminum pickup housing and trim rings. (I’m offering the trim rings in two sizes at this time, a 1/8’’ flat one and a 7/16’’ raised one). Before I started I calculated how much aluminum shrinks in the casting process and added a few thousands for clean up and polishing to my measurements. I used some mahogany I had laying around to make the patterns. Then I found a source to make the magnets for me to the exact dimensions and material as the originals. All of the other parts (bobbin and base plate) I fabricate at my shop with my antique tools and somewhat hillbilly fabricating methods. The clean up and polishing of the cast aluminum pieces is also done at my shop so I can ensure a nice fit of the trim ring to the pickup housing.

It took a few months to get all this to happen but I finally got a few assembled and mounted on my Telecaster. It’s a great pickup that I’m completely happy with. Perfect for anyone playing traditional Jazz, Swing, Rockabilly, Travis picking or Blues. Mounted at the bridge position it’s perfect for that ‘’Grady Martin” sound. At the neck, it’s a great pickup for Jazz, Swing and Blues. It has that distinct hollow, wooden, almost buoyant tone that floats so well on top of what a good rhythm section is doing. Here is a quick demo of the C.A.R. Pickup at the bridge position.

On another note, the Pole Piece and Blade Pickups that have been Sold Out in our Store will be available again soon.

After 9 days straight of moving my Shop from one location to our new location, it made me very happy this morning to receive this clip from Joao. Now that the move is almost over, it’s extremely motivating for me to get back to work when players of such a high caliber enjoy using my pickups. Thanks Joao! You made my day.

Anyone that has talked guitar  with me knows what a huge Charlie Christian fan I am, but the motivation to play music this month is by two horn players, Buck Clayton and Lester Young with their back-to-back solos on tune called Charlie’s Dream. Although I’ve heard this song hundreds of times, I still get chills when I hear these two solos. The three laughs Buck does at 1:15 into the song kills me. Freddie Green’s on this one as well playing rhythm.

Charlie’s Dream

I recently put one of my C.C.esque Pickups in the neck position of Tommy’s Dan Dunham guitar. He just sent me this video of some really tasteful playing full of great ideas. Enjoy!

Got a note from Pat this week along with this clip, letting me know that he’s getting great results with my pickups in the “out of phase” position. Its been a few months since we modified his Tele. Glad to hear it’s working out:

“Hi Tk,

How are you? The pictures you’ve been posting of your necks on Instagram look amazing! I thought I’d send you this little clip, I’ve been using the “out of phase” setting a lot, its been great on the RnB stuff. I’ve been over the moon with the guitar lately, its really settled in feeling and sounding great! We posted one of the new cds over to you to TK, hope you dig it. Hope your well

Pat”

“Hey Pat

Damn! Great playing. The guitar sounds great too. What amp and kind/gauge strings are you using? I’m really glad your digging it.

TK”

“Hi Tk,

Thanks for the kind words, its really feeling/sounding great! super stoked!
I just had it plugged straight into a 59 Bassman Reissue, and I’ve been using D’addario 10-50 flatwounds, but with a unwound/nickel G, same string set up as Dans using
Hope your well,

Pat