Friday, September 2, 2011
Chet Atkins SST noise issues
I believe we have reached the limit of Gibson guitars electronic ability. What I mean is that attrition is now finally hitting the owners of some of their instruments. Namely the Chet Atkins line. I've detail in this blog about the pitfalls of the Chet Atkins CE and now I can add the Chet Atkins SST to the list. The problems are similar. The PC board mounts are non-existent, the wire and wiring jobs are poorly done, the ergonomics of the electronics are thrown together and not engineered for spacial regards.
The Chet Atkins model guitar are really nice but they use the same electronic cavity as found on most of the Gibson Les Paul's and if you look - most of the line. Oh, gosh it saves tons of money and a lot of production time but further down the road the instruments end up in the shop for repair.
These are simple before and after pictures of my latest repair. The shielding was poorly applied and had unprotected regions where the technician failed to complete the job. Really, the work obviously looked rushed.
This is what is under the foam:
You can see the area where shielding has been "spared." To the left of the battery, the perimeter, etc...
This was Gibson's attempt at a shield earth ground:
Here is the naked cavity upon my application of shielding material:
Now, this is what I've done. Hard mounted the PC board while using neoprene insulation. Solder connections fixed, slag removed, cavity shielded properly.
Previous guitars - Gibson Chet Atkins CE - Before!
Gibson Chet Atkins CE: - AFTER!
Finished product - Spankin results - Nice shield layer - - No ghost squeals, crazy noise, tube busting crackling or frustration. Nothing but tone now. However, I couldn't mount the battery with a hard fastener because there isn't enough wood to work with and screws come dangerously close to pulling through - even the shortest of lengths - BEWARE of this when mounting brackets or PC boards in this unit - Especially the SST. The Chet Atkins CE had more material to work with in terms of thickness.
6 comments:
Hi,
do you have an image where the PCB bottom side (Gibson Chet Atkins CE) is clearly/totally visible? (Gibson ChetAtkins_shielding_015)
Thanks
Marco
Hello,
Do you have the preamp schematic or pcb layout? I have a CEC (passive model) that I wish to upgrade to an active circuit. Many thanks.
Unfortunately, I do not have that information or the instrument. During that time, I had zero luck trying to obtain parts or information. Today, if faced with the same problem, I'd use non Gibson proprietary products. I think Gibson is changing for the better but this fine instrument suffers due to lack of information and parts. Thanks!
hello gibson chet atkins white is on sale?
None of the guitar pictured in this post are for sale by me. I only repaired them as they are customer owned instruments.
I have a CA SST that I bought in '87 (serial# 005) and the pickup eventually began to fail. I agree the electronics were pretty slapdash. It had a printed circuit Kapton tape (hi-temp resistant plastic) ribbon cable connecting the pickup to the PC board which had become delaminated. The problem seemed to be in the pickup itself, though...it had a bare ground wire daisy-chain soldered to each piezo "brick" and several of those had come apart. I concluded that this was poor design, and so I finally got a nice Godin nylon-string to replace it.
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