Pickup Swap on a Brubaker B-2 Doublecut Guitar

It was a real pleasure and a treat to have a Brubaker custom guitar pass through the shop. These legendary, highly customized guitars are made of the finest quality parts and woods by hand, often using special tools designed by founder Kevin Brubaker himself.

This particular specimen needed the bridge pickup reverted back to the stock original hand-wound Brubaker pickup it shipped with from the factory. I particularly liked the all wood pickup cavity cover and the single, over-sized slotted screw to remove it (big enough to accommodate a coin if you were at a gig and in a pinch). Beautiful, functional design.

The real fun, however, was getting to play it after the installation! The maple neck has a gunstock oil, satin finish that provided a fast feel and fret work that is simply stunning! One the best fret jobs I have ever seen, without a doubt.

The deep cherry-red Spanish cedar body has a snappy, bright tone that just screamed "Tele" to me... and those Tele tones really leapt out of the guitar in the bridge position. The middle and neck produced fantastic Strat-like tones, despite all three pickups being single-coil sized humbuckers (think Duncan Hot Rails).

It was hard to put the B-2 down once I started playing it, but eventually it had to go back into the case and back to the owner. I think I can definitely see a Brubaker in my collection in the near future. :)