My second set of Magna-Sonic pickups went to Gerard Egan. I work with Gerard at Santa Cruz Guitar Company and he and his wife Carolyn play western swing and honky-tonk with their band The Carolyn Sills Combo. Check them out, Gerard is one heck of a player.

Gerard brought me his Tele, which had Lollar Charlie Christian pickups and a custom pickguard and armrest by T.K. Smith. Here’s a photo of what his guitar looked like when I got it.

In order to install the Magna-Sonics, I needed to hot rod it a bit. I chopped down the Bigsby B16 tailpiece and routed the body and pickguard to accommodate my pickups. Lastly, I finished it off by shaping the pickguard to echo the outline of the bridge pickup’s mounting ring.

Here’s a photo of the finished guitar. Gerard was thrilled with how it turned out and I have to agree, it does look sharp.