1996 Ashbory pickup rebuild letter

Contributed by Brock Frazier

The following is a letter I received with my pickup in 1996 when I had Alun Ashworth-Jones rebuild it. It took me a while to track down a Guild Ashbory bass and after I bought it I discovered the pickup was bad. This was when there wasn't nearly as much musical information online as there is now. After calling Fender (who had then recently purchaced Guild) and getting no help, I turned to the net and ran into Jair-Rohm Wells who I emailed. He told me about the Bass Centre in London and I telephoned them, and they gave me the phone number for Ashworth Electronics. I spoke to Alun himself, he seemed interested in my interest in the Ashbory, and agreed to rebuild my pickup. I sent it to England with the original Guild instruction sheets which he signed for me as well. It is always nice to see people stand behind their work even when they don't have to.

Below is a picture of the letter and a copy of the text.
 

27/12/96         Dear Brock, Here it is at last -- Sorry it took so long. It was harder than I anticipated to get everything together & remember how to do something for the first time in nearly 10 years! Anyway, this one is actually superior to the original transducers, as the elements we use now are more advanced. They also cost more, so if you know anyone else who needs a new bridge we would really need to charge twice as much to make it economically viable. Hope you will be able to enjoy using the Ashbory now. Please call me is you have any problem refitting. Best Wishes Alun

(click for a much larger view)