My Latest Experiment

[Elias Graves]

I came across a smokin deal on a 5th Avenue a year or so ago, so I snapped it up. $400 with case. Not bad.
My original intent was to try to make a true "acoustic/electric" out of and I mounted an import Kent Armstrong floater on it. Didn't care much for the Armstrong, however. I found it boomy, muddy and generally uninspiring, so I took it off. Further, it didn't work well with acoustic strings.
Went back to playing it strictly acoustic but it always lost out to my old spruce top Silvertone for playing time.
I very nearly sold the thing a couple of times, then I had the good fortune of picking up an old Valencia branded Harmony that someone had attempted to mate up with a 60s Teisco gold foil pickup. Their project had been abandoned before completion, however, so I picked up the whole rig for cheap. I yanked the gold foil off of there and decided to test it out on my 5th Avenue. Not wanting to make permanent modifications yet, I opted for a temporary hookup for testing. This is what I came up with. A spacer and mount made from cardboard and tape with controls mounted offboard and a simple wire wrap around the strings for a ground.




Results:
The pickup works and the guitar sounds very much like a Kingpin. The pickup is fairly similar to a P90 in construction so, not surprisingly, sounds a lot like an early variant of that pickup. It's fairly soft sounding...definitely more of an early 50s ES125 sound as opposed to a modern high output P90. The biggest difference is that the pronounced mid "honk" so often associated with P90s is very subdued here. It's pretty well balanced.
Now, I notice these Teisco gold foils can bring as much as $100. Now that I've heard one, I wouldn't give that much for one, but it is a good sounding pickup. It likes to sit very close to the strings and seems to sound best when placed about an inch away from the end of the fingerboard. It starts getting kinda boomy if I go further towrd the nut. Hum is acceptable. No worse than your average telecaster to my ears. By the time I find really loud hum, I'm into feedback country, so it shouldn't be a problem.
Loaded up with some plain Ernie Ball 10s for testing, the Godin is definitely my best player now. I give the neck, nut, frets and fingerboard a slight nod over my Gibson Jr. I'm sure I'll mess around with different strings, but the Slinkies aren't bad. The guitar will do some twang when picked up by the bridge and the rhythm sounds strummed over the fingerboard end are more than acceptable. I gotta say the Godin makes a better electric than acoustic.
I'll leave my monkey install as is for a few weeks til I get a new pickguard cut for it, but I imagine this guitar will saty electric. Whether this pickup stays or goes is yet to be decided. I'm sure it'll stay for a while unless I come across a good deal on a dogear or Dynasonic maybe.
I have been without semi/hollow guitars for a bit now and I'm glad to have one again. Nothing else gives that huge open WOOF that a hollowbady does. I love that sound, man! A solidbody just can't get there for me.
All in all, a fun little project.

EG

[Elias Graves]

Next step is to cut that nice cherry board into a pickuard and hook the pots up to it. The jack will go back to the endpin position and I'll hook the string ground to the inside of the tailpiece mount. Should look pretty "factory" when complete.

EG

[robertm2000]

Interesting project, and a bit of an eyeopener as to what works. Years ago I had a Harmony Bobkat guitar with those same pickups on it. Got rid of them and put a Gibson Melody Maker pickup on it and it sounded like a full bore hollowbody. If I knew the goldfoils were usable I'd have hung onto them. Live and learn.

[Elias Graves]

This pickup, I'm told, came from a Bobkat. Didn't think much of it til I learned a 60s gold foil can bring as much as $100. I needed to hear why and this seemed like a good fit.
The pickup is good, but there's no way I'd pay $100 for one. It's just another single coil as far as my hearing goes. The heavens did not open up with a choir of angels when I plugged it in.
Anyway, I'll do a more professional install now and leave it for a while but I'm not going to go so far as to say it's the greatest thing ever.
It's good, but not great.
Heck, these were the GFS pickups of their day. A cheap alternative to a real DeArmond gold foil.

EG

[Elias Graves]

Holy moly, this is fun! This should keep me busy for a while!

EG

[tch]

I'm a big fan of this kind of thing. The simplicity of the electric guitar allows
for a certain "whimsical Frankensteinism".

The area under my strat pickguard looks strip-mined.

Good luck.

[Elias Graves]

I'm really having fun with this thing. The Godin was always an easy player, but the acoustic sound is average at best. With very good, heavy acoustic strings, it does OK, but that's about as far as I'd go with praise.
As an electric, however, it really comes into its own.
The sound is absolutely huge compared to my solidbodies and there's just nothing that compares to a big ole hollow for tone.
I've begun fabricating a pickguard for it. I'll mount my volume and tone pot there. I installed an endpin jack already, so that's done. Getting a nice gloss black finish on the new guard will be the longest part, just waiting for lacquer to dry and such.
This thing is equally at home with some good jazz tones as it is a caveman blues machine.
I haven't tested it at volume yet, so I don't know how it will feed back. I'm hoping not too bad. If so, I know some tricks.

EG

[tch]

As a newly minted Kingpin owner, (new to hollowbodies) I'm curious to see where this goes. As a fan of "caveman blues", I so want to crank this thing.

Your future postings regarding any feedback/volume issues will be read avidly.