Gibson pickups.

[neatomic]

brad shepik played a gretsch for years (until fairly recently)...most of his prime recorded output

a tennessean with hi-lo's

cheers

[John A.]

Just out of interest - I never really saw the appeal of Gretsches seeing them as toy sparkly guitars for singers/rhythm guitarists with elaborate hair.

But maybe I am prejudiced.

Who are the serious players who do the jazz thang on a Gretsch?

Freddie Green
George Van Eps
Chet Atkins (some of what he did qualifies as jazz)
Sal Salvador
Cal Collins
Hank Garland (at least there are pictures of him holding one)

I imagine a lot of the Nashvile and Western Swing guys in the 50s and 60s played them on their jazz gigs.

I think Lenny Breau played one for a while.

I studied briefly with a guy named Alan DeMaus (not a well known name anymore, but he wrote a bunch of books and was known in NYC back in the day, or whatever they call the 80s). He was a Van Eps disciple and he played a Gretsch 7-String.

John

[GNAPPI]

I thought you'd like to know your italian a bit better.

Nah, my parents left the language way behind leaving only recipes for me. And it's "Italian" NOT "italian".

I thought you might like to know... or just go ahead and ignore your spelling checker. :-)

[christianm77]

Freddie Green
George Van Eps
Chet Atkins (some of what he did qualifies as jazz)
Sal Salvador
Cal Collins
Hank Garland (at least there are pictures of him holding one)

I imagine a lot of the Nashvile and Western Swing guys in the 50s and 60s played them on their jazz gigs.

I think Lenny Breau played one for a while.

I studied briefly with a guy named Alan DeMaus (not a well known name anymore, but he wrote a bunch of books and was known in NYC back in the day, or whatever they call the 80s). He was a Van Eps disciple and he played a Gretsch 7-String.

That's not exactly a Duo-Jet or a White Falcon though is it?

Did Gretsch make any decent acoustic archies back in the day?

[Doctor Jeff]

They didn't popularize it any more than Leo Fender did- that is, if we are talking about the so-called "perfected" PAF. PAF was 1955. The Broadcaster was 1950.

(of course gibson had the CC and P90 before then, but that was not their so-called "perfected" pickup, which I'm assuming references the hum-cancelling "humbucker", or Seth Lover PAF. Gibson certainly did alot of work popularizing the ELECTRIC guitar way before Fender made his 1st Broadcaster.)

My understanding of the evolution of electric guitars was that Gibson was not the biggest or most celebrated maker of pickups prior to 1950; my guess is that would be DeArmond. I don't even know if they were the biggest seller of electrified guitars during that time period. They only sold a couple hundred ES-150's in the late 30's, and then business slumped during the war years. They didn't introduce the P90 until 1946.

I can't find production numbers, but I don't how popular Gibson electric models were prior to the Les Paul.

When Leo started selling the Esquire and Broadcaster, Gibson got serious about their electric guitar business and began working with Les Paul on what would become the Les Paul, and in 1955 Seth Lover came up with the humbucking pickup. My argument is that that's when the Gibson legend was born.

(Random fun fact: Seth Lover was instrumental--pun intended--in the design of the Flying V, as he wanted a guitar that one could lean against the wall without a stand.)

[silverfoxx]

or what its worth, I am with you. I love Gibson pickups. I never felt the need to change a pickup because I don't need any better. That's not saying some of the derivatives haven't improved on the design. Maybe they have. But I for one will never know.

Joe D[/QUOTE]


Joe my friend, we are of one accord on this, & likewise, I have never changed a pickup on a
Gibson or any other make. Quite simply if I don't like the pickup(s) I don't buy the guitar.
As Rob MacKillop has already said we pay a very large premium on Guitars here, and shrink
from extra expense unnecessarily.

Cheers, 007

[John A.]

That's not exactly a Duo-Jet or a White Falcon though is it?

Did Gretsch make any decent acoustic archies back in the day?

Yes, they did, lots of 'em.

John

[ruger9]

That's very nice. What model is he playing?

No clue, it's not a model Gretsch ever reissued. But the pickup looks like a HiLoTron.... hard to be sure...

[ruger9]

Freddie Green
George Van Eps
Chet Atkins (some of what he did qualifies as jazz)
Sal Salvador
Cal Collins
Hank Garland (at least there are pictures of him holding one)

I imagine a lot of the Nashvile and Western Swing guys in the 50s and 60s played them on their jazz gigs.

I think Lenny Breau played one for a while.

I studied briefly with a guy named Alan DeMaus (not a well known name anymore, but he wrote a bunch of books and was known in NYC back in the day, or whatever they call the 80s). He was a Van Eps disciple and he played a Gretsch 7-String.

John

Sal Salvador!!! I couldn't remember his name.....

Freddie Green? Really? Never knew that.

[ThatRhythmMan]

Joe my friend, we are of one accord on this, & likewise, I have never changed a pickup on a
Gibson or any other make. Quite simply if I don't like the pickup(s) I don't buy the guitar.
As Rob MacKillop has already said we pay a very large premium on Guitars here, and shrink
from extra expense unnecessarily.

Cheers, 007

Even though I think changing pickups in a really good guitar is rarely necessary, I have to disagree with never buying a guitar because of not liking the pickups. In the case of the Tal I mentioned above, it was easy to tell that it was a great guitar, but that it also had a pickup in the neck position that simply wasn't bringing out its best.

All it took to bring the guitar to life was choosing the right pickup. $2500 for the guitar and another $90 for the MHS. Less than $2600 for a guitar I prefer over any and all CES versions of the L5 I've ever played and it hardly has a scratch on it.

[ruger9]

That's not exactly a Duo-Jet or a White Falcon though is it?

Did Gretsch make any decent acoustic archies back in the day?

1953 Gretsch Syncromatic

1953 Gretsch Syncromatic Guitar DeArmond Rhythm Chief Pickup

[ruger9]

Sal Salvador, appears to be a Dynasonic/Dearmond pickup.

[neatomic]

apparently django liked the gretsch...with his friend harry volpe, who was killer player and guitar educator & had long affiliation with gretsch



cheers

[ruger9]

re: Freddie Green:

Gretsch Eldorado
Following the death of Charles and Elmer Stromberg in 1954, Freddie apparently became nervous about the elevated value of his Stromberg and was reluctant to expose it to the rigors of travel. As a result, he signed an endorsement agreement with Gretsch in October 1958 and began using their Eldorado model as his touring instrument. It's even possible that he began using the Eldorado a few years prior. But from then on - nearly 30 years - Green's trademark instrument became the natural (blonde) Gretsch.
The Eldorado's was a well-appointed, 18-inch wide, acoustic archtop guitar. It featured maple back and sides, double bound f-holes, rounded black pickguard, stairstep bridge, "G" tailpiece, gold plated parts, 5-piece neck of maple and rosewood, ebony fingerboard with humptop block inlays, available in sunburst or blond.
Ralph Patt Recalls:

"Gretsch Guitars built a guitar for him that he used at least well into the late 60s. I never saw Freddie live after 1969."
"Barry (Galbraith) and I went together to Birdland and the guitar sounded, frankly, terrible. About a year later the guitar sounded pretty good and two years later sounded pretty much like the old Stromberg."
"I think this makes a strong point that new guitars need to be broken in and that most good acoustic guitars can take on the characteristics of the player. I know that is debated by musicians especially string players."

The Eldorado was available by custom-order only between 1955 and 1970 and replaced the Synchromatic 400 model from previous years. According to their Web site Gretsch now offers a Synchromatic 400 reissue.

[christianm77]

Gretsch people are even madder than Gibson people it seems....

[ruger9]

Gretsch people are even madder than Gibson people it seems....

You. Have. No. Idea.

[rabbit]

'Aha!' moment:

I have only "almost" owned a Gretsch archtop.

Now I know what went wrong with my life.

[rpjazzguitar]

Every jazz player I loved when I was young played Gibson guitars with Gibson pickups.

Is it a surprise that I still love those sounds? Or that I still associate Gibson with elite playing?

In a way, it may have a lot to do with the effectiveness of Gibson in getting guitars into the hands of jazz players. And, that may have a lot to do with the fact that Charlie Christian played a Gibson.

Even when they changed from single coil to HB, players stayed with them.

I have no idea if I'd pick a Gibson pickup over, say, a Guild, or something else in a blind test.

[medblues]

Haha, Vinny is cool so I can throw a spark not a flame if I may. My usual two words: "blind testing" Some skeptics out there would say: there are no great pickups out there, only the bad ones are detectable.

[silverfoxx]

Billy Bean anyone ?

[skykomishone]

I love my Gibson pickups on my Gibson guitars. The P90's, Humbuckers, etc. But, I also love my Schaller's, Lollar's, KA's, etc. on my other guitars. Vinny's post is kind of like saying he love's blonds better than red heads or Brunets. Apples to Oranges. They're different, like the guitars (D'Aquisto, Epiphone, Trenier, Andersen, etc.) are different. We're lucky to have the options we have today, and Gibson definitely has led the way here. But I wouldn't agree that they have a monopoly on great pickups, or great guitars. My 2 cents. There are only so many ways that electrons can flow, or that archtops are built. Gibson didn't invent electricity or magnets, or wood and glue.

[entresz]

Gibson made my two favourite pickups; the Charlie Christian and the Les Paul Low Impedance stacked humbucker.

That being said I don't like the sound of typical humbuckers. I find them muddy. If I dial out the mud they get harsh, dial out the harshness, I'm back to mud. That being said, I have heard countless players get absolutely sublime sounds from PAF style pickups. It might even be that they play differently to me.

The best 'regular' humbuckers I have used are Bill Lawrence L-90s - they're a twin blade pickup. Fat sounding like a PAF style, but with an extended top end. The only thing about them that I don't like is that they look different to a PAF pickup. I don't think they'd look good in an L-5 for example.

I also liked the Gibson "Super humbucker" as fitted to the L6-S. Low resistance pickup, usually about 6k, but with strong ceramic magnets. Very punchy and clear sounding - again designed by Bill Lawrence.

My preference is for single coils, the Low Impedance Les Paul pickups sounds nothing like a regular humbucker, tonally they're more like big single coils, but with very clear/round lows and sweeter highs. I would love to have an archtop with one of these fitted, but finding these pickups for sale is next to impossible and they're very expensive.

[blkjazz]

I have replaced one Gibson pickup......with another Gibson pickup. The stock pup in my 2003 wine red Tal just never sounded quite right. I replaced it with the MHS. I'm much happier. It sounds right to my ear now.

My ES 275 arrived with MHS pickups and I love them. I've never felt a need to replace the pickups on any Gibson guitar I liked enough to buy in the first place.

[neatomic]

Billy Bean anyone ?

yes please...



cheers

[helios]

Although it's been pointed out that the Guild HB1 is modeled after a Gibson HB design, it has a contrasting sound to my ears:

Blistering HB1 solo starts @ 1.52 min: