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I'll second that... to my ear, it's by far the best jazz pickup I've ever had. Pete even ships them with 2 sets of swap-able magnets so you can fine tune your tone.
Originally Posted by Jazzman301
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06-25-2012 01:21 AM
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Capt. Kurk, Jeff Hale can whip up one for you and send it to Canada: . It is a 2-point mount Jason Lollar Charlie Christian.
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My Gibson L-48? I installed a CC by Lollar.
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Could anyone tell me whether the internal structure of a Godin 5th Avenue is strong enough to accommodate installation of a CC pick-up?
Would the bracing need to be cut?
Thanks in advance!
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Hey DeeTee,
Vintage Vibe can make a CC pickup housed in a P90 cover.
They can make floating pickups too.
There should be just a couple of holes on the 5th avenue top. They're for cable and fixing screws.
I believe there are rubber grommets in the Godin P90 to reduce rattles and buzzes.
But hey, why not a humbucker sized CC pickup for your Tele? You will thank me for that suggestion if you go for that.
Search VV pickups here, there's a lot of love for them around here.
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Brilliant - thanks for the advice, jazzbow!
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Lollar also makes one that fits the dog ear mounting.
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+1 on the Vintage Vibe Charlie Christian from Pete Biltoff. Getting a floater for my next build.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Another thumbs up for the VVCC pickups...a can't miss purchase, imho.
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DeeTee, the VV pickups can swap out the magnets! I settled for AlNiCo 2.
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Does that mean less hum? Originally Posted by jazzbow
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No mate, to me the AlNiCo 2's just sounds softer and more rounded. Originally Posted by destinytot
A pickup like this will hum so in some environments rolling the volume off between songs helps.
I got AlNiCo 2's and 5's and it was quite apparent how different the values were. The 5's were definitely brighter.
DeeTee, if you love the feel of the 5th avenue and you want to try out the CC pickup I would dive in, feet first, no question.
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Just so you guys know that Peter Biltoft offers the CC Rider as a floater and humbucking as well.
Pete Biltoft is not only a great pickup maker but a easy guy to work with and extremely fair in price!
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I've an unused spare in gold if anyone needs one. The VVCC was purchased to go into a specific guitar that sold prior to any installation. Originally Posted by jads57
Just so you guys know that Peter Biltoft offers the CC Rider as a floater and humbucking as well. Pete Biltoft is not only a great pickup maker but a easy guy to work with and extremely fair in price!
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Is that a side tab or end of fingerboard mounted floater?
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Full sized humbucker install version
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TooBee, what's the blade radii?
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I don't know how accurate this is - the VV website says per spec: blade polepiece with ~ 11” radius
Send Pete an email for specific details on building a pickup
Vintage Vibe Guitar Pickups: Single Coil Pickups
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The very cool thing is peter Biltoft custom made me a CC floating hb pickup the exact size dimensions of my Kent Armstrong floating. And at $175, not some astronomical inflated price. And it sounds GREAT!
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Hey Archtop Gurus!
I'm currently facing a little conundrum with routing my '41 L7 for a Lollar CC (Charlie Christian) pickup, hope one of you guys who's more knowledgeable than me might have some input... First off, some background on the situation:
The guitar is very clean, non cutaway, I believe I'm actually only the second owner and have the original case and bill of sale. If anyone is wondering, the guitar originally sold for ~$120 in 1941... I wish I paid anything close!
The guitar currently is equipped with a handwound Kent Armstrong floater attached to the neck, a la johnny smith. It is one of the only quality floaters that will fit the relatively low (~0.5") clearance between top and strings.
I also purchased a repro McCarty pickguard unit from Lollar that looks and I'm sure would sound great, however said clearance was just a bit too short to fit it without a pretty severe neck reset. I don't want to do this because the guitar has a very healthy neck angle, has never had a reset, and the action is great with lots of room to come down. My (credible) local guitar repair shop says I'm probably good for at least 20 years. Thus, I'm saving the pickup for some other guitar (that I can't afford of course) far down the road...
At the end of the day, I don't like floating pickups. Jazz guitar is what I do for a living, and when I'm playing a loud club with a quintet or organ trio... They just don't hang! I don't own guitars as a collector, or just to play around the house, I really need them to work for me nightly as the tools of my trade.
So... Long story short, I'm set on routing the guitar. I'm not going to sell it, and it's of very limited use to me right now as is. It isn't a 400 or L5, and the L7 has historically been the "working man's" carved archtop. Of course, it's gotta be a 3 bolt Charlie Christian pickup to be period correct! If I routed it for a humbucker I could never see a time I would choose to play it over my #1 Benedetto Americana.
My question to you is, does anyone here know how Gibson used to retrofit parallel-braced guitars for a 3 bolt Charlie Christian? Did they just cut the brace, or did they actually take the guitar apart and move them? If cut, did they add a transverse brace to reinforce the top and prevent sinkage?
I am 99% sure there is not enough clearance between braces to install the pickup in the correct spot... I also know that this didn't seem to be a problem in the 40s-60s when you could send your L7/L5/400 back to Gibson and have them install a Charlie Christian pickup. Do any of you have such a retrofitted guitar? If so, have you examined how the bracing was altered to fit the pickup? Is there any evidence of top sinkage?
Any insight, other than don't rout the guitar, is greatly appreciated! I'm trying to make a "poor man's" ES-250 over here guys!Last edited by Bromando; 11-09-2017 at 04:28 AM.
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Hey Bromando, Originally Posted by Bromando
Daniel Slaman, the CC archtop builder pope, did the same type of job for me on a 1937 L50 Black Special #4 series. He just cut the parallel braces to install the 3 bolt CC PU, an exact copy of the original mic' done by CC PU UK.
Daniel explained me there is no necessity to reinforce the top once the braces are cut, because Gibson used to do thick carved top in the area where the CC PU needs to be added.
So far so good with this guitar. You can hear it on my YouTube page.
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John Moriarty of archtop.ie | John Moriarty Guitars | Dublin | Ireland shows how it is done on a modern Loar-branded archtop. The tone-bars/braces will be cut in the routing process and may require reinforcement.
Take it to an experienced luthier who won't ruin your L7.
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You have to decide what to do, its your guitar.
These threads may give inspiration:
I bought a cracked L50 to place a CC pickup, I had no problem cutting it because the back and front were already damaged from original by prior repair work. 1937 ES-150 Tribute Guitar
I also bought a cracked L7 to place a CC pickup but could not bring myself to cut it. After reparing the crack, I reguard it as one of my finest guitars. The top is the part that makes it the same as an L5 and I don't know what is 'poor man' about an L5 top.
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My 1940 L7 has 9/16" clearance, plenty of room for a dearmond ... but I know that you are going to do what you are going to do.
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This post is very timely, as I have been following a post on a luthier forum I frequent by someone lovingly fixing an old 1940's vintage carved archtop someone had destroyed by cutting a pickup rout through the bracing. Predictably, within a few short years the top had collapsed and the guitar had been relegated to the trash heap. Most of the other luthiers said it wasn't worth saving. Just another bone headed mod that destroyed a vintage guitar. This luthier, none the less, rescued the guitar. The fix was worth more in time and effort than the guitar.
In fact, there had been an earlier thread where luthiers had posted a whole series of "mods" and "repairs" that had all but destroyed guitars leaving one wondering what the heck people were thinking. There were several where people had cut through the bracing destroying a guitar.
Despite what has earlier been posted, the braces are there for a reason. The top is resisting 145-185lbs of force wanting to crumple it head to tail and 35lbs crushing it downward. Imagine taking that top and placing it edgewise on a table. Then attach a stirrup to the top and stand in it. That is the force the braces support against. They are not cosmetic. Also, Gibson did not "leave a carve thick" in that area. SOME, and I have to stress SOME, guitars were not carved on the underside at all to accommodate the CC pickup. I will leave it to Gibson historians to tell us which. Also, yes some Gibsons were modified after the fact cutting through the braces. They generally failed and were returned to Gibson. That is why they stopped doing that. X-bracing on an archtop is WAY more difficult to do that parallel braces. But it was done to accommodate a pickup without cutting through them. It is vintage correct if you want to immerse yourself in ancient Chinese culture to drink mercury to live longer, but that doesn't make it right.
Of course that all begs the question of WHY? A vintage L-7 doesn't suit your playing? OK, there are PLENTY of guitars out there that do. Why would you try to force a round peg into a square hole? An L-7 is an acoustic guitar. If you want to gig with an organist, that is what Gibson invented the Es-175 for. You can easily sell that L-7 and pick up a brand new ES-175 from the big CME blowout and come out roughly even. You say you are not a collector, rather a "working musician", then why are you gigging with a vintage instrument that isn't even designed for what you want?
It is a little like having a 1951 VW "Samba" and saying that it doesn't suit you because it isn't an F150 and you are a working rancher. So rather than sell it to someone who loves these things, you are going to take a sawzall to it and try to turn it into a pickup. The rationale is that these are not highly prized by the wider auto world, so why not? "Why not" is because these are unique and quirky vehicles that a small group of people really love. "Why not" is because there are relatively few of these left, and they are a connection with a time that matters to some. "Why not" is because no matter what you do you are not going to do, you are never going to turn a VW "Samba" into a ranch vehicle. It wasn't designed for that. You will destroy the Samba, and in the end you will get a second hand F150. Why don't you just get the F150 now and spare the Samba.
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