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I’m considering ordering a custom Eastman El Rey ER2 from Jeff Hale with a single pickup. (The wait is four to five months, by the way, but that’s okay…it will give me a chance to get some coins together.) I like the maple body with the Golden Age finish and I have decided on a single pickup at the neck. I’m hoping maple on the back and sides will live up to its reputation of strong low-end response and clarity in the top end. That and appearance are my reasons for going with the ER2 over the mahogany ER1, even though I have to special order to get it with the single pickup.
I notice in Jeff’s videos of custom orders, he often substitutes Seth Lover pickups rather than stock Keith Armstrongs or an Armstrong product from either the USA or Korean plants. I plan to give him a call and ask him why he made that choice, but before I do, I wanted to get some input from forum members.
Are you Eastman owners satisfied, for the most part, with the stock pickup? If you have a Seth Lover pickup on an Eastman, why did you go that route and what is your advice now? Other suggestions?
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09-01-2012 08:23 PM
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By coincidence, I happen to own a Jeff Hale Custom El Rey with one Seth Lover pickup. In fact, mine is actually the 8th one down on his El Rey page ("J Hale Custom Shop ERCustom, Custom Tea Burst Nitro Finish, Seth Lover Pickup").
Originally Posted by Dpardoe
It's simply a gorgeous guitar and plays and sounds superb. I haven't been in a situation at this point to "crank" it really loud with a clean tone (I only use it for more mainstream jazz tones, i.e. no rock distortion), but there appears to be no indication that feedback will ever be much to worry about like with some other archtops I own. And it definitely has an archtop-type sound, much more acoustic in nature than, say, my 335.
Tonally, well... I have too many guitars (I also own an Eastman 880 Pisano which is phenomenal, with a KA pup which also happens to sound great; it's a terrific overall combination of everything inc. the pickup, one that I would never consider swapping out), so it's pretty easy for me to say that they all sound a bit different—Viva la difference, right? But I happen to really like the sound of the Lover pickup on the El Rey; the description of what you're expecting tonally sounds about right in my experience, if that helps. BTW, my guitar also has a coil-split on the tone control, and there are times when I actually enjoy that tone a bit more (and it's very, very quiet), so I'd advise adding that option to the design (as long as you're still designing). The standard disclaimer would be YMMV here, but... it's still a great-sounding pickup.
And, for the record, my experience working with Jeff was nothing less than excellent, as well. Best of luck with your guitar when it arrives.
Last edited by ooglybong; 09-02-2012 at 03:07 PM.
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Great! Thanks for that. Yes, Jeff is a real gentleman and it is useful getting the feedback on the Seth Lover.
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I once had a Seth Lover in a solid body Heritage and it sounded good. I also know that Steve Holst usually uses the Seth Lover as his mounted pick-up in laminate guitars, so that's a pretty good endorsement (I went with a different pick-up in my Holst, but not because I dislike the Seth Lover)
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The Seth Lover set is the best stock p'up set for semi- and full- hollow guitars.
You can spend a lot more with other p'ups, but what you'll get won't be not necessarily "better".
HTH,
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My Heritage H575 (full hollow) has a pair of Seth's in it. I hae no inclination to change them out.
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Having owned the previously mentioned Pisano 880 with the excellent KA set pup, and a pair of SH-55 SD SL's that replaced stock pups in a Washburn J6S, I'm a big fan of the Seth Lover's.
My swap came by way of a recommendation by a local luthier when I had been leaning towards replacing the stock pups with a pair of Classic 57's. I was more than satisfied how the SL's poured previously unheard of life into a previously ordinary archtop guitar. The guitar became extraordinary with Seth Lovers installed.
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Also: the G&L ASAT Bluesboy has a Seth Lover in the neck position and it's gotten love here for as a jazzy-sounding T-style guitar.
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Steve Holst just talked me into a Seth Lover for my new guitar, so I hope it's a good pickup. He says they sound good in his guitars.
Unfortunately, you can't really know. Even if a pickup sounds great in somebody else's guitar, it might not sound the same in yours. All you can really go by are recommendations and hope -- and you can take some comfort in the fact that a pickup is an easy thing to replace if necessary.
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Another Seth Lover fan here. I dig 'em.
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I'm a big fan of Seth Lover, too. My Jeff Hale El Rey3 Custom has a Seth Lover and sounds great.
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Seth Lovers are very good pickups, but not in every guitar.
I put a Seth Lover to my Ibanez PM35 and the result was disastrous. The new pickup accentuated the inherent weaknesses of the guitar (thin and colourless). Seth Lover basically reproduced the acoustic sound of the guitar with lot of fidelity (every nuance, every strike of the pickup could be heard), whereas the original pickup (Ibanez Super 58) was "embellishing", adding a little bit of more "balls" to the tone with a little less fidelity (sort of as the Gibson 57 does).
But this was a problem of the guitar, not of the pickup. So from my experience, Seth Lovers are great, very dynamic, just don't put them on cheap guitars hoping it will improve the sound. It won't - the pickup will just reproduce their shitty sound and make the guitar sound even worse.
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That is exactly my experience with the SL's. I was very happy to hear that, plugged in, the 575 I have sounded more or less like an amplified acoustic tone. Originally Posted by tomassplatch
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The Seth Lover set is definately NOT for the sloppy player, as it'll track and reproduce every single nuance of your playing, good AND bad, and mix it with the sound of your guitar's wood, as it was stated earlier.
However, this set can gracefully take magnet swaps, and you can fine-tune a certain guitar to a certain rig if stock didn't fill your needs.
A4/A4, A3/UOA5 and OUA5/UOA5 are very valid mag combos for jazz playing with this set.
HTH,
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Thanks guys for the advice. I ordered the El Rey ER2 today with the Seth Lover.
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That is EXACTLY what I love about it. It won't lie to you. haha. Originally Posted by LtKojak
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I have a set of Seth Lovers in my Hamer Artist Custom, and they sound really great in that guitar, for jazz with the neck PU but also for blues of rock.
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