View Poll Results: Best Johnny Smith style pickup?
- Voters
- 66. You may not vote on this poll
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Seymour Duncan
3 4.55% -
Jason Lollar
24 36.36% -
Kent Armstrong
36 54.55% -
Curtis Novak
0 0% -
Lindy Fralin
3 4.55%
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I did not know that the GB10 pickups were closer to the Johnny Smith construction then to the typical mini humbucker. If I remember correctly from the article written by Jason Lollar about those pickups, the Johnny Smith is actually a single coil which has an extended steel base plate with its own slugs, making it a humbucker but without a second coil actually being wound. One set of slugs/screws is north and the other is south. That's really quite ingenious and might explain the unique tonality of that pickup.
My GB10 has been one of my favorite guitars for the 34 years I've owned it. My guitar teacher in college had a Johnny Smith so in many ways that has been the reference standard for jazz guitar tone for me for 40 years.
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03-08-2021 10:51 PM
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The Johnny Smith has two coils, but only one of them is wound around a magnet. The other coil is wound around steel pole pieces.
Originally Posted by Cunamara
Humbuckers and Mini-Humbuckers
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In 1967-78 I used an L-5C with a single Johnny Smith pickup to play locally. I sold all of my gear in 1982. But then in April last year I gave into the itch and found a 1952 L-5C that I liked and bought it.
Looking back @ posts #45, 47, 48 and 49 are interesting. The demo in #45, that I saw on another forum, convinced me to get a Pete Biltoft replica CC pickup for my L-5C. I agree, Pete’s customer service is really good!
I bought it in Sept. and had it installed in mid Dec. I do not own an amp….yet. But my son brought his over so I could see if the installed pickup worked, etc. and it did.
My current quest is to find an older Gibson or Ampeg amp. The Gibson GA-50 is one of them.
I’m retired and on a fixed income but I continue to look…..
Tom
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Old Ampegs are easy enough to find. Wonderful amps - I used to collect them. Which model are you seeking?
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I had a VT-22 “way back when” but that’s probably too much for only home use today.
So maybe a Mercury M-12, Reverb is showing a 1960’s one for $1,000. They also show a restored GS-12R for $900, described as 1968-1969. I have seen discussion about looking for a Gemini model but that same note cautioned that a’60’s vintage Ampegs should be sought. In 1970 or so, prior to buying the VT-22, I always thought people only used Ampegs for bass guitar, but I learned differently.
My casual research says to try to get one from the 1960’s. I would also like at least a 10” speaker but would favor a 12”. My son bought a new Line 6 for me to try. Afterwards, I was convinced of two things…I’m not as smart as my cell phone and looking @ the number of knobs on his amp, I would never be as smart as the amp….AND….current manufacture amps just don’t sound that good (to me). It took my son a minute to find a “clean sound setting”.
By chance yesterday I called a local music store that doesn’t have any old Gibson amps but there is a guy who lives on the iron range of MN (3 hours north of me and the store) and he will be coming to the store with a “pickup full of old amps”. They have my contact info to let me know if and when he shows up and what brands and models the amps are.
My original plan was to get a period correct (early 50’s) Gibson amp to mate with my ‘52 L-5. But in looking at some of those, they don’t always have a tone control (or two) and my pickup only has a volume control. But the Gibson GA-50 looks interesting. It has two tone controls and two speakers, 8” and 12”. Reverb has/had one for $1,600, but that’s a bit more than I was hoping to spend. But it does “look old”!
Tom
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I had a VT-22 back in my college days. It weighed, as my research seems to show, 88 pounds. Originally Posted by TAA
My college days are long behind me and I'm retired now. I could probably move a VT-22 but I wouldn't like to. My main amp these days is a Henriksen Bud (version 1.x) that weighs about 20 pounds. It is a very clean amp, in the Polytone direction; so clean that I sometimes put an amp modeller in front of it to give it a little "hair". If I were to buy an additional amp now I'd almost certainly go for a Quilter combo, though I'm not sure which one.
I also had, for awhile, an Ampeg B-15S (I think it was the S, I don't recall which was the S and which was the N) and I think it was better than the VT-22 as a jazz guitar amp. It was big and heavy, though.
But my final point is, my foibles are not your foibles. Buy the amp that rumples your undies and enjoy the heck out of it! Hire a college kid to move it if you have to. Put it on a wheeled stand.
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That’s funny, thanks!
I can remember moving the VT-22 in the late 60’s, early 70’s. I really like our 6-night jobs….didn’t need to move the amp every night!
My search will continue. When I settle on something I’ll post it here.
Tom
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Always a fan of Kent Armstrong, but loved the Bartolini 5J on 2 Benedettos I once had.
Don't forget, a pickup is going to sound unique to the guitar - people telling you what they like on their guitar is useless information for you to know what you will like on your guitar.
good luck.
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I think my current L5 had a Kent Armstrong pickup on it. There is a notch in the pickguard and hole in pickguard where a volume control was. Those two areas were “adopted” for use with the Biltoft that was just installed.
Mike, that’s very good advice…you never know until you hear yours….thank you!
Tom
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A few months ago I bought this: Guyker Guitar Single Coil Neck Pickups Replacement Parts for Floating Jazz Johnny Smith Style Electric Guitar (Chrome) for €17.43. They don't show the back, in which case you would see that the pole pieces are twice as long as the pickup is thick, so they extend out quite a ways. Luckily it's easy enough to remove the polepieces, snip them down to size with wire cutters (the metal is fairly soft), and put them back in place.
I've never played a Johnny Smith pickup, but this thing sounds really great.
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