The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #151

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    To permanently scratch my solid body guitar itch (and as a nod to my burst Les Paul wielding guitar heroes Duane Allman, Bluesbreaker-era Clapton, and East-West Mike Bloomfield), I picked up this Slaman Pauletta beauty in 2019. The neck carve and 1.75" nut width are a real treat, and it sounds amazing through my Henriksen Alfresco 12" open back SS amp (and plenty decent through smaller SS closed back amps too). The CC pickup sounds great and the individual pole piece adjustment is nice to have.

    Daniel Slaman kindly sent me a wooden saddle that he had made for the guitar; it doesn't look as cool as the tune-a-matic but it does sound noticeably "jazzier"...with the wooden saddle it comes very close to an archtop tone through my 12" open back but without any of the hollow body issues.

    There's a video at the CR Guitars site (Daniel Slaman Pauletta - CR Guitars) and around 1:42 you can hear some jazz played on it. Those are 11's on the guitar which I've kept except for swapping the B/E for a 16/12 (which is light for me - I usually play 17/13 - but sound great).

    Charlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-slaman-paulette-01__large-jpg
    Last edited by coolvinny; 05-12-2020 at 03:44 PM.

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  3. #152

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    I sold this Andersen Vanguard laminate in 2019 (before buying the Slaman Pauletta) for ergonomic reasons but I was very happy with the Lollar CC HB size pickup. The guitar was a bit dark sounding and the CC helped provide more clarity compared to the original Lollar Imperial (regular) HB the guitar came with. I had a good run with this guitar for about 6 years and was definitely happiest with the CC pickup compared to the pickups I tried over the years. However, on my smaller/thinner Collings Eastside Jazz I swapped OUT the CC in favour of Lollar HB (in fact I swapped the pickups on the Andersen with the one in the the Collings and vice versa) and I prefer the HB in that smaller guitar; I found the Collings sounded a bit harsh with roundwounds and the CC.

    Charlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-andersen-2013-vanguard-laminate-jpg

  4. #153

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    I hope it's fine, when I add my own personal question:
    I thought about getting a 50s MIM telecaster in sonic blue.
    This one right here: Fender Vintera 50s Telecaster MN SBL – Musikhaus Thomann
    It has the nice fat neck, and the classic wiring, none of that Baja S-1 switching.

    What I would like to do is putting two of the telecaster Lollar CCs in there. As you might know, routing/carving out the pickup pockets is necessary. Can this be done by myself? And is there also some adjustment needed on the pickguard?

    The guitar would cost me 788 €, the two CCs around 400 € (ouch!). This relation could be a bit disproportionate, but that what happens if you decide to get boutique pickups...

    Of course I am influenced by the great Tim Lerch here, who gets an amazing sound out of his teles, no matter if CCs or classic Fender singlecoils. His playing skill contributes a little bit as well, I guess

    Maybe there's someone who has done this mod. If somebody could post a photo of the routing manual (that comes with the pickups) that would be great. I couldn't find it online, and while Lollar posted some instructional videos about installing them, it didn't clear things up for me too much.
    Any thoughts on this?

    Kind regards, Max.

  5. #154

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    Hi everyone. I'm Scott, and this is actually my first post here although I've been browsing for quite some time.

    What a great thread, and thanks to everyone for sharing.

    Here's my Greco FA-95, made in Japan in 1991 as a clone of the ES-175. It's a jewell of a guitar -- great feel and tons of mojo and set up with flat wounds. It was in beautiful condition when I got it, obviously played but well taken care of.

    Pete Biltoft of Vintage Vibe made a Charlie Christian pick-up for me, and I love its tonal center. I'm playing it through a Tonemaster Twin. The sound I heard in my head that I wanted from a jazz box when I was searching for a guitar a few months back, I have it from this set up. The EQs are on 5, except for mids on 7. Every time I pick it up to play, I am grateful for the sounds this guitar can deliver. And Pete's Charlie Christian is just exquisite.

    Charlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-greco-sa95-jpg
    Last edited by bluumagic; 05-17-2020 at 12:10 PM.

  6. #155

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    Quote Originally Posted by bluumagic
    Hi everyone. I'm Scott, and this is actually my first post here although I've been browsing for quite some time.

    What a great thread, and thanks to everyone for sharing.

    Here's my Greco SA-95, made in Japan in 1991 as a clone of the ES-175. It's a jewell of a guitar -- great feel and tons of mojo and set up with flat wounds. It was in beautiful condition when I got it, obviously played but well taken care of.

    Pete Biltoft of Vintage Vibe made a Charlie Christian pick-up for me, and I love its tonal center. I'm playing it through a Tonemaster Twin. The sound I heard in my head that I wanted from a jazz box when I was searching for a guitar a few months back, I have it from this set up. The EQs are on 5, except for mids on 7. Every time I pick it up to play, I am grateful for the sounds this guitar can deliver. And Pete's Charlie Christian is just exquisite.
    Welcome to the forum bluumagic! Very nice looking guitar too! Pete Biltoft is a master of pickup building. Congratulations on updating that fine guitar!

  7. #156

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    Thanks! Yes, Pete is indeed a master. I'm likely going to have him build a couple of humbuckers for the Les Paul I use for slide.

    I discovered Pete's work on this site. And it was also helpful in picking out a jazz box and in deciding on the Tonemaster Twin. Glad to be here!

  8. #157

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    Quote Originally Posted by django
    I hope it's fine, when I add my own personal question:
    I thought about getting a 50s MIM telecaster in sonic blue.
    This one right here: Fender Vintera 50s Telecaster MN SBL – Musikhaus Thomann
    It has the nice fat neck, and the classic wiring, none of that Baja S-1 switching.

    What I would like to do is putting two of the telecaster Lollar CCs in there. As you might know, routing/carving out the pickup pockets is necessary. Can this be done by myself? And is there also some adjustment needed on the pickguard?

    The guitar would cost me 788 €, the two CCs around 400 € (ouch!). This relation could be a bit disproportionate, but that what happens if you decide to get boutique pickups...

    Of course I am influenced by the great Tim Lerch here, who gets an amazing sound out of his teles, no matter if CCs or classic Fender singlecoils. His playing skill contributes a little bit as well, I guess

    Maybe there's someone who has done this mod. If somebody could post a photo of the routing manual (that comes with the pickups) that would be great. I couldn't find it online, and while Lollar posted some instructional videos about installing them, it didn't clear things up for me too much.
    Any thoughts on this?

    Kind regards, Max.
    Max,
    do yourself and your guitar a favor, and have the routing done by a luthier (should be in the 150€ ballpark).

    The way you phrase your question make me assume you've never used a router ("Oberfräse" in German) before, and it is one of the most dangerous tools for woodworking there is - you don't want to lose a finger, and/or ruin your Tele body, if you're not experienced with that tool (and besides, a halfway decent router will run you at least 100€, and another 30-40€ for a decent template following bit)!
    I presume the instructions that come with the pickup would simply be a set of measurements and drawings for the two templates ("Frässchablonen") you'd have to make - one for the body, the other for the pickguard, the process itself is rather simple IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH USING A ROUTER!!!
    All shown in the video:
    (he probably has another template for the pickguard, process is similar...)

    Of course, you could always "half ass" the enlargement of the pickup route by simply using a drill, hammer, and chisel - the results would most likely look less than professional, but should be hidden by the pickguard (which you can modify by enlarging the pickup hole with a jigsaw...)
    Up to you whether that's acceptable...

  9. #158

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    BTW, I just checked - and the Lollar instructions ARE available on the website:

    If you want to screw the pickup directly into the wood:
    https://www.lollarguitars.com/pdfs/c...nt-routing.pdf

    If you want to hang the pickup from the pickguard:
    https://www.lollarguitars.com/pdfs/c...nt-routing.pdf
    Last edited by RomanS; 05-17-2020 at 06:03 PM.

  10. #159

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    I know I drive a lotbof you crazy with my gear purchases, I’m small potatoes compared to a guy I met on the FRIENDS OF THE ARCHTOP GUITAR group on Facebook, mike Thompson has more staple P90 L5s , older zzz Super 400s,old strats, you name it. He just bought this beauty for his 50th birthday / it was Hank Garlands

    must be nice

    Charlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-eb863d2f-2cc4-49ea-a554-6def1ef1a92f-jpegCharlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-8fa257d2-5148-4a44-a7a8-5eab321aac7e-jpg

  11. #160

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    My friend Harry Sankey plays a '60s L7 that at some point in its life had a Charlie Christian pickup and plain ebony fretboard added - an apparent nod to Barney Kessel's ES350.


  12. #161

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    Didn’t Harry add that pickup himself? Or did it just need sorting? I recall that guitar had a hole in it for a bit.

  13. #162

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Didn’t Harry add that pickup himself? Or did it just need sorting? I recall that guitar had a hole in it for a bit.
    It came with an old Charlie Christian pickup in it, which despite Harry getting it rewound, caused no end of problems. He's replaced it with one from www.ccpickups.co.uk

    Last time Howard Alden was over, they got together for a play and Howard pointed out that he'd owned that guitar 30-odd years ago.

  14. #163

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    www.ccpickups.co.uk is making the only truly authentic cc pickup available these days...the huge cobalt magnetic bars that run under the top are a huge part of the true vintage tone...no way to get authentic cc tone without them

    the huge magnets pick up a large window of string vibrations that other pickups with magnet polepieces or bar magnets under the bobbin can't/don't


    cheers
    Last edited by neatomic; 05-18-2020 at 07:15 PM. Reason: typo-

  15. #164

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    yes, I can attest to this. My Slaman solid body Pauletta above has the UKCC with the giant magnets and despite not being chambered sounds like no other solid body I’ve ever come across. Extremely close to a hollow body esp through a big amp like a 12” open back SS (have not even tried tubes). I do believe the woods and build are top notch but in my experience that is not enough in a solid body to create this level of woodiness. Check out the video I mentioned above (at the jazz section).

  16. #165

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    I see in this thread just about any blade pickup is called a Charlie Christian. This is what my UK-CC pickup looked like when it arrived. The leads were pretty short, so I set it up like this, green to ground at that screw and red for signal. Red got a long coaxial lead extension to get down to the pots with some extra slack so I could take the pickup out without removing the pots. I also put Loctite on all the screws.

    Charlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-cc-pickup-jpg

  17. #166

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    Hello everyone.
    I don't like humbucker, so after some researches i decided to order a pickup to Pete Biltoft from Vintage Vibe Guitars after reading a lot of great reviews !
    It will be for a neck pickup of a L5-CES style guitar.

    Pete offered me a dual pickup : one CC blade and one P90 in a single pickup
    Since he let us choose alnico, i decided to go for Alnico 3 for the p90 ( read that it's the best for that swing era p90's sound ) but have no idea what to choose for the CC, what is closer to the original ?
    The tone i like is Grant Green, early Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessel...

    Probably will take a design like in the 1st image, love that CC trim !

    Charlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-image005-jpgCharlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-image002-jpg

  18. #167

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    Does anyone know anything about the CC pickup that Archtop Tribute installs in their "Barney Kessel" model and their ES150 clone?

  19. #168

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    One CC coil + one P90 made by Pete Biltoft ( Vintage Vibe Guitar )
    Will record some soundclips when it'll be mounted in my guitar !
    Charlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-micro-jpg

  20. #169

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    I’ll give a +1 for Pete Biltoft at Vintage Vibe Guitars. Here’s the pickup he did for my 5th Avenue.

    Charlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-b8488fb1-4f19-4b50-ae35-5898976fbc0f-jpg

  21. #170

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    Has anyone here compared makers of CC pickups? How similar or different is the Vintage Vibe CC compared to the Lollar or Kurtis Novak (TK Smith)? Without discussing which is "better", what are differences in tonal properties?

  22. #171

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    The original Charlie Christian pickup originated in 1936– in Gibson guitars. In 1979 Gibson introduced it again in ES-175CC model.

    Adrian Ingram describes in his book Gibson ES-175, Its history and players (1996) how difficult was it to find a original pickup to copy:

    "Recreating the original Charlie Christian pickup presented something of a problem in that the specifications of earlier units differed with each production run.

    The magnets were initially cast in Cobalt but went on to use an amalgamation which differed as significantly as 17% cobalt, 83% nickel to 36% cobalt, 64% nickel.

    Furthermore, the range of windings varied greatly, as can be seen from the following specifications: variant 1, 4,000 turns of number 38 wire; variant 2, 2,500 turns of number 40 wire; variant 3, 3,600 turns of 40 wire; variant 4, 10,000 turns of number 42 wire.

    (...) The company settled tor 10,000 turns of number 42 wire, on a cobalt based magnet, for their reissue (sic) Charlie Christian pickup. This amount of winding, coupled with a thinner gauge wire gave the pickup a higher impedance (...) providing a unit with greater output, which was more in keeping with contemporary requirements."

    Interesting. I have always wondered, how the modern pickup makers can make a Charlie Christian pickup without that big magnet. But seems like there is many many possibilities to make a CC pu, because there was not one original CC pickup, they were many!

  23. #172

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    interesting ....
    i always though Gibson
    found a batch of the original CC pickups
    in a draw .... and then decided to make
    limited runs of the es150cc and es175cc
    models ....
    so , are you are saying that Gibson
    re-manufactured the cc pickups in the
    re-issue guitars mentioned ?

  24. #173

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    Quote Originally Posted by pingu
    interesting ....
    i always though Gibson
    found a batch of the original CC pickups
    in a draw .... and then decided to make
    limited runs of the es150cc and es175cc
    models ....
    so , are you are saying that Gibson
    re-manufactured the cc pickups in the
    re-issue guitars mentioned ?
    I don’t know, I wasn’t there! But according to Ingram they re-manufactured them.

  25. #174

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    Quote Originally Posted by Herbie
    Interesting. I have always wondered, how the modern pickup makers can make a Charlie Christian pickup without that big magnet. But seems like there is many many possibilities to make a CC pu, because there was not one original CC pickup, they were many!
    good post!

    but the magnet size and construction stayed the same throughout all versions...only mag strength and winds varied...to compensate for string and amp changes

    magnet size is intrinsic to sound, as the window for reaction with strings is much greater

    cheers

  26. #175

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    Here is the Eastman AR805CC that I picked up a while ago.

    Charlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-19e5f905-095d-4f13-a7e3-bf3868ea09f4-jpgCharlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-1623f07c-9f97-4344-9fa9-0b5d14a37852-jpgCharlie Christian pickups and other CC style pups... pics please!-c97f840b-2b63-4c86-af93-e9260d17a83a-jpg