Charlie Christian Pickups - What Was the Magic?

[Jabberwocky]

You need a fair amount of commitment to the Charlie Christian Blade pickup to make it work. The chief attraction is its flutey or reed-like attack, almost like blowing when you pick a note.

An octal preamp or one modelled after an octal preamp, rolled off in the top register, helps to complete the tone. A nice CC Blade tone is velvety, hornlike-attack of note is slower and rounded at the top.

I don't know the story of the ES-175CC. About 478 were shipped from 1978 to 1980. Almost all were stamped Seconds.

I have two Gibsons from the early 2000s with CC pickups. Lore has it that Gibson found a box of unused leftover CC Blade pickup parts and made a run of guitars with them. I have an ES150CC Reissue and a Super 400CC. In 2013, there was a very small run of L5CES CC, about 4 perhaps, that found its separate ways to Wildwood Guitars and Ikebe Gakki.

I hope to complete my Gibson set one day. Daniel Slaman is the modern impresario of the CC Blade equipped guitars.

As for electrical noise, I guess it depends on where you find yourself. Light dimmers, fluorescent lamps, anything that emits a magnetic field within spitting distance is a problem.

It is a rewarding sound if you are committed to making it work. The hornlike shape of its notes is unique to it.

[zcostilla]

I also have a Pete Biltoft (Vintage Vibe Guitar’s) CC Pickup in my Godin 5th Avenue, and with the treble rolled down, it’s very earthy. I love the sound, even though I still suck at jazz. It amazingly, with my Quilter Amp, EQ’ing the bass at 4, mids at 5, and treble at 5, I get generic 50’s rock sound that I can use for rhythm playing. It’s not the Gretsch sound, something more basic. Think Chess Records blues songs. BUT the most amazing thing is if I rolls the bridge knobs up full turns, I get an AMAZING bottleneck slide tone! Creamy without being bitingly sharp. Then it’s two full turns back and a retune to get back to my low action for basic playing. I was shocked how versatile my jazz box really is.

[sgosnell]

The electromagnetic spectrum is far noisier now than it was 50 or 80 years ago. Now there is energy in every frequency band - TVs, computers, bluetooth, wifi, and all sorts of other devices emit a lot of energy that causes noise. I'm actually surprised that single-coil pickups aren't noisier than they are. With the right equipment, it's possible to receive data from a computer from across the street, just from the electromagnetic emissions. I receive wifi signals from many neighbors, and I'm in a neighborhood with only single-family houses. In an apartment complex it must be intense. Bluetooth is in the same frequency band, and it's everywhere - phones, laptops, tablets, earphones, almost every electronic device, and there are billions of them in use. As the frequency bands in use increase, it certainly won't get better. I think a better system for converting the energy from guitar strings into sound is needed. The magnetic pickup was never a great way of doing it, it's just what was readily available and could be thought of at the time. I don't know what will be invented, but I'd bet serious money that something will eventually replace the magnetic pickup. And I'm just as certain that jazz guitarists will resist it with every fiber of their beings. If it was good enough for Charlie Christian, it's good enough for us. None of that transistor junk, either, Charlie used amps with octal tubes, so that's the only possibility. We don't want better, we want traditional, and will insist that tradition always trumps new, old sounds better, and up is down. And stay off my lawn.

[archtopeddy]

To me the best use of a CC pickup is to get the Charlie Christian sound.

Other players have used the pickup effectively for a different and more modern sound, but the hornlike, woody tone Charlie Christian produced is where the pickup shines. Tiny Grimes and Slim Gaillard also did great with that same sort of sound. Today, even though he is known as the founder of electric jazz guitar, Charlie Christian's style may be more associated with jump blues players than contemporary jazz guitar.

It's understandable why many current players prefer humbuckers for a more smoother, modern sound. And for some players I think the cool factor and nostalgia bring them to the CC pickup but in real-world application it may not be the best pickup for them. Also, Charlie Christian played predominately with downstrokes and hit the strings hard -- I believe that is a major factor in pulling out the sound he got from the original CC pickups.

With that said, our own Jonathan Stout provided a good YouTube video a few years ago about getting the Charlie Christian sound. I think he nails it here.

[icr]

I made my ES-150 replica mostly for nostalgia because I could not find a real ES-150 at the time. But holy mother of god, with my 30 electric guitars with which to compare that one does not sound like any of the others! Every time these threads come up, I have to resist the urge to get more of CC pickup guitars. I'm glad someone finally bought the real ES-150 at Dave's Guitar that needs a neck reset. I had been looking at the ad almost every day.

[archtopeddy]

Don't get me wrong fellas. I have nothing against cool factor and nostalgia. They've been driving factors in much of the equipment I've purchased. In most cases, it's worked out well but I also know what it's like to get equipment not suited for me just because I liked what I saw, I wanted it, and I bought it.

Back to CC pickups, I didn't intend to upset Fred Archtop because I wasn't addressing anything he (or anyone else on this thread) is doing. In fact, as we all know Fred has a wonderful collection of CC pickups and provided us with many useful examples of how various CC PU models sound on various vintage guitars. He truly has a love for these pickups and knows how to get a great sound from them.

Instead, I was saying CC pickups have their own sound character and it may not suit everyone. For players who haven't used one, with all the talk about them it may seem like they're the holy grail (and maybe it is) but that doesn't change what they inherently are -- a pickup with a certain sound. The search for the ultimate sound is what drove up the prices of original PAF humbuckers to thousands of dollars and PU builders worldwide tried to emulate that "golden" tone. Even pickups that had limited appeal such as the P13s or Teisco Gold Foils become new golden tones when used and praised to the masses. Often, the more original and rare a PU is, the more people covet it. Thus the point about cool factor and nostalgia. With it all said and done however, it's not as important as having the right pickup and sound for your needs.

So, yes... CC pickups are great. I have an original 30's ES-150 with an original CC PU. I also have two other guitars with CC pickups. But when it comes to playing say "Watermelon Man" or "Black Magic Woman", I'd pick a different guitar. If a humbucker sound is what you want -- get a humbucker. (I say this, and I'm not even a humbucker fan. I'd rather play a single-coil Tele.)