Single Pickup Jazz Guitars

[Steve Z]

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I took this picture of a late 1940's Gibson L5 at a shop in Nashville. It is a shame the way someone cut a humbucker into the top... and in the wrong location. If the pickup was at least in the proper bridge pickup position a player could add a neck pickup to create a L5 CES of sorts. The guitar is still at the shop. I believe the asking price was $7,500, which is probably why the guitar is still there. Cool mojo finish though .

[Jabberwocky]

Too bad sbout that 1940s L5, really. The owner who did that must have kicked himself badly. Back then, nobody thought twice about doing it as these were not wanted, slightly better than junk.

I would be tempted to have a good luthier remove the humbucker and patch it and the 2 holes up with carved spruce. Hide glue the spruce patch, paint the top over in Gibson Gold lacquer. No collector's value but highly giggable acoustic archtop that sounds 70+ years old and looks great on stage!

[Cavalier]

humbug!

I have to ask, what model is this? I'd like to learn more about it.

[Jim Soloway]

Too bad sbout that 1940s L5, really. The owner who did that must have kicked himself badly. Back then, nobody thought twice about doing it as these were not wanted, slightly better than junk.

I would be tempted to have a good luthier remove the humbucker and patch it and the 2 holes up with carved spruce. Hide glue the spruce patch, paint the top over in Gibson Gold lacquer. No collector's value but highly giggable acoustic archtop that sounds 70+ years old and looks great on stage!

It would be a whole lot easier just to add a neck pickup and modern L5 controls.

[nopedals]

>> I would be tempted to have a good luthier remove the humbucker and patch it and the 2 holes up with carved spruce. Hide glue the spruce patch, paint the top over in Gibson Gold lacquer. No collector's value but highly giggable acoustic archtop that sounds 70+ years old and looks great on stage!

> It would be a whole lot easier just to add a neck pickup and modern L5 controls.

You would be way ahead taking the $7500 and the money spent for mods and buy a guitar that has not been raped.

[Greentone]

$7.5K and you are well on the way to a vintage L-5C without the buggering.

Maybe that's a PAF...only way I can imagine a price that high for an obviously bleeped-up guitar...or else celebrity-owned. Humbucker in the bridge position as the solo pickup????? WTF?

[Hammertone]

I have to ask, what model is this? I'd like to learn more about it.

It started out as a Hofner Verythin Classic that was customized for jazz artist Gareth Parry of the Out-of-Towners. Because it did not have pickup hardware installed, it was possible to configure it as a custom single pickup version (the pickup is a Dimarzio Bluesbucker- essentially a noiseless P-90), in the tradition of the single pickup ES-225 or ES-330, with a "rat rod" finish. I have one of these left (currently without hardware or finish) that can be configured in a similar way.

Hofner isn't currently offering the Verythin Classic but does make a few Limited Edition versions of the Verythin Standard in Germany every other year or so. And they offer a range Chinese-made Verythins as well at lower price points - very nice guitars for the money, IMO. Attached is a photo of a conventional German-made Verythin Classic.

I can post background info on the Hofner Verythins if you want, on a separate thread.

[Guitarbean25]

I need to try a Hofner...I still go back and stare at your Chancellors

[Steve Z]

$7.5K and you are well on the way to a vintage L-5C without the buggering.

Maybe that's a PAF...only way I can imagine a price that high for an obviously bleeped-up guitar...or else celebrity-owned. Humbucker in the bridge position as the solo pickup????? WTF?

I believe the pick up is Gibson classic 57... Nice but nothing valuable. Position of the pickup us about 1.5 inches too high for proper bridge pickup placement.

[Cavalier]

It started out as a Hofner Verythin Classic that was customized for jazz artist Gareth Parry of the Out-of-Towners. Because it did not have pickup hardware installed, it was possible to configure it as a custom single pickup version (the pickup is a Dimarzio Bluesbucker- essentially a noiseless P-90), in the tradition of the single pickup ES-225 or ES-330, with a "rat rod" finish. I have one of these left (currently without hardware or finish) that can be configured in a similar way.

Hofner isn't currently offering the Verythin Classic but does make a few Limited Edition versions of the Verythin Standard in Germany every other year or so. And they offer a range Chinese-made Verythins as well at lower price points - very nice guitars for the money, IMO. Attached is a photo of a conventional German-made Verythin Classic.

I can post background info on the Hofner Verythins if you want, on a separate thread.

Thanks Stephen, I attempted to send a pm, the gist is a thread on the models would be great. I'm very intrigued by a unfinished no pick up version.

[Ol' Fret]

>> I can assume that players like myself find two pup models as compared to one pup models:
...
Have no acoustic disadvantage over a one pup model <<

Agreed - if you're talking about an electric hollowbody model. It all depends on the construction of your hollowbody. Luthiers like D'Angelico, D'Aquisto and Lang for the most part made acoustic and electric-acoustic archtops. Their soundboards were harder to manufacture and show (cello-making) features like a certain mass or thickness (graduation) of the center area. No need there to add mass in hindsight through a second PU, a heavy TOM bridge and an additional cross bracing. Also, these guys were reluctant to hack holes in their soundboads. In case of Artur Lang's one-man production I know only of one single guitar where he himself is reported to have cut the top for two set pickups, clearly a one-off experimental archtop where he achieved to not fix the PUs to the soundboard (but to an extra bracing running freely from block to block).



>> If one pup gits had any clearly desirable traits the CES (single or dual coil pups) paradigm simply would not have happened. IMO that is. <<

Without question the L-5CES sound has become the quintessential electric full-hollowbody jazz box sound of the world.
Anyhow, it's evident that a player like Wes Montgomery considered his two single PU L-5 guitars as "nothing special" [sic!] and a "standard box" in 1965: "I got a standard box - I don't never want nothing special. I want it just as standard as I can get it. Then, if I drop my box, I can borrow somebody else's." (WES MONTGOMERY INTERVIEW ). To me it's plausible that Wes thought the same about the CES models he had owned and played.

Electric guitar components were comparably pricey in the 1950s and 60s. Then, most guitar manufacturers were able to monetize largely on additional pickups. That, the reputation of the prewar L-5s, the cost-cutting considerations, the humbucker introduction, and the excellent marketing and endorsing efforts, resulted in great sales figures and eventually to the quintessential L-5CES sound.
Apropos, humbuckers, there's a good chance that a young luthier in Berlin, named Roger Rossmeisl, made some already in 1946/47...


What puzzles me, when going through some posts above, is that many players draw a strict line between electric and acoustic archtop playing. Shortened, this boils down to: 1. the electric hollowbody sound with preferably two built-in pickups (or more or less, it doesn't much matter). 2. the acoustic hollowbody sound that can only be obtained by playing acoustically (+ mic) or, at best, by an added floating pickup.
To me this is black-and-white painting. I'm on the minority side on this one, but some like the shades and nuances in-between: not so often the 20/80% two_set_humbucker_full-hollowbody_sound (acoustic/electric ratio), but more the 80/20% or, at least, 50/50%. The first sound is still being marketed as one of the most versatile jazz guitar sounds, but others might consider this to be more unidimensional, more of a one-trick pony, compared to constructions that offer more refined acoustic sound and more dynamics at the same or even lower level of feed back sensitivity (well, usually not with X-braced constructions).



>> I took this picture of a late 1940's Gibson L5 at a shop in Nashville. It is a shame the way someone cut a humbucker into the top... and in the wrong location. <<

1940s Epis, then a big name in the archtop guitar biz, show often the same arrangement. It was not uncommon to place a pickup in this in-between area, though, of course, these guitars were fitted with single coil PUs. After 1957, these single coils might have been replaced by humbuckers. I have a 40s Triumph with a P90 in this position - not so bad sounding as some would expect, if you adjust the string choice, tone control, amp setting or your thumb - if necessary.







- "A problem is a chance for you to do your best." - Duke Ellington

[goldenwave77]

Spectrum of guitar tones/sounds: (simplified, possibly)



More "air"/acoustic response:


- Nylon string classicals

- Benedetto type, acoustic archies, gypsy type guitars


-Guild Artist Award

-Gibson Johnny Smith

-L5, old Epiphones, Stromberg

-L4

-L5-CES

-L4-CES

-Tal Farlow

-165/175

-137, 135

-HR Fusion

-347

-335

-339

-Les Paul

-Tele

-Strat


Less "Air"/acoustic response:

[CollinW]

Hi there,

The archtop looks amazing. Could you tell me about the guitar and where I can get one like it?

Attachment 31344


And on those occasions when only a plank will do ....

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