Anyone knows how to make Gibson Classic 57 to floating pu?

[ThatRhythmMan]

Well that cinches it. Seth Lover was wrong and the salesmen were right. What puzzles me was why he didn't see that.

Could it have been that he had a very balanced set of strings (most likely Gibson Sonomatics) to test the pickup and therefore saw no need for the screws? My own experience with the humbucking pickup (and I've played only humbuckers all my life) is that I've never needed to adjust the screws. All the strings I've used, LaBella Flatwounds, GHS RollerWounds, D'Addrio Ground Round Wounds, and for the longest time RotoSound British Steels, all were nicely balanced without any need for adjustment.

However, other people have had a different experience. One of the pictures shows the high e screw rather high up, indicating a considerable imbalance with the strings. Why I don't know.

Additionally Seth Lover probably would have been concerned that the two coils be completely identical in order to get the best hum rejection. Obviously if one coil has screws and the other has slugs, the coils will not be identical and the hum rejection will be compromised. I can attest to that concern because one time I briefly played an Ibanez with a non adjustable pickup with identical coils. Super 80 I think was the name of the pickup. The hum rejection was far superior to that of the Gibson. Indeed I couldn't hear any hum at all.

But, all this is bad news for the OP. The 57 Classic I think would be a rather tight fit and if the screws needed to be adjusted downward then they would damage the top, and if adjusted upward could snag on the strings or on the pick, or simply be too close to the strings - too much magnetic pull. He would have to get a proper floater from say Kent Armstrong.

Take a look at some of the other poles in the pic. Some are actually sunken in below the cover. After seeing how Herb Ellis did this, I’ve tried this with several other pickups with great results. This really only applies to the neck pickup. A bridge pickup doesn’t show nearly as much string to string variation, presumably due to the much smaller amplitude of string movement at that position.

I’ve seen some pretty dramatic differences in string to string output of an unadjusted humbucker using an SPL meter. These adjustments can help compensate for that, but with some higher output pickups, I haven’t been able to get some stings, usually the low E and the B to balance out no matter what. They are still louder than the others.


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[jzucker]

My reason for the "no holes" cover was not because I either like them or not like them, but because the geometry of my body results in my picking hand ending up over the pickup and my pick would snag on the screws.

For that reason too, I like a wax potted pickup, since it doesn't pick up the mechanical sound when the pick contacts the pickup.

Cheers

I've got wax potted pickups on all my guitars and they the humbuckers with metal covers still audibly click when the pick hits them. I think it depends on how "well" they've been potted but classic 57s, dimarzio pafs and a recent pickup by pete biltoff all click when the pick hits them. On my barney kessel, i even had the pickups repotted and they still do it.

[bluejaybill]

Take a look at some of the other poles in the pic. Some are actually sunken in below the cover. After seeing how Herb Ellis did this, I’ve tried this with several other pickups with great results. This really only applies to the neck pickup. A bridge pickup doesn’t show nearly as much string to string variation, presumably due to the much smaller amplitude of string movement at that position.

I’ve seen some pretty dramatic differences in string to string output of an unadjusted humbucker using an SPL meter. These adjustments can help compensate for that, but with some higher output pickups, I haven’t been able to get some stings, usually the low E and the B to balance out no matter what. They are still louder than the others.


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I agree, even on my solid bodies I find not only better string balance, but also you can affect the tone both with overall pickup height and screw height.

It's even more pronounced on a floater, I have been through three on mine and so far the Armstrong with 12 polices is the only one I've been able to balance correctly.

I suppose you could adjust your picking for loud strings, on an archtop that is usually the second for me. The problem is I have a couple of vintage Fenders- and on those I need to adjust for the third string! As I have said here before, and maybe even on this thread. So even string volume is a big help.

[Herbie]

Talking about the pole screws: Pat Metheny had loose screws – or no screws at all! – in September 9th 1979 with Joni and Jaco at Santa Barbara Bowl.

Does somebody know more about his pole screw adjustments?

[Cunamara]

Here is my Classic 57 converted into a neck mounted floater. There were a number of things that had to be done. Cutting off the legs for the mounting screws, filing down the cover so that it was flush with the bottom plate of the pickup, cutting a relief in the side of the cover so that the pick up wire could exit from the side rather than the bottom due to clearance issues against the top of the guitar, cutting down the pole piece screws so that they don't project through the bottom of the pickup into the top, fabricating and mounting a bracket. This was done, as you can see, with three flathead brass screws, and there is also epoxy between the bracket and the pickup cover.



Pros and cons: the pro, of course, is it you have the Classic 57 pickup on an archtop guitar which sounds pretty good. The cons are that the pickup is a half an inch tall, this basically fills the space from the top all the way to the surface of the fingerboard. Meaning that the pickup is in very close proximity to the strings. That gives it a tendency to be rather boomy and bassy. Lots of EQ necessary and there is quite a bit of sensitivity to the sonic characteristics of the room at gigging volumes- at least with my Benedetto style guitar. This did not work particularly well with my tweed Deluxe amp, which is also very bassy; it was better through my AI Clarus 2r and Raezor's Edge Stealth 12.

[jzucker]

Here is my Classic 57 converted into a neck mounted floater. There were a number of things that had to be done. Cutting off the legs for the mounting screws, filing down the cover so that it was flush with the bottom plate of the pickup, cutting a relief in the side of the cover so that the pick up wire could exit from the side rather than the bottom due to clearance issues against the top of the guitar, cutting down the pole piece screws so that they don't project through the bottom of the pickup into the top, fabricating and mounting a bracket. This was done, as you can see, with three flathead brass screws, and there is also epoxy between the bracket and the pickup cover.



Pros and cons: the pro, of course, is it you have the Classic 57 pickup on an archtop guitar which sounds pretty good. The cons are that the pickup is a half an inch tall, this basically fills the space from the top all the way to the surface of the fingerboard. Meaning that the pickup is in very close proximity to the strings. That gives it a tendency to be rather boomy and bassy. Lots of EQ necessary and there is quite a bit of sensitivity to the sonic characteristics of the room at gigging volumes- at least with my Benedetto style guitar. This did not work particularly well with my tweed Deluxe amp, which is also very bassy; it was better through my AI Clarus 2r and Raezor's Edge Stealth 12.

that's why i went with the biltoff version.

[garybaldy]

I did a quick simple search on Classic 57, and retrieved this:

https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/sear...archid=1389442

What's odd is that at the bottom it says "1-12 of 26." But then there's no way to advance to the next 14.

I started a thread a while back querying that search issue but never got to the bottom of it. Where are those elusive search items? So the website knows of them, but won't let you see them! Very frustrating.

[garybaldy]

Here is my Classic 57 converted into a neck mounted floater. There were a number of things that had to be done. Cutting off the legs for the mounting screws, filing down the cover so that it was flush with the bottom plate of the pickup, cutting a relief in the side of the cover so that the pick up wire could exit from the side rather than the bottom due to clearance issues against the top of the guitar, cutting down the pole piece screws so that they don't project through the bottom of the pickup into the top, fabricating and mounting a bracket. This was done, as you can see, with three flathead brass screws, and there is also epoxy between the bracket and the pickup cover.



Pros and cons: the pro, of course, is it you have the Classic 57 pickup on an archtop guitar which sounds pretty good. The cons are that the pickup is a half an inch tall, this basically fills the space from the top all the way to the surface of the fingerboard. Meaning that the pickup is in very close proximity to the strings. That gives it a tendency to be rather boomy and bassy. Lots of EQ necessary and there is quite a bit of sensitivity to the sonic characteristics of the room at gigging volumes- at least with my Benedetto style guitar. This did not work particularly well with my tweed Deluxe amp, which is also very bassy; it was better through my AI Clarus 2r and Raezor's Edge Stealth 12.

Nice work. Are the screws that fix the bracket to the cover self - tappers? Presumably they are incredibly short!

[Cunamara]

Jack- yes, the Biltoft pickup is easier, customizable to the application and sounds great, with some choices about the sound you want to get from it. If I had it to do over again, that's the route I'd take. To be honest, all things considered, it's a better plan to buy a pickup designed for this from the get-go.

Gary- yes, very short. IIRC I used a tap, but drilling the holes I hit the coil and broke the wire. I sent it to Kent Armstrong, who repaired it and balanced the coils. He also filed down the screws protruding into the pickup space. See the paragraph above.