Best Charlie Christian pickup for humbucker routes

[Francesco Chieffo]

Hi everyone, I'm considering replacing the classic '57 neck of my Gibson TF with a Charlie Christian pickup to get a more acoustic and sharper tone. So far I have only heard of Lollar and Vintage Vibe (less expensive), both of which produce CC pickups for humbucker routes. Has anyone got to compare them? Are there other manufacturers for this type of pickup?

[ThatRhythmMan]

Pete Biltoft (Vintage Vibe) will discuss with you what you want to achieve and custom wind a pickup for you. He makes them so that the magnets are easily swappable too which will give added flexibility. I like Pete’s work.

[Fred Archtop]

I've tried both on my '46 ES-300. Started with the Lollar and swapped for the Biltoft model. More trustful to a CC unit. The lollar is more like a P90. Both are great though. You can find a couple of demos on my YT page.

Best.

[JFranck]

+1 for Pete Biltoft , his pickups are very well made, great sounding and reasonably priced.
I wanted to make a tele Gatton-style and ordered him this PU :
found the invoice in my drawers some days ago


It was in 2008 and I still use it.

[Skip Ellis]

+1 for Vintage Vibe. Pete is great to work with.

[Francesco Chieffo]

Thanks, I wrote to Pete Biltoft and he was very helpful

[lawson-stone]

I think it would be cool is someone could build a CC pickup that had the blade/coil in a humbucker ring mount, but which also had the two long magnets under the bottom like the real CC's did. Then you wouldn't just have a "blade" pickup in a humbucker housing, but something more like the real thing.

[chasranney]

Another Charlie Christian pickup to consider

[2bornot2bop]

Love Fred’s The moon was full on his Biltoft based L5. Do you still have that guitar Fred?

[campusfive]

While I'm in the "large magnets or don't bother" camp, I'd listen to @Fred Archtop.
He's got the most direct comparisons of the "real" CC pickups, and both the ones you're asking about.

[Fred Archtop]

Love Fred’s The moon was full on his Biltoft based L5. Do you still have that guitar Fred?

Yep! I'm lucky enough to have it right here.

Best.

[Swingstring]

Reviving this since I am curious about the Lollar and Biltoft humbucker-sized blade pickups.

Can anyone give me an idea of the output level of these pickups? Would they be in a similar ballpark to a lower-output PAF, or significantly quieter or hotter than that?

[sgosnell]

Mine seems to be very similar to the average humbucker. I haven't done any actual measurements, it just seems to take about the same volume settings to get what I hear as about the same volume output.

[Swingstring]

Mine seems to be very similar to the average humbucker. I haven't done any actual measurements, it just seems to take about the same volume settings to get what I hear as about the same volume output.

Thanks.

What make is the pickup?

[sgosnell]

It's a Vintage Vibe HCC from Biltoft. I have no experience with the Lollar.

[burchyk]

Had swapped Lollar and Seth Lover in H-575 and think Lollar was lower output at the height I felt it sounded better. That was about 10y ago so take with a grain of salt.