Gibson custom L-5 w/CC pickup.......

[Fred Archtop]

This CC PU looks a little weird. The two bolts are closer than usually found on PUs designed by CC PU UK, Seymour Duncan or Gibson 1978-1980 reissues. Also a CC PU trustful to the original would have cross head bolts.

Cheers.

[DMgolf66]

This CC PU looks a little weird. The two bolts are closer than usually found on PUs designed by CC PU UK, Seymour Duncan or Gibson 1978-1980 reissues. Also a CC PU trustful to the original would have cross head bolts.

Cheers.

I'm thinking this may be it. Notice the screws.

Charlie Christian Pickup for Arch Top Guitars – Roswell Pickups

[Fred Archtop]

I'm thinking this may be it. Notice the screws.

Charlie Christian Pickup for Arch Top Guitars – Roswell Pickups

Roswell pickups LOL!!!!! Alien invasion !

[Woody Sound]

I contacted the seller about the pickup. Here's the reply:

"Hey! Thank you for your interest
I am selling this guitar for a client . It belonged to his dad who has passed away. He was an engineer who played jazz for his hobby. The best we could ascertain is that the CC was made by Gibson as he had a few others of the same type and that he did the mod himself. Out of his 15 guitars this was his favorite / pride and joy ?
I hope that helps!
Will take all offers to client ? lmk if you have any more questions . Thank you !"

[Fred Archtop]

I contacted the seller about the pickup. Here's the reply:

"Hey! Thank you for your interest
I am selling this guitar for a client . It belonged to his dad who has passed away. He was an engineer who played jazz for his hobby. The best we could ascertain is that the CC was made by Gibson as he had a few others of the same type and that he did the mod himself. Out of his 15 guitars this was his favorite / pride and joy ?
I hope that helps!
Will take all offers to client ? lmk if you have any more questions . Thank you !"

Can we assume that Gibson could have bought the PU from a third-party builder like Roswell PU?

[DMgolf66]

I contacted the seller about the pickup. Here's the reply:

"Hey! Thank you for your interest
I am selling this guitar for a client . It belonged to his dad who has passed away. He was an engineer who played jazz for his hobby. The best we could ascertain is that the CC was made by Gibson as he had a few others of the same type and that he did the mod himself. Out of his 15 guitars this was his favorite / pride and joy ?
I hope that helps!
Will take all offers to client ? lmk if you have any more questions . Thank you !"

I was just gonna post that. Same exact correspondence I had with her a fee days ago. She's been very nice. I do like to see how quickly people jump to conclusions on something g like this.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I do like to see how quickly people jump to conclusions on something g like this.

To be honest, I think the conclusions are largely both correct and justified. The entire project, from design and planning to execution, is amateurish and crude. Along with the hole in the top, the fact that the pickguard cutout is flared through the binding seems to support the idea that there was originally a humbucker in there. How many of you would have plunked that version of the CC into it when there are CCs in HB-sized cases that would drop right in without modification. And if the original owner was an engineer, he could easily have fabricated a HB-sized housing for a CC himself. This is what I would have done, rather than make crude mods that stick out like sore digits - and I'm not an engineer.

What we can see of the workmanship suggests that he used only the skills and experience he'd acquired as an engineer to do it, without regard for the instrument itself. There's no factual information at all on which to base a judgment that it's all kosher. A second hand statement that "The best we could ascertain is that the CC was made by Gibson" is hardly provenance. And there's absolutely no way to verify any of the supposition offered by the seller. It may all be true and accurate - but it doesn't change the fact that a wonderful instrument was modified inexpertly by an amateur.

As has been said, it may sound wonderful and play very well. But between the pickup hole in the top and the screw-mounted mass of the current pickup, it's hard to imagine that it's very good acoustically. Remember what's hanging on underneath the top:



And the fact that it's being presented for sale with a missing string at what I think most of us would agree is much too high a price suggests that neither the seller nor the consigner pays meticulous attention to detail. If you want top dollar for something, you go out of your way to justify asking for it.

I could be wrong, but that's how I see it.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I'm thinking this may be it. Notice the screws.

Charlie Christian Pickup for Arch Top Guitars – Roswell Pickups

The screws are not the same. The heads are different shapes, and the screw slots in the Roswell do not extend to the outer edges of the heads. Those on the guitar in the OP do.

[Woody Sound]

As has been said, it may sound wonderful and play very well. But between the pickup hole in the top and the screw-mounted mass of the current pickup, it's hard to imagine that it's very good acoustically. Remember what's hanging on underneath the top:

It was good enough for Hank.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

It was good enough for Hank.

But he only played CCs through an amp. I can’t recall ever seeing any guitars with original style CCs screwed onto the tops played acoustically by a known player. Even CC himself almost always played them through an EH-150.

Chopping up a Wesmo to get the sound of an ES150 with a CC in it just seems wrong to me.

[Mark M.]

But he only played CCs through an amp. I can’t recall ever seeing any guitars with original style CCs screwed onto the tops played acoustically by a known player. Even CC himself almost always played them through an EH-150.

Chopping up a Wesmo to get the sound of an ES150 with a CC in it just seems wrong to me.

Yep. What a mess.

[Mark M.]

I contacted the seller about the pickup. Here's the reply:

"Hey! Thank you for your interest
I am selling this guitar for a client . It belonged to his dad who has passed away. He was an engineer who played jazz for his hobby. The best we could ascertain is that the CC was made by Gibson as he had a few others of the same type and that he did the mod himself. Out of his 15 guitars this was his favorite / pride and joy ?
I hope that helps!
Will take all offers to client ? lmk if you have any more questions . Thank you !"

Not buying it.

[DMgolf66]

Wow, haha, the evisceration and cynicism is even worse than I thought it would be when I posted it.

[DMgolf66]

I'm careful, not cynical.

[Woody Sound]

But he only played CCs through an amp. I can’t recall ever seeing any guitars with original style CCs screwed onto the tops played acoustically by a known player. Even CC himself almost always played them through an EH-150.

I rarely hear anyone play a CES acoustically.

[2-5Guy]

That bridge looks like it's about as low as it can go.

[Drifter]

Just for comparison, this is how the Crimson Custom Shop made them:

[hotpepper01]

I think that a nice guitar like a L5 should not only sound good, plays even better but also has to look fancy and clean. Even after a modification.

Earlier this year I was planning to put humbucker size Alnico V staple pickups in a brandnew L5. That failed due a crack in the top of the L5. Do not be afraid of modifications to a great guitar in order to make it better.
And speaking about "butchering", there was this guy who did it all the time and I think that thanks to his - and others - many attempts and failures we now have our modern gear. look what he once did to a L5. Butchered to the max, has his signature all over, wrong or correct TRC depending how you want to see it, but I think very much a high value collectors item..

[Woody Sound]

Just for comparison, this is how the Crimson Custom Shop made them:

So much for "Why put a cc in an L5?" Well Gibson thinks it's works.

[ThatRhythmMan]

So much for "Why put a cc in an L5?" Well Gibson thinks it's works.

Super 400 too!


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[Dennis D]

Super 400 too!


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Back in the day, one of the ' Founding Fathers ' around here - -Manty Ellis - - used one of those a lot.

[ChazFromCali]

It's one thing to bugger up a Mexican tele or strat but this is just wrong. Compounding the felony, as pointed out, it was done badly too.

[ThatRhythmMan]

That pickup surround has to be made of wood, not clear plastic. It’s clearly not spruce.


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[Cunamara]

I knew a guy who had one of those L5s with the Charlie Christian pickup in it; if I remember correctly, his was wine red. Darn nice sounding guitar. He wasn't really all that happy with it, thinking he would've been happier with a humbucker, but I thought it had a really nice tone. And of course it had the standard good playability of a Gibson L5. In some ways it's the modern incarnation of the ES 250.

[Woody Sound]

That pickup surround has to be made of wood, not clear plastic. It’s clearly not spruce.

That's what I was sayin'! (It could be spruce, but with a completely different grain pattern and definitely not the same piece of wood through clear plastic.)