Armstrong or SD Benedetto S-6

[Freeman Keller]

A friend recently purchased a lovey little Anderson archtop and is considering having me install a floating pickup



I've used the SD Benedetto humbucker in a couple of hollow and semi hollows and really like the warn lush tone, but I have no experience with the floating S-6. He is leaning towards the Kent Armstrong because, as he says, that is probably what the builder would have used. I'll mount a single pot for volume under the edge of the pick guard.

[deacon Mark]

I say a KA and if you need one I have one made by him personally. You can mount on guard. PM if interested it will be a deal compared to what he gets. Just need to know the height at the strings to make sure you have enough room.

[Freeman Keller]

I say a KA and if you need one I have one made by him personally. You can mount on guard. PM if interested it will be a deal compared to what he gets. Just need to know the height at the strings to make sure you have enough room.

Thanks Mark, I'll talk to the owner.

[bluejaybill]

He should probably ask the builder for advice on what has worked best for him in the past.

I have the KA 12 pole and I like it a lot, great adjustability for setting balance in addition to tone. I would encourage you to add a tone control, I always think that's important to be able to get that rolled off treble jazz tone.

[sgosnell]

To add a contrarian view, I don't bother to put a tone control on mine, and for the ones that do have tone controls, I rarely, if ever, roll it off of full on. I prefer to let the full tone spectrum leave the guitar, and adjust the tone at the amp. But that's just one way of doing it, and whatever gets you the sound you want is fine.

[entresz]

I wouldn't recommend the Benedetto S6. The string balance is terrible (high E is way too loud, B way too quiet) and not adjustable. I tried so many different sets of strings but nothing really worked.

[sgosnell]

Really, the B is too quiet? That's the first time I've heard of that being the case on a magnetic pickup. Usually the B is too loud, because of its diameter.

[entresz]

Really, the B is too quiet? That's the first time I've heard of that being the case on a magnetic pickup. Usually the B is too loud, because of its diameter.

Surprisingly, yes - the B string was extremely quiet in relation to the high E especially (which was extremely loud!), the rest of the strings were somewhere in between.

[sgosnell]

Some makers of blade style pickups will notch the blade, making it lower under the B string to compensate for its usual loudness, and I suppose sometimes lower it too much. I wouldn't condemn all S6 pickups for that, because it's the first time I've heard of that happening.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I say a KA and if you need one I have one made by him personally.

I have a KA handwound 12 pole on my Eastman Jazz Elite and love it. But I also have a Benedetto B on my Ibanez archtop, and it's another excellent jazz pickup. Both are quite silent, and both seem to push the true sound of the guitar through the amp and out of the speaker.

I've also not encountered the degree of string volume disparity that entresz describes in the few Benedetto pickups I've tried or in any other except when polepieces were at strange heights. It makes me wonder if there's an internal defect of some kind in his example. It'd be interesting to put a different pickup in the guitar to see if the pickup is the culprit.

[KirkP]

I wouldn't recommend the Benedetto S6. The string balance is terrible (high E is way too loud, B way too quiet) and not adjustable. I tried so many different sets of strings but nothing really worked.

I wonder if that imbalance might have been reduced by lowering the pickup a bit on the high E side. Internal to the pickup there should be something like a notch or lowered pole piece to reduce the signal from the B string. Its effect might be exaggerated if the pickup were mounted closer to the strings than Benedetto intended.

I’m considering a Seymour Duncan Benedetto S6 pickup, but the lack of adjustable pole pieces makes me wonder if I’d end up dealing with a similar issue. Also, that pickup is marketed as being compatible with either bronze or nickel wound strings, but that would imply that some kind of compromise was made to split the difference between them. Adjustable pole pieces would make such a compromise unnecessary.

On the other hand, Benedetto uses the S6 on guitars priced over $23,000, so I’ve got to believe if the S6 is installed per Benedetto spec satisfactory string balance can be achieved. I’d be interested in whether other players have had issues with string balance on the S6 pickups, and if so what strings were used and whether the pickup was on a Benedetto guitar or something else.

[entresz]

I wonder if that imbalance might have been reduced by lowering the pickup a bit on the high E side. Internal to the pickup there should be something like a notch or lowered pole piece to reduce the signal from the B string. Its effect might be exaggerated if the pickup were mounted closer to the strings than Benedetto intended.

I’m considering a Seymour Duncan Benedetto S6 pickup, but the lack of adjustable pole pieces makes me wonder if I’d end up dealing with a similar issue. Also, that pickup is marketed as being compatible with either bronze or nickel wound strings, but that would imply that some kind of compromise was made to split the difference between them. Adjustable pole pieces would make such a compromise unnecessary.

On the other hand, Benedetto uses the S6 on guitars priced over $23,000, so I’ve got to believe if the S6 is installed per Benedetto spec satisfactory string balance can be achieved. I’d be interested in whether other players have had issues with string balance on the S6 pickups, and if so what strings were used and whether the pickup was on a Benedetto guitar or something else.

That is possible. The guitar I had it on had limited clearance (1979 Maton Starline), so lowering the pickup wasn't an option, and it was fairly close to the strings. In my experience moving the entire pickup further away tends to minimise string balance problems. With that said, the balance issues I had with the S6 are probably the most severe I've had with any pickup. In my case it was not useable.

I wonder if the S6 as fitted to a high end Benedetto is actually same as the version available for purchase? They might make their own 'handmade' version for their own high end guitars.

[sgosnell]

Benedetto buys pickups from Seymour Duncan, AFAIK. I'm sure they don't wind their own pickups.