Charlie Christian Pickups

[Chickenwings]

Gday all. I have a very old gibson L50 which I believe is almost identical to the old ES150 except for the lack of a pickup. I play jazz (mainly swing) and really dig the sound Charlie Christian used to pull. SO, i am thinking of cutting a gaping hole into the fifty year old solid archtop and installing a replica of the CC pickup. Has anyone here played with one of the Seymour Duncan recreations or perhaps another brand (i believe there is a crew called cc pickups who specialize in these). Please do not tell me how your pickup sounds in a telecaster or whatever. I really would like to hear from archtop players. Does the top need reinforcing? Do those big springs make a rattle etc. If you play an old es 150 or have installed a CC into another archtop then give me your thoughts. Thanks for your input.

 

[PatrickGinnaty]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

I LOVE the electric sound of my '36 ES-150. I'm tempted to put a Charlie Christian pickup into a 60s cutaway Kay archtop I got for my birthday, to use for gigs. I've looked at Seymour's CC repro, Jason Lollar's CC repro, and the CC company repro, but... the only non-original pickups I have in any of my guitars are Seymour's Antiquities, so I guess you can tell which way I'm leaning towards... Seymour knows tone.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

man i dont know if id cut up such a cool old guitar. ive never tried the duncan cc pup but i tried the lollar and its really nice. nice round tone but with good clarity, i didnt notice any noise from the pup assembly. pretty invasive install though add seemed to add more weight than i thought or at least changed the balance.

i would shoot for a top mount pup that doesnt perminantly effect the guitar if you want to electrify it.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

Gday all. I have a very old gibson L50 which I believe is almost identical to the old ES150 except for the lack of a pickup. I play jazz (mainly swing) and really dig the sound Charlie Christian used to pull. SO, i am thinking of cutting a gaping hole into the fifty year old solid archtop and installing a replica of the CC pickup. Has anyone here played with one of the Seymour Duncan recreations or perhaps another brand (i believe there is a crew called cc pickups who specialize in these). Please do not tell me how your pickup sounds in a telecaster or whatever. I really would like to hear from archtop players. Does the top need reinforcing? Do those big springs make a rattle etc. If you play an old es 150 or have installed a CC into another archtop then give me your thoughts. Thanks for your input.

Don't do it. That's a rare guitar from an era and time period that will never exist again. Don't ruin the vibe of that guitar by altering it.

 

[Elfunkenstein]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

Honestly, they sell jazz guitar pickups that you can attach to the end of the neck or to the pickguard without doing any real invasive surgery. The tone may not be up there with the charlie christian pickup, but it's better to do that than to cut up such a beautiful rare guitar.

 

[ES350]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

Depending on the year, the L50 is pretty close to either the 30's ES150 or the 50's version with P90, etc. If it's your guitar and you are going to play the daylights out of it, I would do it. The L50 is not exactly an L5 or even an L7, and there were plenty of guys back in the day who stuffed CC's in them...think of it as a 'vintage mod'.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

What about a floating neck pick up that you can easily remove if you do not want it anymore ?

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

Yes - all great replies thanks! I initially thought about a floating pickup, but the neck mounts straight on to the body more or less so there is no room for a neck mounted pickup under the strings. A pickguard mounted floating pickup may work but it would have to be thinnner than any ive seen yet. I should mention that the axe is currently being refretted and refinished. A previous owner "restored" this guitar already- replaced the binding nicely, and then painted the back and sides black, did his own sunburst on the top and refinished it all with regular bought at the hardware gloss poly lacquer. He did a pretty good job for a hobbyist, but this guitar is far from being all original never been played. Still it sounds so lovely acoustically I know i should not cut into the top- but man i dig the sound of the swing era! Of course a replica of a gibson eH150 amp would be pretty hip too.
I did initially buy this axe to play straight 4 to the bar rhythm acoustically in a big(ish) band playing at a festival later this year. Perhaps i should just do that. Either way -when it comes back from the luthier its going to look better and play better than it used to - pickup or no pickup.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

I LOVE the electric sound of my '36 ES-150. I'm tempted to put a Charlie Christian pickup into a 60s cutaway Kay archtop I got for my birthday, to use for gigs. I've looked at Seymour's CC repro, Jason Lollar's CC repro, and the CC company repro, but... the only non-original pickups I have in any of my guitars are Seymour's Antiquities, so I guess you can tell which way I'm leaning towards... Seymour knows tone.

Lucky bugger - now just to find the amp to match!

 

[ACH91332]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

I agree with Lew anyways. A budy of mine has an old 12 string acoustic (forgot what brand or model exactly) which has a neck single coil that was aftermarket. Despite the modification and replacement of the tuners it is worth over $12K today. There's not many left that are playable.

Even though your guitar isn't "original" it is playable still despite its age. I personally wouldn't alter it any more than it already is unless I had a professional do it. Even then I might be skeptical. It is probably very valuable to a lot of collectors and could end up paying off a huge bill down the road if you run into some trouble.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

If a floating neck unit will not fit, how about this very slim unit ?

http://www.lacemusic.com/acoustic_pi.../usa_specs.php

Works for Chris Whitley !

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Charlie Christian Pickups

That is definitely a slim unit! I might put one on my resonator. its not really a swig era kind of pickup tho - all smooth modern and humbucking. Has anyone had expeience with the Kent Armstrong floating pups?