Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

[seafoamer]

*inspired by the cool p.a.f. prototype thread*

With all the pick-up afficionado's on this board, some of u must have some cool/unusual pick-ups to show.

It'd be cool to see some electromechanical eye candy.
So, join in, yo!

here's some o' mine:
http://www.brandonarzillo.com/p-ups.htm

The dearmonds were on my carved archtops that I sold.
The Kay p-up, is temporarily on the crappy Kay gtr it came on. Bought the gtr for the p-up which has one of my favorite warm, round straight-jazz gtr sound. Someday I'll rig this to a fitting gtr.
The PAF is in my 1957 Gibson ES175.

 

[theodie]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Here are two duncans you dont see every day. The first is a custom shop Nokie Edwards strat HB duo and the second is a Scott Ian costom shop.

 

[Im_in_Disguise]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Lace Alumitones. They seem to use one of the basic design elements of Q-tuners but apart from that they're supposed to be a completely different animal.

What do those beasts sound like and how much will they set me back?

 

[Artie]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

This one's pretty unusual:

Renaissance Guitars - Model T

Its from Rick Turner, of Duncan-Turner Acoustic Research.

 

[theodie]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Q-tuner. I own one and sounds terrific! It gives a new meaning to the words 'transparent', 'detailed' and 'dynamic'. I'm changing all of my pickups for Q-tuners now.

Those are crazy looking pickups. What sort of styles do you play? How much do they go for?

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Seafomer....you own a genuine 57' PAF??? I'm impressed. Share with us about that pickup....Killer???

 

[seafoamer]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Seafomer....you own a genuine 57' PAF??? I'm impressed. Share with us about that pickup....Killer???

Yeah, The PAF is in my 1957 Gibson 175. It was my main gtr for a while, when I was playing mostly jazz. I was a bit of an archtop connoisseur back then and traded an older jazz player a 1952 Gibson L7 for it. The guy I traded for it, had no care about what kind of p-up was in it & (to be honest w/ u)neither did I, at the time. Plus, he got a really cool Dearmond floating p-up on the L7, just like my gold one, except silver.

The PAF is in the neck position of the 175. It is a single pickup gtr. I have never put it in another gtr and probably wont ever. I don't want to mess with it, as it has all original wiring, pots etc. The most I have done was to take it out to see the patent applied for sticker on the bottom. (I have some pics of the bottom, on a disc at work somewhere).

It is hard to know how much mojo is coming from the PAF & how much is coming from the gtr. The gtr itself is an unbelievable player, and the sound acousticlly is pretty much to die for. Especially if u like that woody archtop sound.

What the PAF does for me? I have never had a p-up that seems to do what this one does. I like a real warm round sound & most p-ups that give u a warm, round sound, seem to do so at the expense of focus & clarity. The PAF is so creamy, but at the same time so focused. The balance, stg to stg is superb. As though I am playing on one stg, when I'm switching. It has a real natural growl to it when the amp is over driven. Never seems to sound harsh, but always seems to have balls.

There are websites & people out there who seem to spend their lives talking, studying and fantisizing about the PAF. I'm not one of those guys, but I know why they do it. It's an amazing p-up. And when I plug my 175 into a great tube amp, it is pretty much a religious experience.

Part of me really wants to hear what it would sound like in a solid body. I've played PAF's in solid bodies before, but at times I want to put mine in one of my solid bodies for an extended period of time and do some of my recording with it. Although, I pretty much doubt I will ever do that because of the integrity of the 175 as an original untouched piece.

Hope that answers u'r question. Now that I have my home studio built up, if I ever record w/ the PAF, I'll post some clips.

 

[Rainmaker]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

I've always thought the lipstick tube looks ULTRA cool!

Bee

 

[Artie]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

BTW, in an ebony guitar it sounds like this: http://www.q-tuner.com/Guitar.wav

Heh - heh . . . you should warn people that that's a 50mb file.

Also, if I recall correctly, you won't hear the full fidelity of that file unless your soundcard supports 96khz, 24-bit playback.

 

[Artie]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Ooops, you're right. But it gives some hints about the pup's potential. Thanks.

Yup. I downloaded it and listened to it. (My soundcard doesn't support that standard.) But it still sounded fantastic!

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Thanks for the review Seafomer. That's a real cool piece of history you have there.

 

[seafoamer]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Bump for more eye candy. Somebody's gotta have some cool p-ups to show off!

 

[tomkatf]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Well, Here's the most unusual one I have, it's one of pair(the other is different and has the mfgr's name on it) on an L-5 sized hollowbody from the early '50's. ...Any guesses?? I assume a Strat-sized single coil under the plastic and MOTS cover...

Best,
Tom

 

[seafoamer]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

^ wow, that's cool looking. What kind of hollowbody? How's it sound?

 

[tomkatf]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

Here's a clue...(see logo on pickup!) These pickups are on a c. 1955
Teisco EP-13. Photo of similar guitar here:

EP-13

Guitar sounds kind of cool...fat, woody and lo-fi... Japan has always been a bit wood poor and unfortunately the neck has a pretty bad warp. I've never seen another like it though.

Best,
Tom

 

[seafoamer]

Re: Post PICS of cool/unusual pickups

COOL! I 've played lots of gtrs like that. (older low-budget vibey Kays, Teiscos, etc) The necks always seem to be the downfall. Most of them don't seem to use the greatest materials, but for some reason the bodys always sound great. But the nature of the beast means that the necks need to be playable, and low budget materials & companies almost always fall short in this dept.
Very cool looking p-ups, and I do like that warm, round lo-fi sound also. That gtr definately borrows from the Gibson L-5 especially with the tailpiece.

Thanx for sharin'!!!