What HB for a plywood archtop?

[hamerfan]

The guitar is a korean made copy of a Gibson L5 with two ceramic humbuckers. The wood is rather thick maple plywood with a maple neck and rosewood board. The bridge is floating with a wood top, but could be changed to a ABR (leftover from a 80ies Gibson ES 347)
The tone is typical archtop but hard and compressed due to the plywood and not very open. What would your choice of pups?

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: What HB for a plywood archtop?

Err.... well... the most "open" SD pickups i've heard\played, has to be the Jazz\JB combo. They seem to have an "air" and a very open presence in the mids\upper mids.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: What HB for a plywood archtop?

For that guitar, I'd do a Jazz in the neck and a 59 in the bridge. Either that, or a Phat Cat set would be great.

 

[ES350]

Re: What HB for a plywood archtop?

Well, at least it won't feed back much with a stiff top. If you think it's hard sounding now, don't use the ABR. Best SD's I've used in archtops are Seth Lovers, 59's, and the Jazz. The Seths sound fantastic on carved tops, the others seem better with ply. It also depends what you want to do with it---legit jazz ? rockabilly ? blues ? swing ? Ted Nugent tribute band ? ...A straight up set of dogear P90's can really work well on some of the cheaper ply boxes for retro stuff.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: What HB for a plywood archtop?

Thank you guys, my first try was Humbucker sized P90 called Domino (from the forerunner company of Duesenberg) in the bridge. It a kind of low toned P90. I gave a fuller low mids but doesnt get the open thing going on. In my spares i do have JB, a Custom, a Dimarzio PAF, DiMarzio VPAF Bridge and OBL L500R. My second guess would be the Domino into the neck and the VPAF in Bridge.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: What HB for a plywood archtop?

I would try the VPAF Bridge in the neck position. That pickup is very open sounding, and should add a little pseudo dynamics to that hard top. Actually I have the neck version, but I imagine the bridge version being a little fatter, which is what you need. Otherwise there's always the Alnico II's, they would warm it up.

What's impossible about your predicament is that you want to introduce dynamics where they don't exist. The wooden bridge is probably the best choice. For a slightly more distinct tone you could try the Bartolini PBF55/57 combo, and I suspect you'd end your search. You might have to think outside the box, since no matter how "vintage" you go with your pickups, the only thing they will do is more purely amplify your already lackluster acoustic tone. The Bartolinis would add some "Sprucy crispness" that you aren't getting from the laminated Maple, as well as more string-to-string separation, which is the kind of thing you get from a better quality solid top. So they could fool the ear better than a typical Dimarzio/Duncan PAF variant.

 

[Natman]

Re: What HB for a plywood archtop?

Your guitar sounds like it's built much like Gretsches. I'd go for TV Jones TV Trons -they're filtertrons fit for regular humbucker size! Bet you'd love it.