"McCarty" CA-100

Hi all.....

I'm quite fond of these McCarty pickguard/pickup units on my old Gibson archtops.
Its kind of neat how without alteration, one can easily convert an acoustic archtop to an electric....but what surprised me the most was how well these actually work.

My '45 L-7's McCarty is what got me started....and I can't get enough of the low output single coil sound of these things.



One of these days will have to figure out the sound clip thing but for now you'll have to take my word for it.
Suffice to say.....they're surprisingly Franz like, not much like a P-90. With the pickup being a floater, the sound of that acoustic archtop is definitely still evident.

They made these for both the 17" Gibson L-7's and L-5's but also could be found on the L-4c model.


With that McCarty L-4c idea in mind I set out to make one for my '61 CA-100 using the Guild pickguard shape as a template.....and a pickup from a wreck I got on Ebay.

So here 'tis...




I've yet to put volume or tone controls on this, and may not bother. I run my volume and tone wide open most of the time anyway with volume and EQ pedals. If I do will probably use the under pickguard "stealth" mounted versions.

So thats it....lots of fun.....this Guild sounds great!

ziz

Well Ziz, at the very least it looks good ! Nice job.

nice work, you made that yourself?

Yes I did I'm proud to say....but I had my troublesome moments...

Its cut from the .120 5 ply "Gibson" type pickguard sheet that Stew-Mac sells.....

So I traced the CA-100's original guard, then grafted on a tracing of an original McCarty pickguard's pickup extension.
Actually used a photocopy of the McCarty and had the positions for the poles as well.

So I cut the new pickguard out with the extension that matched the shape of the McCarty guard.
Its a good idea to keep the protective film on the sheet through the whole process BTW.
Next used a belt sander and scrapers to make the bevel.....had to do that by eye, but not hard to do.

The tough part was drilling accurately for the polepieces and milling out a cavity underneath so the pickup nestled up into the plastic.
That I did using a milling bit on a drill press.....here being patient and taking a little at a time was the only way, as the plastic would heat up and come close to distorting without giving it a rest.

I probably ought to find a friendly machine shop with a proper milling machine to do the next one!

I'll show the wiring underneath when I've got that tidied up.

ziz

Good old D.I.Y. ! 8)

Good on ya Ziz.

zizala said:

Its cut from the .120 5 ply "Gibson" type pickguard sheet that Stew-Mac sells.....

Click to expand...

Hey, that's the same stuff I used for the guard on my main X175, I glued an extra ply of white under mine. Made mine with stoneage tools, a saw, file, and sandpaper. Had the engraving done at the local trophy shop.

Well thats cool Walter!

I never knew your personal "logo" (which I've always admired BTW) was engraved down to the white layer.
Thought it was a sticker or a decal.

Now you've got me spinning.....thats a great idea......

ziz

Thanks! It's a little crude close-up, but it looks good as soon as you take one step back... :lol:

That looks great ziz, I love it. I think it sets off the top really well because of the contrast