Dynas for a NS Starfire?

X-170AB

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I love the sound of Dynasonic pickups, and miss my '61 Starfire II that had them. They seem to be getting harder to come by; even looking at the Gretsch line-up, very few (Duane Eddy) have Dynas in both neck and bridge positions.

Which let me to a thought: The LB-1 "Little Buckers" in the current Newark Street guitars measure 93 x 41 millimeters, including the bezel. T-Armonds in the DeArmond mount measure 85.85 x 40.3 millimeters. That's not very far - see where I'm going? Has anyone thought about or tried installing a set of original Dynas or T-Armonds in a LB-routed guitar? Can anyone think of a compelling reason it wouldn't work to do so?

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Walter Broes

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LTG-er Daniel Foster has done exactly that with a set of T-Armonds, it might come up in a search. He reported you need slightly oversized spacers to cover up the short sides of the humbucker rout, but it's very do-able. Steer clear of the Current Gretsch Dearmond copies, they're not all that great.
 

Los Angeles

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I’ve always suspected that back in the 60s, guild designed the mini bucker to fit the same rout. That way, they would save time (and money) because they would not have to retool the machines for each pickup.
 

matsickma

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The vintage DeArmond mounting holes are spaced slightly closer together than the vintage Guild MiniHumbuckers.

I currently have vintage DeA pups on a De400 in lieu of the stock mini HB. I used the same pickup screw holes by angling the mounting screws into the mini HB holes. The pickup route is compatible between both pickup types.

A problem you can run into on some guitars is that the DeA pickup body can be relatively high when compared to a humbucker. The humbucker can be adjusted down into the body of the guitar. The DeA are top mounted to the guitar so if they are too high you may have to physically modify the guitar body which I won't do to most guitars.

M
 

X-170AB

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dhdfoster - That's great, thanks! It looks like you used exactly T-Armonds with the Dearmond mount. Did you make the spacers yourself, or adapt something already existing. It looks like there is enough room under the strings for the Dynas to fit, although I notice you've got the slugs on the neck pickup down pretty far. Did you happen to do a thread on this mod (so I don't ask you the same questions all over again)?
 

dhdfoster

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No, I did not do it myself. There was a time when I would attempt things like this, but that was a long, long time ago in a place very far away. :)

Joking aside, I had SF Guitarworks do it. They are regular T-Armonds with the stock spacers, and that's just adhesive vinyl under them to cover the gap. The gap is quite small. You could probably even get away with smaller spacers.

I didn't start my own thread about. There was another thread started by someone else that wanted to do the same thing, so posted in that one. Can't remember the title.

There is, indeed, enough room under the strings. It came from the shop with the poles that low, and I've had no reason to raise them. It sounds great without the boominess in the neck position.
 

dhdfoster

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Actually, lately, it's been my MIM Tele with added bigsby and TV Jones Tele pickups. The Startire causes my Supro to run out of headroom very quickly, but it does sound great.
 

DThomasC

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I know that any of the TV Jones pickups in the filteron sized cover will fit in the lb1 mounting rings if you open up the long side of the ring about 1/64" on each side. With their so-called universal mount, you can use the pups with height adjustment screws.

This won't have the traditional dynasonic look, but you get the advantage of adjustable height, which I find to be really critical with dynasonics.
 
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