Archtop adventures

[jedzep]

I was all hot to add a bridge pickup to my '65 T100 Natural, a trebly maple hunk of wood. My son, the real musician in the family, warned me that the addition of a bridge PU would do nothing other than to accentuate the treble tone of a guitar that had those tendencies by design. So here I am, an acoustic player, trying to push into a new realm with this real nice hollow body, happy to play jazzy chording styles, but wondering if I could fill out the sound by adding a pickup. I know you nerds will chime in and help me sort out the hypotheticals. Wassup?

 

[yettoblaster]

There's a bunch of thin pickups out there you could fit without modifying the guitar.

I used to campaign an old Epiphone Century with one (necK) P-90, and used a clamp-on DeArmond for a bridge pickup.

Those are hard to find now, but Kent Armstrong and Benedetto make some floating archtop pickups you could attach to the pickguard or such.

It's a rare full hollow archtop that can benefit from adding a bridge pickup, to my ears. When I want treble I also want sustain usually. Not all archtops can provide the sustain I'd want from a bridge pickup.
My X-150 has two pickups, but I almost never use the bridge pickup, combined or alone. I have other guitars for those duties. :idea:

 

[Walter Broes]

all about taste and the music you want to play - I play my X175 with Franz pickups 90% of the time I'm on stage, and for the Roots/Blues/Rock and Roll/Rockabilly/Honk Tonk stuff I play, I spend about an equal amount of time on all three positions of the pickup switch.

The treble pickup by itself isn't a beautiful, warm sound by itself, but perfect in a band mix for a lot of tunes. The neck pickup on that guitar is a glorious, fat, beautiful, finger-lickin' good tone, but not for all songs and keys and arrangments and guitar parts in a band setting, because it can get lost in the mix, however glorious it sounds when I'm playing alone - and that's a Franz neck pickup I'm talking about, not shy in the treble department at all.

 

[yettoblaster]

Fair enough.

I still don't like modifying vintage guitars in ways that can't be reversed, but if there's enough room back by the bridge I'd consider a little Barge cement (vs screws) for an installation.

 

[Walter Broes]

I agree, pretty much, but if you can find a matching vintage pickup, I don't mind at all. Then again, dual pickup T-100's are plentiful and fairly cheap, making the whole exercise a little silly, and probably more expensive than a trade + a little cash.

 

[yettoblaster]

...if you can find a matching vintage pickup, I don't mind at all...

I could see that. It's then a conversion to another model. Makes sense.

 

[Brad Little]

I would go with the suggestion to find a floating pickup. Easy to reverse the process if you ever want to. I have read good things about the K & K archtop pickups, but they do require a half inch endpin hole. I've never heard one, though.
http://www.kksound.com/purearchtop.html

Brad

 

[dbirchett]

I like the K&K pickups that I have in my acoustics but those are different animals. If you are interested in the K&K Archtop, you could splice the K&K and your Franz pickups into a stereo jack to avoid having to drill out for an end pin jack.