Lunch Report, 2/9/12 - Thursday Different Pickup Combo Day

[zombywoof]

Gonna have to do this one a bit early as I will be hitting the road today and not sure when I will be back in.

Lunch - Man does not live by bread alone. My travels today will take me very close to one of my favorite music stores in the universe - Mass Street Music. So for Woof today lunch is probbaly gonna be some eye candy. If my tummy grumbling starts drowning out the guitars I will probably grab a Double Quarterpounder with cheese at Micky D's off the highway on the way home.

G&L Thought of the Day.

OK today you guys with that I don't need no stinkin' two pickups the same attitude get your chance to sound off. Slapping different pups on a guitar is, of course, a time honored tradition. Back in the 1960s many of us took a shot at adding a humbucker or P-90 to a Melody Maker. Sometimes we ended up butchering the poor instrument - but other times you walked out in that bar with a guitar that really had something to say.

For me when I think of guitars with mismatched pickups the Keefcaster and Coodercaster come to mind. So all you cats out there, lets here you shout to the Heavens about your Customs, Bluesboys and whatever else G&L has put together through the years.

Musical Hodgepodge - The Stuff that Dreams Were Made Of

Back when I was a kid and hankering to strap on an electric six string, there were no guitar meglomarts. Heck, music stores in general were few and far between. You were more likely to see your first real live electric geetar at a Western Auto store as a music shop.

For us geezers, the Sears and Monkey Wards catalogs were our Guitar Centers. Page after page of guitars in every body style and pickup configuration you could think of. It did not matter that most of them were built by Harmony and Kay instead of Fender and Gibson (although you could get Gibson pups on at least two Silvertones). They were guitars. These were the instruments that launched a thousand garage bands and the ones we played when we knew that fame and fortune were right around the corner.
Hey, when you listen to the opening riff on the Kinks "All Day and All of the Night" you ain't hearing a Gibson or Fender. That's Dave Davies playing a Harmony Meteor with DeArmond pickups.

These days that tradition of getting you into a guitar no matter how slim your wallet may be is carried on with Fender Squires, G&L Tributes and a whole slew of others.

So today I would like to celebrate those bottom of the food chain guitars - and I say that not with derision but with the utmost love. Lets hear your stories and, as usual, post pics if you got 'em - especially you Tribute guys.

My contibution - I always seem to have a Harmony or Kay around. While most are of the acoustic variety (and most of those dating from the Great Depression years) I can offer up this one. A 1963 Alden-badged Harmony Stratotone Mars (Alden being the name of the store that sold them). This little sweetie sold for $39.95. The two pickup version would cost you $20 more. Or for the same money you could get the single pickup version and amp.

The amp is an Airline-badged Supro Sportsman. It was made in 1967 when Valco was going belly up and I guess to clear out the warehouse and fill as many orders as possible, they literally just slapped an Airline logo on the thing and sent it out to Wards. Kinda looks like the dashboard of a 1965 Rambler. The cab is also a throwback - a Fender Bandmaster cab loaded with two 1956 RCA speakers.





That Be It For today.

[kakerlak]

I do not have any mismatched G&Ls. OTOH, I do have a guitar that covers most of the categories of discourse today, the Supro Ozark I showed you guys yesterday...

Thing is on the prehistoric end of the solid body elctric timeline and super funky. It's very clear once you get it in your hands that it comes from a time where nothing had been done long enough to be considered "conventional." Neck is thick and kind of flat, and rolls back in towards the fretboard a lot. Frets are basically mandolin/banjo wire (much skinnier than vintage Fender). They also decided to mount their single, neck pickup via a metal arm and a screw through the fretboard. Funky 3-D leather textured plastic pickguard, tone and volume knobs are in the opposite locations of most guitars and the tone knob is wired backwards (treble rolls off as you turn clockwise). Jack is the old style screw-on mic cable type.

As for the mismatched pickups aspect... This guitar is something I inherited from my dad, who was a drummer. As appears to have been the prevailing wisdom of the early 70s, he added a 2nd pickup. The pickup in the bridge spot is the coil from a DeArmond soundhole unit, mounted into a block of wood that's, in turn, screwed onto the top of the guitar. No routing, but then, all the electronics were above the body, hence the bulbous pickguard. Couple of mini-toggles for on/off on each pickup. That soundhole pickup is really a great compliment to the stock neck pickup. Neck pickup is crude, raunchy, with a real lo-fi woof to it if you roll the treble off, sounds like a lot of early '50s blues recordings, likely b/c it's the same guitar behind more than a few of them. The soundhole pickup is surprisingly bright, brittle shrieking. Together, it makes for one low down axe.

That's a lot of rambling on the Supro... Other mismatches: I have a thinline parts tele with the Strat neck/Tele bridge setup and a '52-style parts tele with the stock setup, which is technically a mismatch. Neither of those is really "out there" though and everything else I have has various numbers of identical pickups. I do daydream of all sorts of "this pickup and that pickup" setups, but am just not inclined to hack up one of my instruments or really to spend money on gear at all anymore...

Other cheap-os: I guess you can throw the SC-3 into that lot. Wife has one of the first Danelectro reissues that she got new. It's pretty fun, though I think I like it more than she does these days. '67 Tennesseean is sort of on the low end side of the Gretsch spectrum, but it's a long way away from the kind of guitars that have little foil stickers, saying "Steel Reinforced Neck."

[darwinohm]

I am a bit under the weather today and just wimping around. I was craving sauerkraut and had a big bowl and no, I do not have morning sickness!

I only have one modded G&L and it is a Legacy with Kinman Blues and sweet they are and very quiet. That one on the left.



Growing up in the 40s and 50s was fun. The Sears and MW catalogs were our dream books. As new ones arrived the old one's served well in the outhouse. I picked up a Harmony archtop in the early 50's and played it for several years. I didn't have a tuner but tuned it to pitch from songs I was listening to on the radio. At that time a friend of mine wanted a guitar and I told him to order one from Sears, which he did. He never got into it. He passed away last fall but the summer of 2010, I stopped to see him. His wife brought the Silvertone out and asked me to tune it. It was in the cardboard box and still looked new. It still had the original strings on it and I tuned it. It had a neck like a baseball bat but it was still like new. I finally picked up a Gibson Es 125 TDC in 1960. I thought Gibson was the only thing to own at that time. In 1962, my bandmate was playing a new Jazzmaster and that opened my eyes a bit. It wasn't long before that Gibson was down the road, although I still played a Gibson bass through a Fender Bassman. A lot of fond memories from those days.-- Darwin

[louis cyfer]

i mod every guitar. here is an old kraftsman i have, from some catalog, don't know which one, nice guitar, getting refretted right now, the frets are tiny on there. it does have a 26"+ scale length, which i like. the pickups were changed already.




here is my bluesboy. sorry about the pic, i lost my good point and shoot and didn't feel like breaking out the big camera bag.
i replaced both pups and changed the electronics around. plus a new control plate. considering it has no pickguard, i think it is fair to say there is not another one like it.

[kakerlak]

i mod every guitar. here is an old kraftsman i have, from some catalog, don't know which one, nice guitar, getting refretted right now, the frets are tiny on there. it does have a 26"+ scale length, which i like. the pickups were changed already.

That'd be a Kay Red Devil. Cool guitar!

[louis cyfer]

looks like it, although it does say old kraftman on the headstock.

[kakerlak]

looks like it, although it does say old kraftman on the headstock.

Yeah, those Chicago "house brand" guitars ended up w/ all sorts of names on them. From Googling, seems Old Kraftsmans were mostly Kays and the brand itself was Spiegal's house brand. I picked up a very crude Old Kraftsman once upon a time at a pawn shop. Little full hollow flat-bodied LP thing with a single chrome pickup. The thing actually sounded killer but the fret ends were so ragged I think you could have cut your hand up very badly if you slid up and down the neck much. Flipped it and some others for something else I don't recall and no longer have, lol.

Your, on the other hand, must have been at or near the top of the line.

[zombywoof]

I'm back and yeah I am hungry but played some really nice guitars.

The Kay/Old Kraftsman would originally have had the "speed bump" pickups.

[Miles Smiles]

That one on the left.

The right ones headstock has a ridiculous shape.

[zombywoof]

C'mon - I ain't buying there is only one member who checks in with the Lunch Report who owns a Bluesboy.

And where are you ASAT CLassic Custom freaks. If I were to buy another ASAT this model would be at the top of my list. My favorite little local store has a black one in that I am fighting off. It ain't lack of desire getting in the way - only expendable cash.

[Muleya]

I've only got one guitar with different types of pickups in it, and that's my Legacy HB, which still has stock pickups in it:



However, the Legacy HB is the only guitar I've owned that I've not replaced the pickups on. My other Legacy has DiMarzio Area pickups in it, a '61 in the bridge and '58s in the middle and neck. Then my Les Paul has DiMarzio Virtual PAFs in it.

As far as cheapo guitars, I bought my first electric in 1998 and it was a MIM Fender Tele. I don't think I have any pics of it. It was black, even though I had ordered Arctic White or something like that...didn't really want either color, but this retailer had the best price, which was more important at the time! BTW, that was my first and last black guitar!!

Along the way I've also owned an MIM Fender Strat and PRS SE, neither of which I still have. But truth be told, they were all pretty decent guitars and served me well!

[darwinohm]

Well okay, here is a Bluesboy that I modded and no longer own. It was a sweet one but quite heavy.-- Darwin.

[suave eddie]

The portion of this discussion regarding old funky cheapie guitars from the 60s is quite a coincidence.
My first electric was a rather obscure Japanese model named "Super ASTROTONE". My parents bought it for me at Wallach's Music City in West Covina along with a Fender Vibro Champ around 1966. I have never seen another Astrotone and periodically do an internet search to see if any still survive. Well just the other day for some reason I was thinking about this guitar again and did find a couple of them for sale on the net.

Here's one on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/270840219494?ru ... 555wt_1185

This seller thinks they are so special, he has owned FOUR of them. One seller claims Kurt Cobain played one, although I cannot find any info to verify this.

When I got it I didn't know a single coil from a HB--I just had to have an electric guitar. If memory serves, I believe it was actually not a bad quality instrument for something so ugly. Solid alder body, mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard (note the "0" fret). It had sort of a Hagstrom style vibrato. In addition to the separate rocker switches for the pickups, it also had a slider switch for Rhythm/Solo. Two volume, one tone control.

Lu-cifer the pickguard monitor should appreciate this truly hideous chrome pickguard.

[sam]

I have been known to mod a few over the years, and the latest mod was just posted as NGD Revisited where all descriptions are there on my new ASAT Tribute. No pups changed, made a neck change there.

[timage=][/timage]

[timage=][/timage]

My favorite mod is a ASAT Deluxe that I put a Diamrzio's (Air Norton neck and Evolution bridge) with a a 4-way switch and coil taps on both pups so I can have a modified Bluesboy, ASAT HB, ASAT classic or Deluxe in one guitar.

For the theoretical bottom feeding, have had a Kay, a Musicmaster, an Aria tele, still have a Arbor Tele Custom and a Squire. The Squire Double Fat Tele (like the ASAT deluxe 2 hummers) which I did put a JB in the neck and a Super Distortion in the bridge, much better than the stock squire pups. Oh what dreams are made of

[louis cyfer]

Suave, that pickguard is just fine. it is not pearl nor tort.

[Dave_P]

Hey ZW, haven't had a chance to chime in earlier in the week but I've enjoyed reading the reports. It's funny the bottom feeder guitars came up a friend at work just offered me this early/mid 60's Kay Vanguard for $80





as you can see it's pretty beat, someone had a field day with black spray paint and the bridge is from a banjo
I haven't seen it in person yet, it does have the original DeArmond pickup, I may pick it up as a project.

Haven't changed pickups on any of my G&L's thus far, although I may change them in my classic and am considering a strat neck pickup does that count ?

-Dave

[suave eddie]

Suave, that pickguard is just fine. it is not pearl nor tort.

Interesting.......Pearl and tort are definitely not my favorites, but chrome/mirror to me would be totally unacceptable.

[JagInTheBag]

P1050973 by ShowYourAuto!com, on Flickr

This is my Dorm Rat, constructed from salvaged Harmony and Dean parts. The neck and body are Harmony- four bolt, 24" scale, the original body was a slab sunburst , two pup offset- like a Bobcat or somesuch. I repainted it this lovely green in my dorm room- my roomate was less than pleased.


The original tuners, EMG Select pups, pots and switches were all from a cache of Dean parts procured by my local music store when Dean got into trouble in the 1990's. The bridge is a strat style hard tail (that came with a free '65 Jaguar neck and body ) and black pearloid pick guard is a one off (which I have nicknamed The Cyfer ). The orginal body split around the neck pocket, so a local shop made a new one out of alder.


P1050987 by ShowYourAuto!com, on Flickr


P1050984 by ShowYourAuto!com, on Flickr

I then replaced the old Dean tuners for a set of Gotohs..


P1050980 by ShowYourAuto!com, on Flickr

The EMG Selects were kicked to the curb for a SD '59 and SD JB. Both are single coil tapped, with a three-way toggle, one volume , one tone- the neck, pots and switches are about all that's left of the original Dorm Rat, but I love her still.

P.S. All my G&L's, Tribute or not, are stock. See no reason to mess with success.

[Muleya]

Suave eddie, I like that guitar...pickguard and all...at least up to the headstock. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's like they spent all their energy on the body of the guitar and had nothing left when they got the headstock!! Even still, all in all it's a pretty cool guitar!!

That Dorm Rat looks pretty cool, too, Jag.

You guys make me wanna pick up some inexpensive, funky, vintage guitar and work it over!!

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

My bottom feeder was a Univox Les Paul style guitar that has never been bested in terms of fretboard action. It was a great guitar to learn on. The pickups squealed so I could never enjoy playing it when the amp needed to be cranked. The tone was not so great either. I passed it onto my brother-in-law after I got a real Les Paul and we replaced the pickups with DiMarzios. They were hotter and did not squeal but they were dead for tone. It was all so new to me. Some time later a salesman described some Gibson pickups on an SG as he played it and I realized how good a humbucker could sound.

Doing a Google search for pictures I guess it was known as a Univox Gimme. Mine looked exactly like this but the headstock did not say "Univox" so maybe mine was a knock off. Or maybe mine did say "Univox" but I had initially seen another like it that did not say it. I do not remember but I do recall some friends who played well had talked about these guitars and how easy they were to play. When I was ready to get one I think the one available at the music store did say Univox but the earlier guitar played by those friends had not had it on the headstock. My parents bought it for me for Christmas. However, years earlier I had wanted a guitar sold by Sears but that never materialized.

[kakerlak]

It occurs to me that this thread went all day yesterday w/o mention of Eddie Cochran's hot rodded Gretsch w/ the P-90 at the neck and Dynasonic at the bridge..

[astutzmann]

nothing special on my guitars, the pickups are all pretty good, but I bought a 2007 legacy which had a professionally installed DiMarzio DP184 in the bridge and I like it. The bridge is now hot and bold! Great combined with the middle as well!