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archtops with floating pickups


eor

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*kind of a cross post. wasn't sure exactly where to post this, but i'm guessing you guys can expand more*

 

what else can they do? stage volume? gain? effects? larger ones, possibly of the solid spruce top/lam maple sides variety. i'm guessing the lam is helpful, and a maple top may be, as well. i know solid tops are braced differently than ones with one pickup hole, which are braced differently from those with two pickups in the top. so how does that alter/ruin things for me?

 

i know what they are for, but i'm wondering what else can be done. please and thank you.

 

yeah, it would be mainly for recording (amped, through pickup and possibly some to heavy effects) but if it can handle stage work (amped) that would be great. i know they are plenty loud enough for live stuff unplugged, so it seemed like a nifty and clever compromise. because i hate the sound of "plugged" acoustics, but sometimes want something other than a clean electric sound.

 

love,

eor

 

yes, there may be goats on the horizon :facepalm:

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The only thing you really have to worry about is feedback on really loud stages -- due to the hollow body nature of most archtops. Otherwise, the pup will handle anything you throw at it and it'll basically act like an electric guitar.

 

Floating pup allows the top to vibrate more freely, which is obviously more important in acoustic situations than in electric ones where the pup and amp are contributing to the guitar's sound.

 

In a certain sense, I haven't a clue about what you're asking about. :)

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in a certain sense, neither do i. i guess i was wondering if the electric tone of a floater is somehow improved/different than that of an archtop with pups installed in the top. you know, because of the holes and bracing and all. i know the precioussss jazzdork toanz will be different, but i'm ok with that. i don't really plan to use it as a replacement for my other acoustic. but if it just happens to sound great...

 

love,

eor

 

clearly, i won't be playing jazz with this thing, either.

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The top-mounted pickups I've seen on arch tops

are always on thin-body arch tops. If you have a big, deep jumbo arch-top like I have,

you'll want a floating pick-up. (Mine is a full-size jumbo guitar. 18 inch lower bout & 4 or 5 inches deep.

A top mounted pickup would not work.


I think the thinner the body of the arch-top, the more suitable a top-mounted pick-up would be.


 

There are LOTS of 18" archtops with built in pup instead of screwed to the finger board or sliding. Super 400`s are a good example.. Hard to beat the tone of a fat bodied jazz box with bulit in pickups for stuff like jump-blues Louis Jordan swing and Scotty Moore rockabilly..

 

I like floating pickups for chunk-style rhythm playing ala Bucky Pizzarelli on good fast driving swing. Sometimes the es175 sound is a little "round" for me, and I prefer an acoustic tone of a big ass acoustic archtop.. Freddie Green didn`t need no stinking pickup or microphone, and you can hear him over a 20 piece band.

 

Specifications

Gibson Super 400

 

* 1 11/16" wide bone nut

* multiple bound ebony fingerboard

* split-block mother-of-pearl markers

* multiple bound peghead with split-diamond inlay motif

* true carved & graduated spruce top

* tone bars

* true carved & graduated highly flamed maple back & sides

* 18" lower bout dimension

* 3 1/2" deep sides

* bound tortoiseshell pickguard

* bound f-holes

* amber top hat knobs

* ES rounded neck profile

* 25 1/2" scale length

* ABR-1 bridge with ebony base

* proprietary Super 400 tailpiece

* '57 Classic Humbucking pickups

* gloss sunburst lacquer finish

* deluxe hardshell case is plush lined

 

69%27%20Gibson%20Super%20400CES%20Blonde

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Go to some of the jazz guitar forums & you'll find endless discussions on the merits of laminate vs solid, carved vs pressed, floating vs routed, full-hollow vs semi-hollow vs all solid etc etc. They all have their adherents and merits.

 

As far as floating pickups on an archtop, in general you will get a more fully acoustic tone with more tendency to feedback, but that is not always the case. I used to have an all solid carved top archtop with two routed pickups (a Gibson L5, similar to the one in Chordchunkers post but with a 17" body). It was a wonderful guitar, but ultimately I sold it for a full acoustic archtop with a floater. The L5 did not have an acoustic voice that could stand on its own, and the 1 11/16" nut & 2" string spacing did not lend itself easily to fingerstyle playing.

 

Interestingly, my fully acoustic with the floater is less prone to feedback than my L5 (same body size & depth). Actually, my first archtop, an Ibanez Joe Pass, 16" body, less than 3" depth, fully laminate with a routed pickup was the worst of all. It was a real feedback monster, pretty much unusable for me.

 

I really love the sound of a fully acoustic archtop, both acoustically and amplified, but I'm mainly a jazz player. I'm not sure what style of music you'd be looking to play on it, that might impact how much you end up liking it.

 

If you search the VOM archives for my username, you can find some submissions I did with my acoustic archtop playing fingerstyle jazz arrangements.

 

And oh, BTW, in general, an all solid, fully carved archtop is not for the faint of heart $$$ wise. Although some of the foreign ones (i.e Peerless, Eastman etc) seem to be pretty reasonable. You might also want to check out Marcellis' guy in Vietnam.

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There are LOTS of 18" archtops with built in pup instead of screwed to the finger board or sliding. Super 400`s are a good example.. Hard to beat the tone of a fat bodied jazz box with bulit in pickups for stuff like jump-blues Louis Jordan swing and Scotty Moore rockabilly..


I like floating pickups for chunk-style rhythm playing ala Bucky Pizzarelli on good fast driving swing. Sometimes the es175 sound is a little "round" for me, and I prefer an acoustic tone of a big ass acoustic archtop.. Freddie Green didn`t need no stinking pickup or microphone, and you can hear him over a 20 piece band.


Specifications

Gibson Super 400


* 1 11/16" wide bone nut

* multiple bound ebony fingerboard

* split-block mother-of-pearl markers

* multiple bound peghead with split-diamond inlay motif

* true carved & graduated spruce top

* tone bars

* true carved & graduated highly flamed maple back & sides

* 18" lower bout dimension

* 3 1/2" deep sides

* bound tortoiseshell pickguard

* bound f-holes

* amber top hat knobs

* ES rounded neck profile

* 25 1/2" scale length

* ABR-1 bridge with ebony base

* proprietary Super 400 tailpiece

* '57 Classic Humbucking pickups

* gloss sunburst lacquer finish

* deluxe hardshell case is plush lined


69%27%20Gibson%20Super%20400CES%20Blonde

 

No doubt, you're right. I've just never seen a deep arch top with

built-in pick-ups.

 

BTW, my jazzbox is almost 1 1/2 inches deeper at the hump than that Gibson.

I measured it almost 5" deep from the carved top to the humpback. And check out

the size of those F-holes & compare 'em to the Gibby.

 

My marcellis-brand jazzbox is definitely not an acoustically-challenged arch top.

 

I definitely did not want to try & put pick-ups in the top.

And I get a real warm, fat sound with that KA mini-humbucker.

ready2gig.JPG

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