Good pickup for an acoustic archtop?

[Etienne Rambert]

 

It's totally acoustic right now. I'd like to put a pickup on it. My playing would either be mostly comping, finger comping and strum comping. I like a mellow sound - more acoustic than electric. But now & then, I'd like to pretend I'm Brian Setzer too and get some distortion.

 

Any recommendations?

[Stackabones]

For a floating pup, I like Ken Armstrong's stuff.

 

Also, to get a really natural sounding pup, I'd go with Schatten Design.

 

I don't think either one will get you Setzer sound.

[EvilTwin]

+1 to Stack.

 

If you want more of an acoustic sound, it'll be hard to get that Setzer tone (since he primarily uses a Filtertron bridge humbucker).

 

I've heard these are amazing, though:

http://www.benedettopickups.com/products.htm#s6

[Etienne Rambert]

I like the Benedetto. That's the sort of tone I want, except for the occasional wild binge of fuzz.

 

How does it fasten to the guitar?

 

I got a pretty good fuzz tone from an Ovation Elite. I'll bet I can get a Setzer tone out of an archtop. I just have to plug it in the right box, that's all.

 

Ovation Elites have always reminded me of archtops.

[min7b5]

http://www.kksound.com/purearchtop.html

[Stackabones]

http://www.kksound.com/purearchtop.html

 

It'd cool to run that one with a floating pup via their Duo Channel Pro XT. Any experience doing that?

[min7b5]

 

It'd cool to run that one with a floating pup via their Duo Channel Pro XT . Any experience doing that?

 

 

That seems like a good idea

[Etienne Rambert]

I've always wanted an archtop...as long as I remember. But I always wanted one with action like a Gibson. This one has action like an acoustic guitar. I downloaded the .pdf for that pickup. The installation looks very tricky. It would be something totally new to my luthier.

 

But I think I'm going to pull the trigger on that Hog. Mr. Binh says he can get the action to where I want it (doubtful). But I'll never get a better price, that's for sure. $200 before the pickup. Maybe I'll play .009's on it.

 

The problem you have buying guitars over here is not the price. They are unbelievably cheap. The problem is shipping them back to the States. That is unbelievably expensive. With two guitars, & one bag, I can still go Economy on an airline. But with three guitars, my choice becomes spending $300-400 shipping one of them back home OR spending $300-??? up to upgrade to Business Class or First Class.

 

But I doooo love that archtop in the display case. I think I'm gonna pull the trigger.

[mikeSF]

my favorite archtop floater is the Kent Armstrong adjustable PAF - i put 'em on all my archtops. However, that pic looks as though there is not much clearance between strings and top of guitar.

 

another great floater is the Bartolini 5J. I prefer it over the Benedetto (Duncan-made) S6 smooth top floater.

 

you should definitely measure the clearance first to see how much room you have there. You may have to compromise and do something really thin like the overseas-made Kent designed "2D" floater, of similar - that one is sold by archtop.com and WD Music, etc...

 

good luck!

[mikeSF]

you may have a battle with feedback when you start overdriving a hollow body, unless you keep the volume way down. heck, i used to wrestle with a 335-style guitar onstage (with distortion) and that was infinitely more feedback resistant than a fully hollow.

[Etienne Rambert]

Thanks everybody. I like the Bartolini & De Benedetto & the Armstrong. But you're right about clearance. I'm having a problem right now with Grover tuners I ordered from the States.

 

The safest course for me might be to get it with some Korean floater over here. Then when I get it back to the States, buy a good pick-up.

 

Thanks all. I'll keep you posted.