Phil O'Keefe

If it's a genuine Cort Source (their most recent 335 style semi-hollowbody that I'm aware of) the serial number is usually on the back of the headstock. If it's an earlier model, I'm not sure where you might find it if it's not located there - maybe there's a label inside one of the f-holes? That's where the serial number is located on my 2001 Epiphone Casino. It's also possible Cort did something similar, but the label may have come off at some point in time. I really don't know for certain. You might want to use the link Daddymack posted earlier in the thread and contact Cort and see if they can provide you any additional info. By the way, welcome to Harmony Central.

If the OP means side by side coils like a PAF has, then a dual coil P90 based humbucker would be gigantic - it would dwarf even a Fender WRHB. Ditto that for a dual-coil, side by side configuration Fender Jazzmaster style pickup. For single coil pickups with large coils, stacked coils is really the only way to go to make a humbucking pickup out of them and still keep the pickup at a reasonable size, but as others have noted, when you stack coils (whether on a Strat or a P90 style pickup) you often lose some of the tonal magic that makes the single coil versions of those pickups so special, and so cherished by so many players to begin with.

I think they started using them in Customs in the 90's.

Hi James, and welcome to HC. We manually approve all new accounts. I see you tried to register twice - probably thinking the first one didn't go through for some reason. It did, but it takes a few minutes (sometimes a bit longer) for us to check / approve new accounts. Unfortunately we had to resort to doing that to keep most of the spammers off the site. My apologies for that... I just wanted to let you know what happened and why the second account was "banned" - we only allow one account per member, so I approved the first one you created and disapproved the second one. Again, welcome, and sorry for the inconvenience and any confusion.

I really don't need another acoustic guitar, but I've been really tempted to get a J-45 Studio Rosewood... I tried one out briefly at NAMM and they play and sound fantastic IMO. But they're not a Martin. That's not intended as a diss to the Gibsons; it's just an acknowledgement of the different designs and sounds of the guitars. The J-45, Advanced Jumbo and the J-29 are all round-shouldered guitars. The Bonecrusher (J-60) and Songwriter Deluxe Standard have square shoulders, spruce tops and rosewood backs and sides like a D-28, so in that respect they're probably more like the Martin than the other guitars you mentioned. All of them are nice-sounding, high-quality guitars, and ultimately it's going to come down to what you like the sound and playability of the most. There's simply no substitute for trying them out yourself, so while our opinions (and watching a lot of videos and reading whatever reviews you can find) might help, at the end of the day you're going to want to get out there and play a few guitars and decide for yourself. That's my personal opinion and I'm sticking to it. Best of luck with your search!

Hi-Gains, or Toasters? I've been tempted to put a pair of Toasters into my Ric 610 on and off for years, but the Hi-Gains are just so much fun to play with overdrive. That guitar has surprised more than a few hard rockers when I've handed it to them in the studio and suggested they try it for an overdub...

I've never heard the price haggling process described in quite that way, but it fits.

I have to agree with you there - I was never a big fan of the pickguard designs of the Tele Deluxe or the Telecaster Custom; I always preferred the look of the 70's era Thinlines; I even prefer the aesthetics of the 70's era Thinlines over the earlier, late 60's era models with the dual single coil pickups. But the Deluxe and Tele Custom both have legions of fans, and if they changed that part of the design, many people would scream and holler just as much as I'm probably going to if they messed with the original design of the WRHB's.

From the link in the OP: Fender hired legendary humbucking pickup designer Seth Lover to create a distinctly Fender-flavored take on a higher output dual-coil pickup. The resulting Wide Range pickup used large bobbins and threaded CuNiFe rod magnets to achieve its unique and brilliant sound. The Telecaster® Custom was discontinued in 1979 and real CuNiFe-magnet pickups disappeared with them. The American Original ‘70s Telecaster Custom features the first authentic CuNiFe magnet powered Wide Range neck pickup in over 40 years, complimented by a calibrated Tim-Shaw-designed ‘70s Telecaster single-coil bridge pickup. The covers and pole piece configurations look correct, but the pickups in the earlier 70's style Tele reissues had the right sized covers too, but were concealing basically standard sized humbuckers within, which gives them a completely different sound than the originals. That, plus the insane prices for used WRHB's is what always kept me from buying a reissue Thinline. The only way we'll know for sure about the new pickups and their design is when someone opens one of the new CuNiFe pickups up and has a look at the magnet configuration (the originals used threaded rod-style CuNiFe pole piece magnets instead of the bar magnets and metal slugs / screws you'll find on a PAF style humbucker) as well as the size of the coils - CuNiFe equipped pickups require a lot more winds than AlNiCo magnet-equipped humbuckers do (which is why the original cases were made so large - to accommodate the larger coils), so I really don't see how Fender could build them using CuNiFe bar magnets, non-magnet slugs & screws, and smaller coils with fewer wraps. The whole reason Seth Lover went with CuNiFe magnets to begin with was that they could be machined and threaded and used as individual rod magnets for each pole piece, while AlNiCo and ceramic magnets can't. The threaded screws on a regular PAF are just metal - the magnets are the bars below the coils that provide the magnetism to the pole pieces. I suppose it's possible that Tim Shaw radically changed the design, but I don't see how he could do that, or why he would want to - if he did, it certainly wouldn't be likely to be well-received by the folks like me who have been hoping for Fender to reintroduce the classic Seth Lover WRHB's, and I can't imagine he - and Fender - aren't well aware of that.

They're on the new American Original Telecaster Customs... https://shop.fender.com/en-US/electric-guitars/telecaster/american-original-70s-telecaster-custom/0110182829.html I wonder if they're going to release a Thinline and Deluxe at some point too. As a former early 70's era Thinline owner, I can attest to their rather unique sound - a sound that you just can't get out of anything else other than pickups with CuNiFe magnets - it's still a humbucker sound, but decidedly "Fender" with a more open and bright tone. The fact that they're making them once again is really cool IMHO. Hopefully they'll offer them as aftermarket pups too, which would be a no-brainer upgrade IMO for anyone who owns a MIM Thinline, Deluxe or Custom.

Thanks! That looks like it's in pretty good shape. How soon are you supposed to get it? When you do, let your family try it out and please let us know what everyone thinks of it. Again, I always thought those were really good guitars for the money, and it sounds like you got a good deal on yours.

The neck may align just fine without having to shim one side more than the other. The easiest way to find out would be to reinstall the neck with a flat shim and check to see how the strings (or a straight edge) align with the bridge. If one side is too high relative to the other, you may need to bring it up a bit. If that's the case, I'd start with a flat shim that was a bit thicker than necessary and try to contour and slim it down to match the discrepancy in height in the bottom of the neck pocket so that it filled the space evenly and results in a flat and level surface for the neck to sit on. Have you measured the neck thickness? Is it possible that it has similar issues in terms of one side being slightly deeper than the other? Maybe the picket was made deeper on one side to compensate for that at the factory? I doubt it, but I'd want to check before making any assumptions. One notable point that doesn't apply to your question (but that is relevant to this ancient thread and the previous comments) is that Tele necks and Strat necks are not directly compatible / interchangeable without modifying the pocket or the neck due to one being flat at the end, and the other being curved.

You probably won't get a reply from the poster you're asking the questions of since the thread is so old, but hopefully a few others will chime in with their opinions. First of all, I'm going to assume your "M79" was a typo, and that you meant M70 like you said later in your post. The M70 is a pretty decent, yet fairly "affordable" electric guitar model. They listed for something like $650 or so when new, but usually sold for less - I'm going to say $450 or so in the larger discount stores. I'm not sure what they typically sell for now, but you can do a search of completed auctions on Ebay or Reverb.com to get an idea of their typical used prices. Regardless of the going rates for them, for under $300, I think it would be a good purchase as long as it was in good to excellent condition as advertised. They were made in Korea and only for a year or two if I recall correctly (circa 2000), and have American-made DeArmond Gold Tone humbucking pickups, which are pretty highly regarded and IMO sound really good. One of my studio clients had one, so I had the chance to play it a bit and hear / record it a lot, and I thought it was a nice guitar, especially at the price point. They're a bit bigger than a Les Paul in the body, so cases that can hold them can be tricky to find and they tend to be fairly heavy. I believe the bodies on the M70's are solid, and not chambered like some of the higher-end DeArmonds from the same basic era, and I think they're made from mahogany, as you said. They have flat (as opposed to arched) tops, and no maple cap like you'd find on a Les Paul. The fretboards are rosewood, and if I recall correctly the tuners are no-name Grover clones. They have 22 frets. I've seen them in black, red, and also green... I don't know if there were any other colors that they were offered in. Hope this helps - welcome to Harmony Central! PS I'd love to see a picture of your guitar when you get it if you'd like to post one... 🙂

Dude - MAJOR scores! Especially that Ibanez for $20! A friend of mine says that when he dies, if he's taken to a room full of Ric 12 string guitars and is told to play them, he'll know he went to heaven. If he's told to re-string them, he'll know he wound up in the other place... Congrats on the new guitars. You did really, really well!

No, but if you have questions about how to design or use one, I can certainly try to answer them for you.