Charlie Christian Pickups

[BigDaddyLH]

I've been thinking of putting a Charlie Christian (Lollar or Vintage Vibe) in the neck position. And if the body wood/veneer is nice (I'm thinking rosewood) I was hoping to get a rear rout body cavity and go pickguard-less. I was just wondering if that could work with a CC and by the pictures it looks great.

One question: is there a standard-sized pickup rout I can ask for that fits the CC best? maybe P-90?

[Papa Joe]

Be sure to check this guy out.I have one of his CC pups and it sounds great..
http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/pickup_sc.html#

[BigDaddyLH]

Yup, I'm checking out Vintage Vibe. I've read nothing but good things about them.

[caliban335]

I have a Lollar CC in the neck position of my '69 Thinline RI and like it a lot. Lollar sends the pickup with a routing template, but it could be tough to do from the bottom of the guitar. Good luck with the project.

[AtlantaSpike]

I'll be putting up a demo video of the Lollar in my tele tomorrow. I am putting up one of the Special T now, compared to my '53 Tele

[zirbman]

Good enough for Roy Nichols in 1974:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaOfq...eature=related

They show him around 1:30. I think he does the solo on the bridge pup though! Darn!

[jads57]

I just had Vintage Vibe CC Rider installed in the neck position of my G&L Asat Classic 3.
It's replacing the Virtual Dimarzio Tele neck p/up that was in ther. I have 2 other Dimarzios in there as well. Area T bridge, and a Area 58 Strat middle. The little I've heard so far sound good and seems to match output wise , but it also comes w/ hotter magnets that can swapped out if necessary. The only downside is that it hums!

[BigDaddyLH]

Did you shield the routed hole?

[kiwi blue]

One thing to bear in mind is that the Lollar CC pickups and the Vintage Vibe CC Rider are very different beasts, at least in their construction if not their tone. (I'm not in a position to compare how they sound.)

According to the Vintage Vibe website the CC Rider uses 42 gauge wire and is wound to 10k in the bridge and 7k for the neck. Lollar uses much thicker 38 gauge wire wound to 3.2k (neck only), although that low impedance does not equate to low output due to the combination of thicker wire and strong magnets. I read an interview or article somewhere where Jason Lollar states his belief that it's the combination of 38 gauge wire and stong magnets that gives that characteristic tone of the old Gibson CC pickups.

I have never used Lollar's CC for Tele, but I do have his HB size version in a semi, which is 2.9k. It's a fantastic neck pickup -- very repsonsive to finger/pick attack in both dynamics and tone. Dig in hard and you get a loud, assertive, slightly edgy jump blues tone, but back off a little and you have nice smooth jazz tones.

I must stress that I have no experience of the Vintage Vibe pickup, nor of the Lollar CC for Tele.

Hope this helps.

[Groovey Records]

I have the Lollar CC that has a standard front mounting. The Bridge is a Don Mare Sting Ray 3 Tap Esquire pup 3.2k 6K & 8K.

The CC has a very low growl but cleans up for a thick yet bell or piano like tone alone or in combo with the Stingray.

It has a 4 way switch that Jaydawg built with two push pull knob pots.
One to bring in the CC the other to defeat the tone circuit.

all this gives 14 possible distinct tones to build on

Jaydawg and I originally went with a solid Pine body. When we couldn't get the stain to take the way I had hoped for we decided to veneer in Rosewood front and back. It has a Jaydawg made solid rosewood neck and custom made solid brass hardware including a string block instead of ferules.

The Tortoise PG photographs poorly and is a much darker brown that looks quite different in person

I'm thinking the Lollar wouldn't be a good candidate foe rear mounting because of its design but I'm sure he would answer any question you have.

I spoke with him twice about this pup before I ordered it online

[BigDaddyLH]

On top of everthing else, I love all the brass hardware. What's up with the tuning machines? They aren't brass are they? And are those wooden buttons?

Thanks,
BDLH

[Groovey Records]

Yes the tuning machines are solid brass with rosewood buttons a special order from Gotoh only available in Japan direct from Gotoh

[BigDaddyLH]

Open machine heads? I guess you really wanted brass!

[Groovey Records]

The design is unorthodox in the first place and I find the open machine head as beautiful as is is funtional.

The neck dots and side markers are brass too, as well as the control plate, heavy countersunk neck plate and the knobs. Oh yeah Glendale Wide Intone Brass saddles as well

I thinnk you'll like the comination of The CC on a tele

[baldy5000]

that neck is absolutely stunning. If i had the money i would start a project based around this:



with black hardware and abalone inlay and maybe this body:



basedaround a set of keystones and a very dark pickguard like this, to bring out the brass saddles (on a black bridge):

with some nice patina that maybe matched the abalone a bit

damn if i was rich

[Groovey Records]

Thats a nice neck and body sounds like you have a plan !