Single Coil Pickups

nwilkins

I am wondering if anyone has tried the handmade Kent Armstrong floating single coil pickups on archtop.com? I direct this question primarily to Colin and Jonathan since I believe you guys much prefer single coil pickup tone (as I do). But if anyone has any experience with these pickups please let me know. Do they sound a lot like p-90s?

badjazz

nwilkins wrote:

I am wondering if anyone has tried the handmade Kent Armstrong floating single coil pickups on archtop.com? I direct this question primarily to Colin and Jonathan since I believe you guys much prefer single coil pickup tone (as I do). But if anyone has any experience with these pickups please let me know. Do they sound a lot like p-90s?

I had one made with a replacement pickguard for my L5. That way I can switch electric vs acoustic by replacing the pickguard. It sounds nice, kind of like a refined P-90. Probably smoother than most P-90's. I've only used it set up on the 7k setting, so it may sound less smooth on the 11k setting. It's very balanced, even with bronze strings due to the adjustable pole pieces. I'd recommend it as a nice 'vanilla' sounding pickup for archtops that is nice an clear sounding, but I must admit that I've mostly switched back to using my dearmond FHC. The dearmond definitely sounds funkier and a little more jangly (if that is a word). The Kent Armstrong has a fuller sound, but I just like the Dearmond. It's funny, I'd say that objectively the KA is better, but I still prefer the dearmond.

Campusfive

I have no experience with the Kent stuff other than the modern floating humbucker style that came on both of my Eastmans. I'd been trying to use modern equivalents for everything, and once I actually got some vintage stuff, I realized they really don't make it they used to. You can get vintage style stuff easily, but its all 50's-60's vintage. There really isn't a market for 30's-40's vintage repro stuff. Other than the Guitars themselves (which I feel are made like they used to be - especially after putting a tortoise guard on it)

I feel like the KA's aren't made for people like us, or at least not for people like me. The people who really care about nailing that tone or getting that tone are usualy the kind of people who just buy vintage anyway.

I'd bug Loren for more details on his experience. Oh, and would the 10k setting be more output than the 7k? Because if it is, I'm not sure that would be more like a DeArmond, because part of the single coil deal is lower output.

By the way, if you're after P-90 tone, which I think is great, look at a post 1942 ES-150 - they can be had pretty cheap.

nwilkins

thanks guys. has anyone ever done an a/b with an FHC and a Stimer? I already have a Stimer and have assumed that the two pickups give pretty similar tones. Also, how does a BR era Gibson amp compare to a 150 or 185?

Campusfive

Ted Gottsegen told me the two pickups were very similar, but I don't know.
I would suspect the later amp might have a little more high end, while not having as much as a early tweed fender. Hopefully my new 185 will come sooner rather than later and I'll be able to A/B the 150 and 185.

sockeye

I am wondering if anyone has tried the handmade Kent Armstrong floating single coil pickups on archtop.com?

I don't have any experience with the Kent Armstrong, or this one, but it looks like there might be at least one other option in a single-coil floating pickup:

http://tomshortshandmadepickups.com/ste ... oater.html

Harmony Central review:

Take the best attributes of a Charlie Christian, a DeArmond Rhythm Chief, a vintage P90 from the late 40?s, and a very early Telecaster neck pickup and roll them all into one and that?s what this pickup delivers.

John

Campusfive

1) I thought about the Tom Short but never took the plunge - I'd be very interested to hear someone's review.
2) The guy who wrote the review is the guy who commissioned the pickup.

nwilkins

I think Colin is using a BR amp - Colin how does it compare to the earlier Gibsons?

badjazz

I had a br-4, which is different from the eh-150, and the br-4 was a lot less wide-open sounding than the eh-150. The br-4 had a little more high end, was cleaner at lower volumes, and was not quite as loud. I know that the br-1 is probably closer to the eh-150, but hopefully that is some help. I've also had a GA-50, and it seems like the Gibson amps got more and more 'in control' as time went on, and more mellow.

As far as the KA goes, I think the 11k (mine says 11k, even though I think the website says 10k. Never tested it to see what it actually is) lug would likely just have higher output and sound a little more compressed. The issue with vintage or vintage-style pickups seems to me that you want a full sound reproduction, clean, dynamic response, and for that normally a fairly lower output single coil pickup works best. That's why I like the dearmond FHC, the red rhythm chief dearmonds (not a big fan of the adjustable pole models), and Charlie Christian pickups best. Messing around with the dearmonds can be annoying (especially the 1/8-inch jack), but I'd still prefer them to the KA.

Colin Perry

Nick--

Sorry, I took so long to answer your question. I think it's true what Loren says, the EH series amps can vary quite a bit from amp to amp. I have two BR-1's that sound very similar to each other, and compared to the Eh- amps I have played I find they are a bit darker, they have a bigger sound, and they can break up a little more, though nothing like a tweed fender. A tweed deluxe starts to really break up at 3 or 4; the br-1 needs to get to about 7, which is very loud. For me it's perfect. It's warm with just enough break up in quiter jazz settings. With blues bands, which are always louder, it breaks up just the right way. Here's a video of me playing through it with my Regal Prince, and a dearmond FHC. I take a solo around the three minute mark, which will give you an idea of how it sounds:

nwilkins

thanks Colin. Anyone have a spare FHC they'd like to sell me - I had my eye on one on ebay (you can usually get them for around $250 it seems, but the auction got driven up by a dumb bidder - it went for $344 - quite a lot more than the rhythm chief 1000 that was listed at the same time!