Single Coil Pickups

Cuimean

I just picked up a cheapie Washburn archtop to save my old Epi from getting beaten up at gigs. It's a surprisingly nice guitar for being so inexpensive. However, I'm not too into the neck-mounted floating humbucker. I've been looking around for a single-coil replacement, but there aren't many out there. There's the Tom Short one, but he hasn't returned any of my e-mails or phone calls. Dave Stephens at SD Pickups has a DeArmond-style pickup, but it's made to fit in body-mounted humbucker cavities and I'm afraid to even inquire about the price of modifying it to mount at the neck. Lindy Fralin has one that looks pretty nice, but again, it's a bit expensive. I keep thinking of an old headline from the Onion: "Man Installs $500 Stereo in $400 Car."

However, I may have found another option and I wanted to get your opinions on it. A local guitar shop has a bin full of old, dusty, broken guitars from the '60s and '70s. Among them are several Harmony H15s, complete with the original Rowe pickups. The pickups look thin enough to fit on my guitar. I was told that they were made by the same company that made DeArmonds. I'm looking for a snappy, mid-range-y sound that will break up a bit if I push it. These beaten-up guitars are incredibly cheap, so I was thinking of getting one just for the pickup. If I mounted the Rowe on my archtop, do you think I'd get something close to what I want?

Here's a picture of an H15 with Rowe pickups:

badjazz

I had a harmony rocket with one of those pickups, and it sounded pretty good through a small tube amp. I'd definitely try it out if you can get one for cheap. Like everything vintage, no two that I've played ever sounded the same. From what I remember, they sounded like a less articulate version of the dynasonic pickups on gretsches.