question re Gibson 57 classic pup

Keira-WitherKay

ok i bought a Gibson 57 classic plus pup , which i tried for a while in neck position of my tele , love the tone........ it's vintage heavan

ok so now i do some reading and find out wes montgomery retro fitted a 57 gibson into his archtop a gibson L5 (which initially came out sans pups) so i want to fit the 57 into my archtop....... , but it seems my archtop has parralel bracing which means i can't just cut a hole like wes did in the top cos where the pup must go the braces are very narrow..it may just squeeze the pup in but i had a luthier check it out and he reckons the braces are pretty close together and advised against cutting into the top cos if i had to cut the braces it would harm the structural integrity of the guitar.......

however the pup is almost possible to fit as a floating pup ......BUT there are some screws sticking out the bottom which help set height for each string ...

my question is can i just cut these screws off without any issue ..............??

cos either i can make this pup float which seems possible..... or i must sell it off however i love the tone of it .............

also last question ..if i took the pup out of the nickel casing would that effect the sound any ??? cos i see the same pup comes as a nickel and gold covering and offered in black and zebra which i assume does not have a casing .......... i just chose nickel cos it was what a pup on a 175 looks like ?

MikeM

Cutting the screws off will make it more attacky and reduce the bass.. Might not be what you want.

Pulling the cover off with open things up a bit.. Also make it a hair more prone to microphonics.

AlanRatcliffe

Yeah - cutting the polepieces will alter the tone. The "+" version of the 57 Classic + is more commonly used in the bridge, because it's a little hotter and warmer than the standard.

If I were you, I'd throw it in a drawer (you will find another use for it) and get yourself a Benedetto or other fingerboard mounted floating pickup.

singemonkey

Alan Ratcliffe wrote If I were you, I'd throw it in a drawer (you will find another use for it) and get yourself a Benedetto or other fingerboard mounted floating pickup.

+1

Yeah. Good pickups these. So you will find something worth doing with it.

Gearhead

Swap trade buy&flog... Our destiny, our fate, our demise?

Reinhard

What about keepin the old pole piece screws, putting in new shorter ones and trying it first? If you dig the tone, leave it like that, if not put the old ones back in and sell it. Maybe someone can chime in on whether pole pieces can be swopped without a problem (I have this feeling it can be done without hassles).

Keira-WitherKay

Thanks all , some interesting responces from the jazz forum where some archtop fundis reckon just cut the brace and install it , and it seems that area where neck meets the top needs little support as it only support about a kg of pressure and recommend if the hole cuts into the brace just get some luthier to cut 2 short braces and add them in just outside the pup hole , and the thinking is that x braced guitars have zero braces in that section and they don't crumble or collapse, so it seems there are options so now i need to decide to be brave and risk it , and in reality that archtop at 1100 us is a cheapie in the archtop world and so its thinking time , cos btw everyone says the 57 classic will be a huge step up tonally

Attila

K Here's an Idea,

Most archtop (neck) pickups are fixed to the neck in a "floating" style , normally leaving a gap between the bottom of the pickup and the soundboard.

So what wrong with mounting your 57 pickup on something like Neoprene or polychloroprene "gasket", so that the pole piece screws can seat into the foam material until it fits snugly onto the base of the pickup which one can glue together.

The "gasket" can be trimmed neatly to the size of pickups base, and mounted to the soundboard with good quality double sided tape. The thickness of the gasket will obviously be important to get the pickup to the desired string height.

The wiring can be routed below the pick guard, mount a flat volume and tone control under the pick guard and then route the wire through the "f" hole to the standard acoustic 1/4" Strap mount/output type jack.

No defacing the Arch or molesting the pickup

peace

Attila