Lollar Pickups Blog

Welcome to the Lollar Pickups Blog, where we share in-depth information and stories about the pickups we build.

Lollar McCarty Style Pickup for Archtop Guitar

Posted on September 25, 2009 by admin

Over the last decade I have had countless requests for a thin pickup that will mount onto an acoustic archtop that requires no modifications to the guitar. As you may be aware the space between the strings and the top of the guitar is often very small so it requires a very short or thin pickup to fit. Most pickup designs are too tall to fit on an archtop. We have a specialized mini humbucker patterned off the old Gibson Johnny Smith pickup. The Johnny Smith is ½” tall which is shorter than a typical mini and it requires that the guitar is either set up for a neck mounted bracket (the guitar has to be made specially for this) or we have another version that mounts to the pickguard- however it’s still a little too tall to fit on a lot of archtops.

A couple years ago I had an archtop builder ask for me to make a McCarty pickup. The McCarty pickup was a product Gibson introduced in 1948 which could be mounted as an aftermarket piece of hardware to any Gibson archtop (and many other makes) and they also came mounted for a period of time as a standard item on Gibson L-7’s. The unique feature of this pickup was that it came built into a pickguard along with a volume, tone and output jack. You could screw on the new pickguard to the pre- existing location and it converted your acoustic archtop to a fully functioning electric guitar. The pickup/pickguard assembly came in single and double pickup models and it had a separate design for cutaway and non cutaway guitars.

About maybe a year ago I got ahold of Joe Vinikow at archtop.com. Joe is very informed on all aspects of archtop guitars and he was gracious enough to loan me an original non- cutaway McCarty pickup. It took me several months to find enough time to figure out how to reproduce the pickup. I had to have magnets custom made and go through the typical procedure of reproducing something from scratch. Once I had it made up and I started telling people on my waiting list, I had someone from England request a cutaway version. He sent me a tracing of the pickguard to copy and now I have two versions. Joe gave me a source for the miniature pots I needed- they are a high quality pot with a very smooth action.

This McCarty style pickup & pickguard is a pre-wired assembly that can be installed into many archtop guitars. Overall thickness of the pickup is .45 inches, it comes with a volume and tone control built into the pickguard and there is a Switchcraft output jack attached to the guard too. The pickguard does not come drilled for the screw that holds the pickguard to the face of the guitar and it does not come drilled for the angle bracket to screw the guard to the side of the guitar. These holes need to be drilled by the end user so they will match whatever pickguard you already have installed.

At this point I only make the single pickup model in cutaway or non cutaway configurations. I also make a version to fit the Godin 5th avenue non-cutaway. The Godin version is pre drilled for the attachment to the body (body and bracket screw hole locations). I am in the process of borrowing a 2 pickup version Joe recently found. I can make the pickguards in a variety of commonly available laminated material. Pickguard materials include tortoise, black or pearloid.

Lollar Reveals Secrets to the Tonal Universe

Posted on April 18, 2009 by admin

Well now, what is one of the most frequently asked questions that we receive on an ongoing basis? It’s, “What in the world is in those Nash guitars…!!!…???” Which is usually followed by a few positive “%#$%&**&^%$#’s” and “gotta get me some!” type comments.

Funny you should mention that. In fact, that’s what Bill Nash did….he suggested we reveal which types of Lollar Strat and Tele pickups go into his Lollar-equipped guitars. In part, to save us all some time, but also in part to help you in your search for awesome tone.

So without further delay:

Lollar Nash Strat pickups are a hybrid set. They consist of the Lollar Vintage Blonde ® series in the neck and middle positions, and the Lollar “Nash” strat in the bridge. The Nash style strat bridge is a very slight variation of the Lollar Special S ® series. For “off the shelf” ordering purposes, you would want to order the Lollar Blonde neck and middle, and the Lollar Special S for the bridge. This hybrid combination is often referred to as our “Dirty Blonde” strat set. Chime and sparkle from the neck and middle position pickups, plus a thicker tone and slightly higher output from the bridge position. The best of both worlds, you might say.

Lollar Nash Tele pickups are also a hybrid set. They consist of the Lollar Vintage T ® series in the neck, and the Lollar “Nash” tele in the bridge. The Nash style tele bridge follows along the same lines as the Nash strat. In other words, the Nash style tele bridge is a very slight variation of the Lollar Special T ® series bridge. For “off the shelf” ordering purposes, you’ll want to order the Lollar Vintage T series neck and the Lollar Special T series bridge.

And there you have it. Helping to expand the tonal universe, one player at a time.

And by the way, Thanks for asking!

Jazzmaster Pickups and the Fender Jazzmaster Guitar – Part 3

Posted on February 25, 2009 by admin

One of the significant differences between Jazzmasters and other Fenders is that the main tone and volume controls use 1 Meg ohm pots. When set on 10, these pots do not roll off much signal. The result is more high end and presence than you are use to hearing on an electric guitar. The extra treble can be annoying if you use an amp that can reproduce high end treble (like a Blackface Fender amp). On Fender tweed amps that extra treble is nowhere near as noticeable.

So the trick to getting a good tone with the Lollar Jazzmaster pickup is to roll either the tone or volume down a click or two. This will roll off the extreme high end. (I prefer using the volume) The idea is to roll it a minimal amount—far enough to affect the tone level, but not too far to actually start hearing a volume drop. If done in this way, the tone will change long before the volume is affected. Using the volume control this way will leave treble in reserve if you need it occasionally to cut through a mix. On tweed amps if you are pushing them pretty hard you can leave the volume on 10. Another option is to replace the volume and tone pots with a lower value pot. The 500K would probably have about the same tone as a one Meg pot on 8. I personally like the one Meg pots, so I have never tried other values to determine what works.

Everyone wants to know what the black switches on the upper bout do. There is one slider switch and two rollers. The slider switch defeats every pickup selection except the neck pickup alone. Once the slider switch is activated only the neck pickup functions, and the main 3-way switch for the pickups will no longer work. When the guitar is in the neck-only mode, the two rollers act as an additional volume and tone for the neck pickup. These allow you to preset a volume and tone level different than your main volume and tone controls. You can play normally with the main controls working… put it in the bridge pickup position with full volume for a solo then hit the slider switch and it drops you into the neck pickup with whatever volume and tone you have preset with the rollers. It’s an interesting idea but I have never found much use for it.

Thanks very much for reading our three part series on Jazzmaster style pickups and the Fender Jazzmaster guitar. We hope it has been informative. Follow this link to see more details on our Lollar Jazzmaster pickups.

Jazzmaster Pickups and the Fender Jazzmaster Guitar – Part 2

Posted on February 13, 2009 by admin

Part 2 — Idiosyncrasies, Overall Design, and Helpful Mods

People often comment about the overall brightness of Jazzmasters. The treble quality can have an aggressive, biting tone, but it’s due to the idiosyncrasies of the guitar design… not just the pickups. Some of the brightness is due to loss of the “body” of the tone (and sustain) because of the bridge design. Possibly part of the delegation of the Jazzmaster to surf music is its lack of sustain compared to a Strat or Tele. Tonal “body” and sustain are directly related to the bridge having a low angle of string break which robs sustain and fullness of tone. You either have to run very heavy string gauges, or change the geometry of the bridge and neck angle by shimming more angle into the neck and raising the bridge up to increase the angle of the string over the bridge to the tailpiece. The extra break angle exerts more downward force onto the bridge and helps maintain a solid connection between the strings and the bridge saddles. You can also use a lighter gauge string if you increase the downward force… otherwise a low angle of string break would cause the strings to pop out of the saddles if you get aggressive with the pick.

Another mod you can do (that is completely reversible) is to add a part called a buzz stop. This is a roller you attach between the bridge and the tailpiece that further increases the string break angle. I use one and highly recommend it if you play hard and use strings lighter than .012, or bend strings quite often.

One more idiosyncrasy with the Jazzmaster… the string ground on the early Jazzmasters and possibly others is poorly executed. The bridge fits loosely into a couple of ferrules which the ground wire is attached to. This is the same case in the telecaster model that came with the factory installed Bigsby. When the whammy is used, contact with the ground wire can be broken and the guitar can become noisy. A fix for this problem is to move the ground wire to the whammy bar / tailpiece combination.

Noise levels on a Jazzmaster are higher than on a Strat pickup due to its larger surface area. You can expect more 60 cycle hum than a typical Fender (more of a P90 level hum), but Jazzmasters were always RWRP sets, which reduced the hum when the pickups were used together.

Next week’s blog will discuss Jazzmaster switching, and getting optimal tone.

In the meantime, learn more about Lollar Jazzmaster Pickups on our web site.

Jazzmaster Pickups and the Fender Jazzmaster Guitar – Part 1

Posted on February 6, 2009 by admin

Fender Jazzmaster pickups are an underrated design often assumed to be only useful for surf music. According to published material on the subject, Fender was trying to sophisticate their image, while at the same time expand their territory into Gibson’s hold on the jazz player market. Due partly to the radical look of the guitar design, the Jazzmaster never developed a following among jazz players, but did do fairly well with rock and surf players. But they can actually make good blues and rock guitars. Some notable players include Mickey Baker, Magic Slim and Don Wilson.

The Jazzmaster is one of my favorite guitar designs. I was fortunate to obtain an original 1959 model with the gold anodized pickguard and what appears to have been burgundy mist finish. According to the Fender custom shop this finish was available that year on a few instruments that were displayed at the 1959 NAMM show. It’s really comfortable to sit or stand with, and I like the slower action of the whammy bar compared to the strat. Because I like the design so much I had ivory and black pickup covers made for sale with our Jazzmaster pickups in addition to the standard bright white finish. The black pickup covers are not available anywhere else.

The Lollar Jazzmaster pickups have a tone that falls somewhere between a Strat (sparkle and chime) and a Les Paul (midrange and bass). The fat tone is accomplished by the large surface area – approximately 1.5” X 3.5” inches. In comparison, a Strat pickup has a surface area of approximately 9/16” X 2-9/16” inches. The detailed treble of the Jazzmaster is partly due to its single coil design and its rod magnets used as individual pole pieces. The fuller bass and midrange is due partly to its large surface area that senses a longer portion of the string. In comparison, the much narrower Strat design senses a shorter length of string, resulting in a more focused, bell-like tone.

Vintage design Jazzmaster pickups have a coil only 1/8” tall, compared to the height of a strat at about 7/16” tall. Having such a short coil limits the amount of wire you can get around the magnets. It takes a far wider coil for the same amount of turns on a more traditional design single coil like a Strat, Jaguar or Tele pickup. Wound to the same amount of turns, a Jazzmaster is 1.5” wide compared to a Strat at 9/16” wide. This means the coil wire travels at a greater distance on the Jazzmaster bobbin, resulting in more feet of wire per turn. The Jazzmaster dc resistance (in K-Ohms) reads much higher than a Strat, even though the output is very similar between the two designs. The Jazzmaster and Strat actually have a similar amount of turns and share a lot of similarities in design, yet they have quite different tone from each other. Wind a Jazzmaster and a Strat coil to the same amount of turns and the Jazzmaster will read about 8K ohms but the Strat will only read about 6.4K ohms. The frequency response is quite different but the output is actually about the same.

The Jazzmaster seems somewhat louder than a Strat pickup due to the increased bass and mids, but the extra fatness is somewhat misleading as far as the actual voltage produced. You’ll notice the amount of distortion the amp produces is similar to running a Strat at the same volume level, whereas a pickup like a humbucker or P-90 will drive an amp a lot harder at the same volume setting. Japanese made Jazzmasters (CIJ models) have pickups made like Stratocasters and do not sound the same as vintage or American made models. These pickups use a standard Jazzmaster pickup cover but underneath is hiding the equivalent of a Stratocaster pickup. Another factor that affects tone is pole piece magnet length. The Jazzmaster magnets are only ½” tall compared to typical Strat pole piece magnets at about 5/8” tall. The shorter magnet has less power, so this softens up the treble response of the pickup.

Next week’s blog will discuss a few idiosyncrasies of the overall Jazzmaster guitar design, how that relates to tone, and a few mods that have good results.

In the meantime, learn more about Lollar Jazzmaster Pickups on our web site.