1959 Airline Town and Country Project Finished Pg. 2

[HNB]

Traded to get this from Mr. Con-Tiki. I have no dreams to get stock pickups for it since those are hugely expensive. I decided to pick up three of these strange Japanese pickups that look like a speed bump humbucker but is single coil on the inside. Surface mounted so the holes to add it will be minimal. To help preserve the old and partially broken pickguard pieces, I am going to have some new ones made. Anyone know of the top of their heads if the historic Gibson 3x3 plate Klusons would fit this? It looks like they would from the indents and screw holes.

1 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

2 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

3 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

4 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

5 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

[Chew]

That is way cool. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. I dig the 2 piece pickguard.

[Musjagjazz]

I know you have found non-stock pickups already but Roadhouse Pickups make the Vistatone Pickups which were originally in your guitar for $120 each, which is a fair price - They are used in the new Supro reissues & also have them for sale at Supro's site.

http://www.roadhousepickups.com/pickups ... vista-tone



Maybe if you wrote Supro they could sell you the proper surrounds?

https://suprousa.com/product/usa-vistat ... up-bridge/

[Con-Tiki!]

yes, any 3 on a plate klusons will fit.
Ken's pickups are mucho fabulouso, but HB sized. Valco pickups are bigger in both dimensions.
I dig the Teisco pickups, you may need to fab some risers. The strings on a Supro/Airline are almost an inch off the deck.
Rock!

[HNB]

Maybe I can make some spacers out of wood. That would help with the bridge pickup area where there is that wire channel. I was trying to think of how I was going to get the pickups mounted when there was a gap with no wood under those spaces. LOL

[marqueemoon]

I was just drooling over that. That's going to be a fun one.

[HNB]

Idea! I can make wood pickup raisers the size of the original pickups so they cover the space the same and mount the pickups to them. Then no extra body holes. I can paint the wood spacers black so they match the pickguard.

[Con-Tiki!]

Idea! I can make wood pickup raisers the size of the original pickups so they cover the space the same and mount the pickups to them. Then no extra body holes. I can paint the wood spacers black so they match the pickguard.

solid plan.
I'm a little biased maybe, but wait until you see the color of this thing in person.
I'm not usually into burst finishes, but it makes you want to get a stick and a marshmallow.

[HNB]

Lots of parts came in. Seven pots, the strip tuners, and the three odd old pickups.

IMG_20180303_155710 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180303_155827 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

They are pretty thin and completely encased in metal. I wonder if that will help them be quiet since they are basically fully shielded by metal.

20180303_155834 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180303_155917 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Bigger than a normal humbucker.

20180303_155853 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180303_155858 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[Con-Tiki!]

those pickups are giant!
i hope you can fit all three of them on there.

[Chew]

Those pickups are so wild.

[jeff m.]

HNB,
You might be interested in checking out a cool website called 'Drowning in Guitars', if you haven't seen it..he has a 'Bizarre Guitar Pickup Encyclopedia' as part of his site .

Pickups identical to yours are listed under both 'Degas' & 'Stagemaster'..not a whole heap of follow-up info, but both 'read' about the same as yours ie; resistance etc..pretty sure I've seen the same pickups on several Guyatone guitars, too..definately late '60s/ early '70s Japanese-made.

As for them possibly being 'quiet, as they're totally encased in metal', they're more than likely to be pretty 'microphonic', if anything..BUT, if you're not playing at 'Les Paul through a Marshall stack' volume, that can be a GOOD thing ! Part of the reason that players like Ry Cooder & David Lindley love these types of pickups is a transparent, almost 'acoustic' quality when played clean, or ultimately, turned up to ' just before feedback' level !

The mash-up of an old Supro with funky old Japanese pickups that you're going for is way cool, mate ! Look forward to following along on this project, you've been putting together some cool & inspiring stuff recently !

Best,
Jeff.

[HNB]

Thanks! I saw that on the website too, but I haven't had a lot of luck seeing them on a guitar. I was told these came off of one guitar so hopefully they will fit on the Airline. I should know better Wednesday or Thursday when the guitar arrives.

[HNB]

I was having trouble finding a stock diagram for one of these, so I modified the one I found that was closest. If I didn't screw up, it should give a volume and tone for each pickup, a five way switch to select them that goes out to a master volume by the jack.

Town-and-Country by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[HNB]

Guitar came today!

The good:

Tuners went in pretty easy and matched just fine!

The bridge sent for it should be awesome! I hate wood bridges, so this TOM style one has me pretty excited.

The three pickups fit the space just about perfect. I just need to get them lifted up 1/2" for the bridge and 1/4" inch for the neck and middle. Going to try weather stripping ala Jaguar pickups.

Neck went on just fine. It attaches super weird, but feels solid enough. So weird that the neck is held on with just one screw....

The small 500k pots I ordered fit the stock guard holes just perfect.

The working on it:

The channel to run the wires from the top controls to the bottom controls is about where I need to mount the pickup screws.... I need to make wooden filler blocks so I can screw the bridge pickup down. Neck and middle will be no problem. I will need to run the wires between the bridge pickup and the foam because of the filler blocks. I feel like if I put a hole in the blocks to feed the wires through it might split when I screw into it or the screw could pierce the wires. I think sandwiched between the foam and pickup should work just fine.

I am having new black pickguard pieces made to make sure the stock ones don't break anymore. Want to try to preserve them the best I can.

There is a split in the rosewood fretboard that runs from the bottom end up the neck several frets. I am wondering how to fill it so the crack doesn't grow anymore.

Coming together! Here are some picks. I used neck plates to help lift the pickups up to gauge how high I needed to get them.

20180307_191017 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180307_191023 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180307_191036 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20180307_191055 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

The rosewood split.

20180307_191121 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr