With his StewMac kit-build all up and running, Dave Burrluck looks at how to populate that large pickup rout
Readers of this column will recall the ‘Quick-ish Connect’ system that I recently installed in that big ‘swimming pool’ rout, providing a versatile pickup-testing platform. And so the world is now my oyster – we do like a bit of choice in The Mod Squad, after all. Having been involved in a fair bit of recording over lockdown and out the other side, I seem to have been adopted as the guy that gets different sounds. In the early lockdown months, the first thing I did was borrow my mate’s Rickenbacker 620 [pic 1]. I don’t own one myself and never seem to be able to justify actually buying one, not least that their specific (peculiar?) feel and sound has never fitted into my usual bluesy, rocky gigs. But on the sort of song-based recordings I’ve been asked to contribute to, especially ones with those 60s-meets-90s Britpop sounds, that Rickie sound is addictive. I’ve relearned during these countless recordings, from wonky demos to finished masters, that different sounds and textures really work. I love my (mate’s) Rickenbacker.
Another guitar that’s had a lot of use is a 1968 Supro Stratford [pic 1]. Even after guitar maker Chris George had refixed the screw-on neck it’s still a bit of a wonkyol’ ship, but the sounds it produces are glorious – those ‘Vistatone’ humbuckingsized single coils just evoke the 60s. The point is, these guitars have character, and that’s what I need. But you don’t need me to tell you this desire to be different can be seriously costly.
Pick A Pickup
When I started putting together StewMac’s Offset Trem kit back in issue 491, I honestly didn’t think it’d feature in any recording plans. But even though it was barely finished, the two added Fender Jazzmaster pickups gave it a rather good voice – and one that I didn’t have. And thanks to that open pickup rout, I realised I could fit virtually any pickup, so long as I couldStratford have ‘normal’ pickups – but that’s the appeal direct-mount them. All I need are some different pickups!
Online auction sites such as eBay and the like can really help, but the choice of something different – usually classed as ‘other’ in style on a pickup maker’s website – are outweighed by the tsunami of mainstream choices: Strat and Tele-style single coils, Gibson-style humbuckers and P-90s, all of which I’ve got covered. Increasingly, though, even our homegrown UK pickup makers are producing more and more of these ‘other’-style pickups – and in there I’ll include Filter’Trons, Gold Foils, mini-humbuckers, Ricky style, not to mention Jazzmaster and Jaguar sing
