At the end of last year, I had the privilege of working on a vintage Bigsby pole piece guitar pickup for Deke Dickerson. I’m not sure where he got it but it’s going on the “Butterball Paige” guitar that is currently being restored. The work that I did required the pickup to be fully disassembled. At that time I was able to take notes on how it was constructed, accurately take all the measurements of the magnets, bobbin, base plate and aluminum housing. I think it’s obvious that I’ve been a Bigsby nut for a long time now, so with all of this information, the next logical step was to make my own reproduction of this legendary guitar pickup.  Now I’m offering it for sale as the C.A.R. Pickup.

TK SMITH C.A.R. ROUTER SCHEMATIC

The first step was to make the wood patterns for the aluminum pickup housing and trim rings. (I’m offering the trim rings in two sizes at this time, a 1/8’’ flat one and a 7/16’’ raised one). Before I started I calculated how much aluminum shrinks in the casting process and added a few thousands for clean up and polishing to my measurements. I used some mahogany I had laying around to make the patterns. Then I found a source to make the magnets for me to the exact dimensions and material as the originals. All of the other parts (bobbin and base plate) I fabricate at my shop with my antique tools and somewhat hillbilly fabricating methods. The clean up and polishing of the cast aluminum pieces is also done at my shop so I can ensure a nice fit of the trim ring to the pickup housing.

It took a few months to get all this to happen but I finally got a few assembled and mounted on my Telecaster. It’s a great pickup that I’m completely happy with. Perfect for anyone playing traditional Jazz, Swing, Rockabilly, Travis picking or Blues. Mounted at the bridge position it’s perfect for that ‘’Grady Martin” sound. At the neck, it’s a great pickup for Jazz, Swing and Blues. It has that distinct hollow, wooden, almost buoyant tone that floats so well on top of what a good rhythm section is doing. Here is a quick demo of the C.A.R. Pickup at the bridge position.

On another note, the Pole Piece and Blade Pickups that have been Sold Out in our Store will be available again soon.

After 9 days straight of moving my Shop from one location to our new location, it made me very happy this morning to receive this clip from Joao. Now that the move is almost over, it’s extremely motivating for me to get back to work when players of such a high caliber enjoy using my pickups. Thanks Joao! You made my day.

If you haven’t seen Pat’s new music video, it’s really good. Check it out.

I recently put one of my C.C.esque Pickups in the neck position of Tommy’s Dan Dunham guitar. He just sent me this video of some really tasteful playing full of great ideas. Enjoy!

Got a note from Pat this week along with this clip, letting me know that he’s getting great results with my pickups in the “out of phase” position. Its been a few months since we modified his Tele. Glad to hear it’s working out:

“Hi Tk,

How are you? The pictures you’ve been posting of your necks on Instagram look amazing! I thought I’d send you this little clip, I’ve been using the “out of phase” setting a lot, its been great on the RnB stuff. I’ve been over the moon with the guitar lately, its really settled in feeling and sounding great! We posted one of the new cds over to you to TK, hope you dig it. Hope your well

Pat”

“Hey Pat

Damn! Great playing. The guitar sounds great too. What amp and kind/gauge strings are you using? I’m really glad your digging it.

TK”

“Hi Tk,

Thanks for the kind words, its really feeling/sounding great! super stoked!
I just had it plugged straight into a 59 Bassman Reissue, and I’ve been using D’addario 10-50 flatwounds, but with a unwound/nickel G, same string set up as Dans using
Hope your well,

Pat

TK was on his way to the shop the other day and out of the corner of his eye noticed a guy walking into a pawn shop. In the split second that he looked over, he could tell what the guy was carrying under an old canvas cover, a Gibson EH-150. The only part visible was the very bottom of the amp, but the curves were unmistakably familiar. A quick u-turn and moments later, it was his. When we took off the cover, we couldn’t believe how clean it was. The guy said he got it at an estate sale in Vegas but inside was a receipt for repairs made in 1945 in Toledo, OH. She’s been around but she’s still beautiful! We’ve never seen an EH-150 this clean in person. TK will wait to fire it up until he has a chance to go through it to make sure there are no bare wires. The chances of driving by at that exact moment are pretty unbelievable, lucky day.

Here’s another great demo where Joel fires off ”Walking the Strings” backstage at Deke’s Guitar Geek Festival using my tele equipped with…

Neck Pickup; TK Smith C.C.esque

Bridge Pickup; built by my friend (and neighbor) Curtis Novak to my specs.

Pots; 250K

Strings; Thomastik JS113 Flat Wounds

Amp; Stock ’54 Gibson GA-30

We just returned from the 10th and final Deke’s Guitar Geek Festival where as usual, there were an outstanding number of pickers on the bill.  Here’s a clip of the amazing Joel Paterson, one of my favorite players of today, in the green room on Jan. 26 2013. Joel’s using a telecaster equipped with my blade pickup at the neck position going through a stock ’54 Gibson GA-30. The strings are Thomastik-Infeld JS113 flat wounds. If you ever get the chance to see Joel play live don’t miss it. Warning: You might feel like burning your guitar after watching. I know I do.

If you read The Strange B16 post a few weeks back you’ll know we were wondering who the picker was with the neat modified Telecaster. Thanks to Jeff Baker of Des Moines, Iowa the mystery is solved. Turns out his name was John Fields. Unfortunately, he has passed and the guitar is long gone. Jeff printed out the picture and took it to Smokey himself (also known as Iowa’s “Mr. Country Music”) who identified all the players. Smokey is still going strong at 95! Awesome.

There’s also a book by Terry Manley about the bands Smokey booked at the KRNT Theatre in De Moines over the years. I’m ordering mine now, and you can get a copy here.

I finished up this pickup over the weekend and am pleased with the way it turned out. To avoid any hassle I’m going to say it’s a replica but I won’t say of what.

I will say it features a cast aluminum housing, 40AWG wire, alnico magnets with the same great sound as my blade pickup.

I’m thinking of making a batch of these to sell if there is enough interest.  The price will probably be close to my blade pickup (sans walnut spacer). So if you or anyone you know may be interested in one or a pair, shoot me an email.