Workshop: Lollar Charlie Christian in Cromwell




The fellow who bought the nice Cromwell G-4 wanted to electrify it with a Charlie Christian-style pickup to make it into a more-affordable ES-150. He chose a Lollar with 2-point mounting. This is a premium pickup and it sounds gorgeous. It really does nail the tone of the originals. I figured it'd be nice to share the results for anyone else who's considering plopping the cash down on one of these pickups. It's worth it.


My mounting is imperfect but functional. Because the fretboard is so low to the top (rather than cantilevered like on an Epiphone or higher-end Gibson), the pickup has to be fairly far-down on its mounting adjustment screws. This was letting it move side-to-side a bit so I pushed foam in around the edges of the pickup to keep it more stable.

I've restrung with 52w-11 nickel strings with a wound G.


The wiring harness has two 500k pots, a lightweight cap, and two reproduction bakelite knobs sent all the way from the UK.


Spiffy, no?

Comments