The ShadowMusic Web Community

So much choice here
I got my set made here. http://www.jcvintage.com/
I dont have any recording equipment so can't do a demo

Well, I have, with the help of a Member of this Board had the anti Rez-O-Matik myth (Re the Burns Apache Guitar) I had about them totally destroyed, thank goodness!

Never thought they were good enough, Hmmmpphh! I listened to a guy that plays Hank and uses Burns Guitars. I certainly had that myth exploded over this past weekend!

I have come on here to say, try your pick-ups in different modes and settings via your Echo effects, or/and amplifiers before chucking them away and paying out hard earned cash for new ones. Lesson learned where my experience is concerned. There are some VERY wise people on this board!

Talking about Rezomatik pickups, I have a Baldwin Marvin from about 1967 (according to the serial no.) which has "Rez-O-matiK" pickups and a Burns Marvin (Serial No. 15250) which has "reZ-o-matik" pickups - the capital letters here represent the larger capitals actually written on the pickup covers.
The original pickups seem to have all been labelled with "Rez-O-matiK" (interestingly spelling out ROK!) and some later pickups for some reason appear to have been labelled with only the Z in larger capitals.

Has anyone any idea why this occurred and what (if anything) the change might signify?

The two Marvins sound very different (though the bodies and even the necks are made from different woods, and, as discussed elsewhere in this forum, this is sure to account for some of the tonal difference).

When I noticed this difference in "spelling" on the pickup covers I wrote to Barry Gibson (as I wondered whether the pickups might have been changed from the original and substituted by BG's modern equivalents - but he said that they were not the same as the pickups used on his "re-issue" Marvins and commented that he thought they were a later version of the originals, used from about 1965. But I am still a bit puzzled as the '67 Baldwin Marvin has the seemingly "earlier" "Rez-O-matiK" pickups.

Does anyone have any information regarding who actually made the Rezomatik pickups and whether the supplier was ever changed? (which could account for the change in pickup cover "spelling").

I should explain also that the Burns Marvin mentioned has one or two other differences to what I have always taken to be "the standard Marvin" - it has a maple tiger striped neck and also has a pull-push tone control which brings in the extra pickup selections possible with this type of configuration. BG thought that it could be a Marvin made by Jack Golder (in his later years) from original left-over Burns parts - it certainly is a beautifully made instrument (I would post a couple of photos if I knew how to do this!) - it has a green burst body and is quite a stunner!

Any info or comments welcomed.

Paul

I've recently acquired a Custom Shop rosewood fingerboard Fiesta Red 1960 replica Strat fitted with over wound Fat 50's Abby pickups... and a mint green scratchplate...

Lovely piece of kit, but disliked the pickguard colour and foind the pickups too mellow and bluesy for Shads sounds...

A buddy, Chris Pearson, who took over the singist's role in UFB at short notice following the tragic death of Paul Lusby, brought a Strat along with Amalfitano pickups hand made by Jerry in Texas, and enthused mightily about them as the "strattiest" pickups he's ever used, preferring them even to the real vintage thing on some of his old Strats... http://www.amalfitanopickups.com/

So I got an SP set from Charlie Chandlers in London at a better proce than buying them direct, and guess what? Absolute magic! The best pickups I've had to date... they sound absolutely right to me...

And you'll want to hear them? But right now I'm not set up to record anything, but take my word for it.... just superb... and around the price of Fender CS pickups, or Bare Knuckles...

New scratchplate and now we look like this...

Nice balance (for Real Strings) on those pickup polepieces, David.

What was the problem with the mint pickguard? It's authentic for the period.

I could have done you a swap for a paler one off one of my '62 USA VRs...

JN

Been experimenting with strings. Put 11 to 52 with wound third on, and took them straight off. Didn't like the sound or the balance at all. Now trying real nickel wrap 10 to 46 and am much happier... The pickups seem to prefer the plain third, and one of my party tricks is to make light strings sound like heavy ones being maltreated... So that's OK...

More anon ...

The mint green looked so synthetic... The one you see came from Holland via EBay at a good price... http://www.customworldguitarparts.com/

I really don't like the mint green pickguard, should be white in my opinion, looks best to me, anyone know where I can get one for a Simon Neil strat?

I should explain also that the Burns Marvin mentioned has one or two other differences to what I have always taken to be "the standard Marvin" - it has a maple tiger striped neck and also has a pull-push tone control which brings in the extra pickup selections possible with this type of configuration. BG thought that it could be a Marvin made by Jack Golder (in his later years) from original left-over Burns parts - it certainly is a beautifully made instrument (I would post a couple of photos if I knew how to do this!) - it has a green burst body and is quite a stunner!

Any info or comments welcomed.

Paul[/quote]

My brother had a Marvin built by jack Golder and Jack said "they were Strat pickups".On a real Marvin the neck pickup poles are slightly closer together.

Looking at some clean channel demos of Amalfitano SP and VS pickups on their website, they
do sound quite full and balanced across P/u combinations on a Strat.
Again being a little pricey, might be the main negative point on these, at least for me anyway,
when thinking back to what I paid at the time for Kinmans!!!

Mike

Very interesting thread......

Not surprisingly I don't see any mention of Lace sensors - in my opinion (for what it is worth) the Lace 'Holy Grail' set does an excellent reproduction of '62 HBM tones on my '62 MIJ re-issue.