Your Favorite Posts

Nicolai Foss

Apparently, J&A readers are obsessed with Charlie Christian pickups: The absolutely most popular posts on this humble blog are those that deal with these pickups (here). The wordpress stat functions allow you see search words, how many looked at specific posts in a given, day, week, month, etc., and there are on average 10 daily searches for “Charlie Christian Pickups” that lead surfers to this site, and between 25-50 daily hits on the CC pickup posts alone. I find this a bit strange. Are we witnessing a pickup nostalgia wawe? When will see CC pickups on the players’ guitars? Will Pat Martino have a CC pickup installed?

Cromwell “ES-150″

Nicolai Foss

It is well-known that Gibson made numerous budget guitars for Sears, Montgomery Wards, etc. under non-Gibson brandnames. Among the best known of these names are arguably Kalamazoo and Cromwell. Here is the 1937 Cromwell equivalent to the ES-150 with what is clearly a variant of the Charlie Christian pickup, although placed in a way that is opposite to its normal positioning on the ES-150. This may be a very good buy if the pickup actually is a “normal” CC pickup with just a small variation.

Air Mail Special on Spanish Guitar

Nicolai Foss

Can Charlie Christian’s “Air Mail Special” be played on anything but electro-spanish guitars? Of course. It can be very nicely played on a Spanish/classical guitar. Here. Certainly pretty.

Tony Rizzi Tribute

Nicolai Foss

Classicjazzguitar.com has just published this excellent tribute by Jim LaDiana to one of the greatest of the California studio guitarists, Tony Rizzi, and his “wire choirs,” i.e., Rizzi’s emulation of the Super Sax concept. Here is the wire choir playing Charlie Christian’s solo on “I Found a New Baby.” And here is the album with all the Christian solos.

Heritage Eagle With CC Pickup Pics

Nicolai Foss

OK, here are some pics of my Eagle with the recently installed Charlie Christian pickup.

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Here it is shoulder to shoulder with my Aria D’Aquisto Avantgarde.

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John Lennon: Charlie Christian Fan

Nicolai Foss

Yes, according to the good folks at Gibson. Check Lennon’s Les Paul Junior with a CC pickup. BTW, Lennon also said nice things of Barney Kessel (who of course also used the CC pickup).