| Author |
Topic: Velvet Hammer guitar pickups for Telecaster? |
T. C. Furlong
From:
Lake County, Illinois, USA
|
Posted 1 Nov 2009 12:52 pm |
|
Does anyone know about whether or not original Velvet Hammer guitar pickups are desirable? I know that they were handmade by steeler Red Rhodes in LA in the seventies (I think). Any further info would be appreciated
TC |
|
|
 |
Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
|
|
|
|
Lefty
From:
Grayson, Ga.
|
Posted 1 Nov 2009 1:58 pm
|
|
There is also a good bit about them on the Clarence White forum, since he used one between his two tele pickups. The website says that James Burton also used them in his paisley Tele. Those are pretty good recomendations.
Lefty |
|
|
|
John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
|
Posted 1 Nov 2009 2:32 pm
|
|
| Mucho dinero |
|
|
|
John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
|
Posted 1 Nov 2009 2:52 pm
|
|
T. C.,
Get in touch with Jim Sliff. Look in the members list. He will definitely know all you could possibly want to know about these pups. Don't sell them until you talk to Jim, cause they're rarer than hen's teeth. |
|
|
|
David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
|
Posted 1 Nov 2009 4:10 pm
|
|
Forum member Jim Sliff is a big fan, if you back-channel him he'd be sure to bend your ear a bit.  |
|
|
|
Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
|
Posted 1 Nov 2009 4:43 pm
|
|
Original bridge pickups were going for $4-500; a set of Bridge and Strat neck pickup with Red's wacky wrong harness was hitting the &00+ range.
Things may have cooled a bit since his son Jeff is now producing them again - I have not tested the new ones, so I do not know if there are any consistency problems as there were the last time the family tried to make them. Street rumors are that they are right on the money so far.
Still, a bridge pickup (or bridge and neck) with provenance - a receipt from Red's shop or from Groove Tubes when he was making them there would still be worth far more than a set of new ones.
IMO the critical part of the "Velvet Hammer Equation" is the wiring - if you wire it like a normal Tele pickup or (as it has more than the usual two wires) a tapped humbucker you miss the entire effect of the pickup. The harness IS the key to getting the most out of the bridge pickup.
Many players don't buy into that, are convinced the wiring is "wrong" and do it their way...then sell the pickups because they don't sound very good.
Sometime you HAVE to read the directions!!
I have one pair - they're in my Nashville West "Clarence Clone" Tele. Neither the pickups or guitar are for sale at ANY price (well - maybe that's a stretch - but it'd probably take a swap for a prewar D-28 'bone to get it out of my hands.)
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
|
|
|
John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
|
Posted 1 Nov 2009 5:08 pm
|
|
| Thanks Jim! I knew you'd have the latest info. |
|
|
|
Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
|
Posted 1 Nov 2009 7:27 pm
|
|
I was just goggle referencing the pic from this flyer to I.D. Red Rhodes in a youtube video, and then noticed this thread.
_________________
Jackson Steel Guitars
Web: www.chrisledrew.com |
|
|
|
Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
|
Posted 2 Nov 2009 8:27 pm
|
|
| I had Red make me a pair of splittable humbuckers for my SG around 1976 or so and they were about $125 for the pair as I recollect. They sounded fantastic. They were as good or better than anything on the market since then. He re-wound a lot of other pickups for me for next to nothing and he was a master at it. He could build any Fender tube amp from scratch from memory. I really miss those Saturday afternoons spent hanging around the back room in his shop down in Hollywood where you might run into Jay Dee,Sneaky,Ed Black or Buddy Emmons. I still have his card where it says "Red's Royal Amp Shop - Where You Get It Royally".... |
|
|
|
T. C. Furlong
From:
Lake County, Illinois, USA
|
Posted 3 Nov 2009 5:43 am
|
|
Thanks everyone for the great information. I have acquired a pair of original Velvet Hammers from a '66 Tele body. I just might have to put together a Clarence Clone (many thanks to Jim Sliff) or if anyone knows of someone who has been dying for a pair of these, let me know.
TC |
|
|
|
Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
|
Posted 4 Nov 2009 5:28 pm
|
|
PM sent
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
|
|
|
Raybob Bowman
From:
S. Lake Tahoe, CA, USA
|
Posted 5 Nov 2009 12:26 am
|
|
| Lefty wrote: |
There is also a good bit about them on the Clarence White forum, since he used one between his two tele pickups. The website says that James Burton also used them in his paisley Tele. Those are pretty good recomendations.
Lefty |
I had always heard Clarance White used a Velvet Hammer. I emailed Gene Parsons who built that sunburst B-bender and asked him about the Velvet Hammer. He said Clarance always used a standard tele pickup at the bridge and a strat pickup at the neck.
_________________
Sierra U12 4+5 / 1933 Dobro / homemade Tele B-bender |
|
|
|
Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
|
Posted 5 Nov 2009 5:35 pm
|
|
| Quote: |
| He said Clarance always used a standard tele pickup at the bridge and a strat pickup at the neck. |
Gene never worked on the electronics though,except to move them out of the way during the bender development.
His explanation doesn't cover the first incarnation of the 'burst - which was an Esquire, not a Tele; then Clarence added a stock Tele neck pickup; then the VH setup. He never mentions the toggle switch, either - which acts an odd ground shunt (that sounds like a "progressive" phase reversal) with Red's setup or a phase switch with stock pickups.
Clarence was always experimenting, and remember - when Gene installed the bender it was around late '67/early '68...and in Esquire configuration.
From roughly '70 to late '72 or early '73 Clarence had the VH pickups and harness. This info came from both Clarence himself (who suggested I get the same setup from Red after having an Evans Pullstring bender/body made, which he told me to get at from Westwood Music).
I used to hang at Red's periodically and knew about the pickups - I just wish I'd bought a set, had him install his oddball wiring (again, that's a key component) and had Dave build me a Pullstring then!
When Fender dismantled the guitar a few years ago it had rewound pickups, but not the boost-coil VHTBX bridge pickup. That pickup is the holy grail of Tele pickups, and players have been chasing rumors of its whereabouts for decades (it;s thought to be in the Antelope Valley area of LA County - some of his other items have appeared, such as an Echoplex he had being used as the "house" delay at a local club)..
As far as his guitar electronics, there are pretty obvious tonal clues in boots from '68 - '73 where you hear Clarence's tone completely change from the '68 sound. And if you listen to the official live releases - the early Fillmore recordings and Untitled...and especially the newest, Live at Royal Albert Hall - it sounds like he's playing a different guitar the tones are so distinctly different.
It's always been kinda funny that guys ask Gene what pickups Clarence used - most band members don't know the specifics of their bandmate's setups, especially if they generally play a different instrument.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
|
|
|
