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I have my second MIK D’Angelico. In both cases the floating pickup adhered to the guitar’s top with two-sided tape as well as the metal tab attaching it to the pickguard. Out of curiosity, is this common with other makes of guitars? Is it better to remove the tape?
Thanks!
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09-15-2023 10:49 PM
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I've had 5 Emperor Regents over the years and a Campellone Special and have never seen this. Do you have some pictures as I'm having a hard time visualizing the tape?
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I installed the floaters on mine myself, and I use Blu-Tack to attach the pickups to the top. I prefer the sound I get with the pickup somewhat coupled to the top. I don't know if everyone would.
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Here is a close up. It is an awkward angle.
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I don't think that foam-type tape would have much effect on tone. It appears to mostly serve to keep the pickup in place. I think I would probably just leave it as it is, although I suppose you could replace it with felt, leather, or something if you feel the need.
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I put a Benedetto S6 on a Washburn J600k. Not a skilled tech or woodworker or anything manual really. It was hard to chisel/carve out the slot on the ebony/ebonized pickguard. Ended up putting a small, <1/4”, piece of rubber tubing under the pickup to level it out. Works.
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Dearmonds all came with a couple of felt pads underneath. Touching the top is probably unavoidable on some guitars and avoidable on others.
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The KA floater on my Lehmann is screwed to the finger-rest. It has a piece of felt on the bottom a bit less than 1/8" thick that lightly rests on the top. I think it's mostly a buzz killer, but may also help with stability and alignment. Sounds really good BTW.
I think I'd leave your setup alone. Who knows what issues might show up if it's gone. I kinda doubt it has a noticeable effect on tone.
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My dearmonds are not floating on the water so not truly a floating boat but none of it touches the top of the guitar. There is a piece of felt on them underneath and it does not as such touch either but allows no harm to the top if pickup gets pushed down. My Gibson's with the BJB pickup are similar except the pickguard has large square piece of felt going from bottom of guard to top of the guitar. This stabilizes the pickguard since the pickup is attached to the guard. Does not affect the top or sound lightly touching is nothing.
If this were my guitar, I would take off the tape and then put a nice piece of felt the proper size underneath. Felt can be purchased that is sticky on one side to attach under the pickup and then the felt would simply be the gap filler, so to speak. I think this is better for the guitar and possibly allow a much cleaner and neater look. If anything I believe it would improve the sound as the felt touching the top would be of less interference than the blu-tac or 2 sided tape on there now.
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This might be a “floater”. The pickup is a Pete Biltoft CC replica. The pickup has a tab extending to the right that is glued to the underside of the pickguard. The photo shows that there is adequate space above and below the pickup. The bottom of the pickup has a very thin piece of felt on it. If you push down on the pickup, it can be made to contact the guitar top. So things are tight but they work….and the pickup sounds really good, at least to me.
Prior to ordering it, I worked with Pete using various thicknesses of white styrene, glued together with MEK. This modeling effort eventually determined the thickness of the pickup that would fit. Mine is his thinest. He offers different thicknesses.
Tom
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Some of my "floaters" don't touch the top and are anchored to the neck. The original Heritage floaters barely touch the top.
I have a hard time imagining that slight contact between the pickup and the top would affect the acoustic sound. There is not a lot of sonic energy put out there. However, it may well affect the amplified sound by causing some slight bounce to the pickup from top vibration.
My ears will never discern subtlety.
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Not sure if this qualifies as a “floater”.
I ordered a 1967 L-5C with a single Johnny Smith pickup. In 1971 I sent it to Gibson to have a single HB installed. They returned the JS to me. I put it in “storage” and just fiund it a month ago.
The U-shaped mounting bracket is screwed onto the wood under the end of the fingerboard. The pickup does not contact the top, so maybe it is a “floater” despite its attachment method.
Tom
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In my opinion neck mounted pickups definitely qualify as floating pickups, as do pickguard mounted, pickguard integrated (McCarty for example, and “monkey on a stick” mounted (DeArmond as the classic example).
Originally Posted by TAA
Not sure if this qualifies as a “floater”.
I ordered a 1967 L-5C with a single Johnny Smith pickup. In 1971 I sent it to Gibson to have a single HB installed. They returned the JS to me. I put it in “storage” and just fiund it a month ago.
The U-shaped mounting bracket is screwed onto the wood under the end of the fingerboard. The pickup does not contact the top, so maybe it is a “floater” despite its attachment method.
Tom
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Originally Posted by TAA
This might be a “floater”. The pickup is a Pete Biltoft CC replica. The pickup has a tab extending to the right that is glued to the underside of the pickguard. The photo shows that there is adequate space above and below the pickup. The bottom of the pickup has a very thin piece of felt on it. If you push down on the pickup, it can be made to contact the guitar top. So things are tight but they work….and the pickup sounds really good, at least to me.
Prior to ordering it, I worked with Pete using various thicknesses of white styrene, glued together with MEK. This modeling effort eventually determined the thickness of the pickup that would fit. Mine is his thinest. He offers different thicknesses.
Tom
I had Bill Comins install this one by Pete Biltoft on this 1995 Chester Avenue as he was doing some restoration work on it. Bill added the small pad to keep it level. I don’t think it has any effect at all on the acoustic sound. I had originally gotten this very thin one for a different guitar, but didn’t use it. It didn’t need to be so thin for the Comins, but it is a great match sonically.
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