Neck pickup in Les Paul's original prototype

guitarguy1962 · Jul 23, 2015

I was watching the video of "How High the Moon," and I noticed the unusual neck pickup in Les Paul's original prototype:

You can see the same pickup in the famous picture of Les Paul and Mary Ford:

I read somewhere this was a Dynasonic pickup in a P-90 cover. Does anyone know if this is true, or whether this was just one of Les' experiments?

Here's the full video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NkGf1GHAxhE

Tom Wittrock · Jul 23, 2015

guitarguy1962 said:
I was watching the video of "How High the Moon," and I noticed the unusual neck pickup in Les Paul's original prototype:

You can see the same pickup in the famous picture of Les Paul and Mary Ford:

Same pickup perhaps, but likely a different guitar. There's no binding on the neck of the second one. :hmm

DucRyder · Jul 23, 2015

It looks like an Alnico neck pickup from a Custom with round pole pieces / cream cover instead of rectangular/black. same height adjusters.

sws1 · Jul 23, 2015

TW59 said:
Same pickup perhaps, but likely a different guitar. There's no binding on the neck of the second one. :hmm

And the second one is MUCH bigger than the first. :rofl

guitarguy1962 · Jul 23, 2015

DucRyder said:
It looks like an Alnico neck pickup from a Custom with round pole pieces / cream cover instead of rectangular/black. same height adjusters.

I agree the cover is the same as a P 90/Alnico, but those adjusters under the pole pieces are confusing me. It reminds me of the DeArmond Dynasonics, such as on this Guild Starfire:

Walter Broes · Jul 29, 2015

It's a DeArmond pickup under a P90 cover.

Dave71 · Jul 30, 2015

Walter Broes said:
It's a DeArmond pickup under a P90 cover.

That has been my understanding as well.

Neck pickup in Les Paul's original prototype

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