Hallmark Deke vs Custom 60

[MWaldorf]

Mel, Thanks for the nice history lesson! I know you have played with pups...I wonder if the tapped setting on your custom pups is anything like the DD/50s Maphis?

The construction and mounting are significantly different between the Mosrite and Carvin AP6 pickups. The Mosrite pickup is more similar to a P90 but much hotter. The tapped settings on the M3 pickups I've got have a P90ish tonal character. That being said, I can cop pretty good Fender tones as well.

[Deke Dickerson]

These guys have pretty much told you the truth! The main difference in the two guitars is the styling of the design, and the pickups. The necks pretty much feel the same and they use the same tailpiece/vibrato and roller bridge.

The Custom 60 gets that distorted Nokie Edwards of the Ventures and Johnny Ramone buzzsaw sound. My signature model has cleaner pickups that to my ears fall somewhere in between a Strat pickup and a P-90.

So, if the styling doesn't make any difference to you (usually that's a primary consideration for guitar buyers!) then the output and tone of the pickups should make up your mind.

Rock on!

Deke

[beenawhile]

Thanks for chiming in Deke - I have been pouring over your many, many youtube vids and am just loving watching you in action. I live in Portland and will be at you upcoming Duff's Garage show! If you have time, say hi to the guys at Centaur Guitars (just up the road from Duff's) - they have a few Hallmarks hanging on the wall and I would love to see the DD there, too!

So happens, I like the look of both of these guitars! Yeah, the C60 is going to look better and probably feel better for most of the stuff I do. But man would I like to learn to pick the DD the way you do!

Tell the truth, the main reason I am looking at this style of guitar is the scale. I'd like an alternative to my 25.5 Fenders - and the Jag is a bit too cramped for me. There aren't all that many short scale solid body guitars with single coils and trems - especially ones that nail the early 60s vibe. I like the necks and the trem feels really good to me for sure.

As for pups, I wish I could say that I heard more of that Ventures crunch in the C60, but that hasn't been my experience when I demo'd the guitar through a Bassman (admitted at low volume). I would love to have that crunch, but if I can't get it, I might prefer a little twang - such as you demonstrate with the DD. But that's not to say that the C60 doesn't do a nice job for Ventures work - clearly it does and lots of folks have chimed in to that affect.

It sure would be cool to have studio vids of you playing the various Hallmarks, like what you have done for you model. I can't think of better advertising than sound clips or a video that has been produced well. Ever seen that great video by Jim Weider: "Get that Classic Fender Sound"? Hallmark fans need you to do something similar with those guitars

[MWaldorf]

As for pups, I wish I could say that I heard more of that Ventures crunch in the C60, but that hasn't been my experience when I demo'd the guitar through a Bassman (admitted at low volume).

To get the Nokie crunch the pickups need to be nice and close to the strings. The C60s I've played had the pickups set farther away, which gave a brighter, but less mid-rangey tone. Raising the pickups was all it took to get the Nokie sound.

[beenawhile]

To get the Nokie crunch the pickups need to be nice and close to the strings. The C60s I've played had the pickups set farther away, which gave a brighter, but less mid-rangey tone. Raising the pickups was all it took to get the Nokie sound.

Mel, that's good to know!

I would be curious to know about replacement pickup options for the C60. Sounds like they are the same size as any typical 60s Mosrite pup. Are there other aftermarket flavors that fit in that shape? Are the DD pups close in size?

[Deke Dickerson]

Thanks for the kind words man! I appreciate it.

That Nokie crunch tone is really a function of overloading the preamp on your amplifier. if you're playing a bassman at low volumes, you need something like an overdrive pedal or a tube screamer to get it to distort the way you want to hear it. Not really full on distortion or fuzz tone, but just enough to give it that "bite."

When we do the Venturesmania gigs, we nail that 1965 Ventures tone--but it's literally by playing Mosrites into giant Fender Dual Showman amps and turning them up to 10! I mean 11! ha ha

I don't think the DD pickups and Mosrite style pickups can be swapped very easily--the routing hole for the Mosrite style pickups is much bigger than the routing hole for the DD pickups.

Deke

[jfine]

Sarah--Phil Baugh was pretty well-known among country musicians, of a certain age anyway! I posted an account of how I met Phil Baugh and Joe Maphis back in '81. It's in the Music Related section, in a thread entitled "one of my favorite Mosrite players...", on page 2 about 3/4 of the way down. Or you could search for "Phil Baugh". I tried to post a link to it, but I'm having no luck. Lots of cool stuff on Baugh--I just put in my 2 cents' worth!

[Strat-o-rama]

I don't know if this will help, and it kind of plays into what Deke was describing. Last night I dimed my Vibro-Champ and plugged in my ES295 (P-90 pickups) and got that overdriven sound like T-Bone Walker. I then changed to the Hallmark C60, and got a louder, even more overdriven sound that had more treble on top. On both guitars I played the middle position(both pickups) full volume. If you're familiar with P-90s, then think of the Hallmark C60 pickup as more output and more treble. Frankly, I really liking the C60 for swing type blues tones. Now I just need to keep putting in the woodshed part of it. Man! Those extended chords and inversions with associated arpeggios are tough!

[jtr654]

Just remember that a clean pickup can be overdriven but a hot pickup is hard to get a really clean sound . If you listen to Deke's CD The Melody he has clean to I'ld say crunch tones done with the DD Hallmark.

[beenawhile]

That Nokie crunch tone is really a function of overloading the preamp on your amplifier. if you're playing a bassman at low volumes, you need something like an overdrive pedal or a tube screamer to get it to distort the way you want to hear it. Not really full on distortion or fuzz tone, but just enough to give it that "bite."

I have been looking for some sort of subtle pedal that I can use with my strat and jazzmaster to get that "bite". I have a tube screamer clone and find that there is a bit too much OD even with the gain all the way down.

Deke, please bring your Venturesmania act with you to Portland - man would that be a treat! Maybe bring the rest of the Ghastly's while you are at it

StratOrama - good news to my ears that you like the C60 for jump blues. I just sold an ES 125 with P90s and I would like to have another guitar to cover that territory.