T-armonds in a NS Aristocrat

With this talk about T-armonds, has anyone installed a set of TV Jones soap bar T-armonds into a NS Aristocrat. I have really missed the two Gretsch 6128TCG Duo Jets I had to send back because of neck problems, I especially miss the de Armonds. I have also been looking for a good excuse to buy an Aristocrat now that used ones can be had very reasonable. So this could be a win-win situation. Anybody try the TV Jones soap bar T-armonds? Are they closer to the factory Gretsch pick ups or hopefully even better? Would this get me the Dyna-jet sound and feel? After playing a couple REAL Dyna-Jets the Gretsch Professional Series Jets don't quite do it. Plus the neck problems I have had has soured me on these. As always I value your opinions.
Thanks John

I have a '58 that was missing its original Franz pickups and I did just that. It's one of my favorite guitars. For what it's worth, I do like the TArmonds a lot more than the factory Gretsch dynasonics.

I put the T'armonds on a different level than the factory Gretch Dynasonics. To me they are very comparable to the more Expensive Duncan Custom shop Dynas which are about as close to the originals as you can get. Gretsch is even using the T'armonds as Factory pickups now in their "Golden Era" series of proffessional guitars. I have a friend that has them in a soapbar mount and they sounded way better than the Factory Gretsch Dynas I had in my Black Falcon. I eventually changed out the factory Dyna models in my Falcon and installed a set of Duncan Custom Shops from MJ at Seymour Duncan. The Soapbar T'Armonds my buddy has compare very nicely to my Custom Shops. The Soapbars have a bit more compression than the Duncans and the Duncans have a bit more Bite to them than the Soapbar T'armonds but the differences are very subtle .I think the Soapbar T'armonds would sound great in an Aristocrat! Let me know how it turns out!

TX

Did you use the soap bar mount T-Armond or the dog-ear style pick up? I will have call TV as they don't give very clear mounting instructions. I was going to buy a set of soap bar pick ups but I am not sure how they mount. I may have to call them.
Thanks john

Here is a link to the TV Jones page where they show the Soapbar mount T'Armond at the bottom of the page in Cream color.

https://store.tvjones.com/t-armond---mounting-options-c51.aspx

This should be the TV Jones link to download the PDF file with the dimensions of the Soapbar mount pickups. Hope this helps!

http://www.tvjones.com/uploads/6/6/9/7/66975313/pickup_dimension-soapbar-_2016.pdf

TX

I see two problems putting soapbar pickups into a NS Aristocrat.

1. The Franz pickups are not exactly the same size as the soapbar P-90s and the Aristocrat top is routed very precisely to the size of the Franzs. Additional routing would be required, though not much.

2. The Franz pickups don't mount the same way as a soapbar P-90s. P-90s have two screws going down through the center of the pickup and are usually used on solidbody guitars. Soapbar style Franz pickups mount with four small screws through the corners of the baseplate into the braces under the top. It might be possible to add those screw holes to a T-Armond baseplate, but it would not be for the faint of heart with hand tools. At the very least a drill press would be required.

I don't know how the DeArmond mount T-Armonds would fit on an Aristocrat as the neck angle is shallower than a typical arch top; there's less room between the strings and top of the guitar.

Thanks for all the input guys. I will have to rethink this project. Which will be easy as I don't have the guitar or the pick ups yet.
Thanks John

I don't know about the Newark Street Model but I have seen several original 50's Aristocrats that were refinished or restored and had Soapbar P90's in place of the original Franz pickups as they couldn't find any Franz's for the restoration. The soapbar P90's looked like a drop in replacement for the Original Franz models. I also thought that the Newark Street Franz reissues were the same size as the originals. Then again I could be wrong or their could be some variations. Even if the Franz's and the Soapbar P90's have different mounting points, if the pickups are the same size you should have no problems as TV Jones also sells the wood inserts to mount the soapbar P90's to if you need them, or at least they did not long ago.

Regardless I think it is a worthy Mad Scientist project that could result in an Awesome end product for far less than a grand depending on what you get a used Aristocrat for.

TX

it's also not hard to take a pickup out of its cover and fit it into another cover if the size is close. I put Firebird pickups inside a Rickenbacker cover, for example. You could put a P90 into the Franz cover.