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DEMO VIDEO:

Product:  C. B. Gitty Pre-Wired 4-String Single Coil Pickup. $15.99

Overview:  For $16, this sucker has a mean growl and leaves no guesswork in the wiring. 

***** (5 Stars)

I bought a few of these single coils from C. B. Gitty not just out of curiousity (they're wonderfully cheap), but also because I'm an electronics idiot.  I liked the fact that it already had volume and tone pots in the circuit because I knew it would increase the selling price of the guitar when I was finished.  In other words, more options for the player = a higher retail price.

I decided to skip the mounting ring that came included with the pickup and carefully cut a slot for the pickup in the top of the box.  I also placed the volume and tone knobs in the upper right corner, a little weird, I know, but it reminded me of the layouts in old Airline and Supro guitars.

I had no problem at all with the pickup.  Absolutely everything came complete...all wiring, knobs and output jack.  (It kinda felt like I was cheating.) 

The end result, as evidenced by the video above, was a super sounding guitar with more depth and snarl than I ever expected.  These pickups have a great output and they look good too.

Additional notes on this particular guitar:

• Yes, it sold.  If I make another one, I'm keeping it!
  
• The box is a Macanudo Gold Label cigar box.  ($6.79 at C. B. Gitty)
• The fretboard is a Lowe's yard stick that I antiqued.
• The 'bridge cover' is a black Colonial drawer handle ($4.79/pair at Gitty)
• I used brass corners to keep the gold look.  ($4.79, also at Gitty)
• The amp in the video is a tortured, old Kustom solid state practice amp that hardly works.  It stays in my workshop for guitar testing.

Notes on installing:  Since this pickup was thick, I knew I would have to reinforce the "neck through" design.  I did this simply by gluing an extra piece of poplar to the underside of the neck inside the box.  Instead of going into detail about the process, let me just share this great video by Glenn Watt that explains the concept.  (Glenn uses a P90 pickup...but the whole process is basically the same with this single coil.)