Played a Curtis Novak guitar today

[glpg80]

he was at NAMM this year, lives locally in NC. one of his guitars were in a local mom and pop shop that is really popular around town.

i was so shocked after spending 4 hours on this guitar in the store that i looked up his number and gave him a call.

good god the pickups in the guitar i played were amazing.

he specializes in custom hand wound single coils and custom hand wound pickups.

he uses techniques from leo fender and i believe he said he has done work for fender as well on a pickup model they have when i gave him a call.

the neck pickup model has that air-norton thing going on, only its responsive to how you pick and how hard you pick even with the volume pot all the way up - so if you change picking techniques while you play, or change your pick angle - the pickup is so detailed that it can show these differences!

the bridge pickup was a litte too sloppy sounding to me, but it had enough attitude that you could get down and not have a problem with solo's or sustain.

harmonics jumped off the fretboards. stupid clear and accurate.

definately check him out guys. this guy is one amazingly talented individual and i will be having a custom set of pickups made from him based on the HS-3, SD duckbucker, and area 58

 

[JakeAC5253]

Sounds like a pretty cool guy!

 

[jimistheman]

Very cool--what part of NC?

Thanks!

Jim

 

[glpg80]

granite falls, about 25 minutes from where i live.

this topic was started over 8 months ago. i still have not had enough money to get one of his pickups, but to this day they are still my favorite and i still want them.

they are not noiseless pickups....they are the real for those that are wondering. but to me they are better than any SD or dimarzio single coil i have ever played.

i still remember that guitar i played made from him like it was yesterday.

great tone... highly highly recommended. give him a call and he will hook you guys up. hisd stuff is not cheap though..... just an FYI.

FWIW i went to the music store i hang around a few days ago looking for another novak guitar with his pickups but none of them were there. i was offered to stop by his shop and check out the rest of his collection back when i originally posted this topic - i think i might give him another call and make a short drive.

 

[Mudder]

He is the go to guy for classic Jazzmaster pickups. It doesn't surprise me he'd put together a nice guitar.

 

[glpg80]

He is the go to guy for classic Jazzmaster pickups. It doesn't surprise me he'd put together a nice guitar.

TBH the guitar was not made well. it was all parts "parts" and cheap keys. that particular one i played was made out of wood from a barn and stained. i dont even remember anyone telling me what wood it was - unknown?

but the pickups were what turned that all parts guitar into a memory ill never forget. he's got talent - very underrated on the forums in my opinion. if you can make a barnyard body and an allparts neck compete with a yngwie strat in tone you are doing something right!

 

[Mudder]

Fair enough. But yeah, for pickups he's as good as anyone. Killer JM models, supposedly makes the closest to real deal wide range fenders too.