In the hands of guitarists like Hound Dog Taylor, James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, and even Richie Valens, Teisco and Harmony brand guitars have had their share of the spotlight.
At any rate, these two companies were the leading name in gold foil pickups and remain synonymous with the style to this day.ĭespite their aesthetic attraction and unconventional voice, gold foil pickups never found much appeal among serious musicians. I can’t find a DeArmond gold foil pickup any earlier than 1959, so it’s likely that Teisco was the first to pull this off. The earliest guitar I can find that featured gold foil pickups is the Teisco J-1 which premiered in 1954. Whoever it was, two names became known for this new design-DeArmond and Teisco. There’s a gap in the timeline in the mid-1950s where we seem to have lost their exact creation date. That’s why it’s hard to say who was the first to develop the foil-covered pickup. It seemed that everyone was obsessed with trying as many things as they could to pull the most sound out of the newly developed solid body electric. There were countless models being produced during a period of immense experimentation. Well, following the release of the Fender Esquire in 1950, pickup design went full-blast. You might be wondering where gold foil pickups fit into all this. In their early years, the duo, under the brand name Teisco, focused on crafting lapsteel guitars, microphones, and amplifiers. They would eventually become the primary electronics supplier for the Harmony Company, one of the most prolific, if not necessarily the highest quality, instrument manufacturers of the 20th century.Īround the same time, Atswo Kaneko and Doryu Matsuda were kickstarting their own musical instrument and electronics company in Japan.
Beginning in the early 1940s, DeArmond and his company Rowe Industries started creating many different styles of pickups. Of these innovators was the great Harry DeArmond, who was among the first to develop an attachable pickup capable of electrifying any acoustic. Getting a Grasp on Gold Foil Pickups History of Gold Foil PickupsĪfter their introduction in the 1930s, guitar pickups began pouring onto the market in a huge array of designs issued forth by a great number of inventors. So, out of all the types of electric guitar pickups available, could gold foil pickups be the secret to your long-sought sound? Let’s take a look… But, love ‘em or hate ‘em, everyone tends to agree that they offer a sound much different than your typical single-coil or humbucker. Like with most things, opinions are split-with a pretty big margin-on whether or not gold foils are any good. Though gold foil pickups were initially issued in low-cost student guitars, they’re seeing a resurgence in popularity as more and more guitarists are looking to the days of yore to get the most from their tone. There are several companies offering their own versions of these unique-looking pups-some sticking to vintage specs and others presenting contemporary twists. So it is that today there is a growing interest in vintage-styled gold foil pickups. But, as many musicians will attest, there’s something irreplaceably special about the equipment produced in the early days of each musical epoch. You’d think as technology has progressed, guitarists would leave the old ways behind and be happy with our modern electronic marvels.