Pickup The World Archtop Guitar Pickup

Pickup Features: Passive soundboard transducer
These specs are for the very similar Model 27 flattop pickup
Frequency Response: 5Hz-1Gighz into 10Megohm buffer amp
Resonant Frequency: 85Khz
Weight: >1gr.
Peak Output Voltage: 15V
Output Noise: -120dBV
Output Impedance: 1Megohm
Pre-amp: Recommended
Suggested input impedance: 5-10Megohms
Warranty: 5 years parts and labor
Guarantee: 30 day total satisfaction

Model of guitar or bass: 1970-72 Gibson L5-CES
Position: compressed under the bridge feet
Pickup being replaced: N/A
Other pickups on guitar: Stock dual Gibson humbucking magnetic pickups; Front PU492-2G, Back PU490-4G
Artists using this pickup: Unknown
You musical style(s): Big band and combo Jazz, showtunes
Reason for pickup change: I normally rehearse with the big bands using my late Mom's Regal (all solid, carved) 16" acoustic archtop so I don't have to lug an amp to rehearsals. It's got plenty of power for the Freddie Green chunk with an 18 piece big band and one of the directors likes the "authentic" archtop sound. I showed up at an engagement with my L5-CES and the director was disappointed that I was using an "electric" guitar. I don't want to shlep around 2 guitars so I installed the PUTW archtop pickup under the bridge feet wired to a 500K Ohm thumbwheel volume control stealth mounted non-invasively under the pickguard using double stick carpet tape. The output is wired to the ring contact of a stereo output jack. The stock humbucking pickups are wired to the normal tip contact for stereo, or mono use with a normal cable. This way I get both an authentic archtop sound, the lovely warm sound of the L5-CES magnetic pickups, or a blend of the two sounds.

Perceived output level: As stated output level is very low.
Amps and effects are you using it with: I use a short 6-foot stereo to dual mono cable to my Evans AE200 jazz amp that has both piezo and magnetic pickup inputs. I also use Peavey 3 channel keyboard amps that are owned by each of the big bands I play with for rehearsals. But the PUTW acoustic archtop pickup sounds best with a good acoustic preamp. I've used a LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI, and a PreSonus Acousti-Q tube preamp/DI. The PUTW pickup sounds excellent with both preamps but I prefer the portability of the battery-powered Baggs PADI.
Tone: The tone is very lifelike.
Sonic evaluation: The unplugged sound of the L5-CES doesn't have the fullness or punch of my acoustic archtop because of the pickups and controls mounted permanently in the guitar's top dampen the top vibrations so it needs to be eq'd to sound like my acoustic archtop. My home hi-fi stereo has a high impedance mic input and I've been able to eq the PUTW on the L5-CES to sound virtually identical to the acoustic D'Aquisto archtop Jim Hall uses on his 1976 album, 'Commitment'. With this setup I'm able to get the authentic acoustic archtop chunk for big band rhythm jazz guitar, or the warm and lush magnetic pickup jazz sound on big band guitar features or combo work. Using the preamps' eq, I am able to keep the amp eq settings the same on a single channel amp for the PUTW and the mag pickups.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

If it was destroyed or stolen, that means my vintage L5-CES is gone too, and I'd be devastated about that.

I have been playing semi professionally for 43 years. I own the 1967 Telecaster I bought new, a very custom Zion RT Classic built in 2000 for Christian Praise and Worship, a 1993 Taylor Dan Crary Signature Model Dreadnaught for flatpick and fingerstyle P&W and Bluegrass, and my late Mom's Regal acoustic archtop built in the 40s, is my main rehearsal & practice guitar. For amps I have a 2000 Evans AE200, a 2000 Rivera Sedona, and a ~1982 Mesa Boogie Mark IIB.

I like the lifelike response from this pickup. I'm tring to come up with the least complicated method of running the PUTW and the L5-CES' magnetic pickups in Stereo to dual mono. The ring connector cable from the PUTW goes to the preamp, the output to the A channel of an ABY box. The tip connector cable from the mag pickups goes to the ABY B channel. The ABY output goes to a Boss TU-2 tuner, then to the amp. I am able to plug both the preamp output and mag cables into the Evans, or the bands' Peavey keyboard amps and PAs but so far using the ABY sounds best and keeps the tuner in the amp input signal chain.

While I'm very satisfied with the PUTW sound, there is some hum when the thumbwheel volume is turned all the way down. According to David Enke at PUTW, the volume pot should be a minimum of 1 Megohm and thumbwheel pots are only available in a maximum 500K ohms. I'm just not going to drill holes in a vintage L5 pickguard to put in a standard 1 Megohm pot, or make any other permanent mods like an endpin jack for the PUTW. It's possible that the pot needs a better ground connection or shielding around the pot. The ABY "A or B" function mitigates this issue by disconnecting the acoustic channel when not in use.