[What do you think of the Theodore?]

Thanks to merciful-evans for posting that nice pic of a Rickenbacker Combo 450.    Actually, that Ric was on the market in early 1956, almost a year earlier than the date on McCarty's drawing.  Ted was indeed an extraordinary innovator...why then did he basically copy a competitor's design that was already in production and on sale?   By all accounts Ted was very active in the music business overall - he was president of NAMM at one point, was at every NAMM convention twice a year, and seemed to be very aware of what others in the business were doing. It's just unimaginable that he wouldn't have seen Ric's design!  Might be a reasonable speculation that this is why the "Theodore" didn't go into production then, while the explorer and Flying V did.

[MHS Humbuckers]

I've now had a bit over a month with my 2016 '63 ES-335 with MHS humbuckers, and I couldn't be more pleased. I've previously had a Les Paul with Burstbucker Pros and 2 different 335s with '57 Classics, and have played friends' Gibsons with Seymour Duncan and Throback humbuckers. All of them are fine pickups that I'd be glad to have, but to my ears the MHS pickups have the best overall range of sounds; I've been able to get everything out of them I can imagine. They have a particular sweetness & richness in the middle (both pickups) position. Again, I think all of these are fine pickups, but I think the Gibson Memphis folks really got it right with the MHS version.

 

It's also worth remembering in a conversation like this that pickups are just one component in a fairly complex set of variables that we call a guitar, and the differences between these pickups may really be fairly subtle (especially between '57 Classics and MHS). Different strings, a tweak or two of the tone controls (guitar and/or amp), a slightly different speaker, etc. can really change what we hear.

 

Also, that's a gorgeous '59 TDN that started this thread!