Spot the Dot? OK, well, here's why:
What would YOU call a black Dot?
Why, "Spot," of course...

Here's a black MIK Epi Dot that I traded from Mychael for a Strat Parts-O-Caster I assembled with him in mind...

Because, I had something in mind for THIS axe.

My e-pal Pete at Vintage Vibe has a pickup he builds that he calls the "CC-Rider." It's a very "Charlie Christian"-looking single coil, with exceptional tone. I tried a set in my MIK Epiphone Sheraton and loved the tone, but eventually I had other plans for the Sheraton... But, I didn't want to lose having that big jazz tone available, so I picked this axe up with those pickups in mind.

After the CC-Rider trial in the Sheraton, I made a few observations and suggestions, and Pete built me a custom pair of exact-humbucker-sized CC-Riders. The custom pickup set was a slam-dunk drop-in replacement on the Dot, and it couldn't have been easier to install them. Because of string-clearance considerations, this set loses the vintage "Charlie Christian" looks of the original model's hexagonal top bobbin and tall bar-polepiece, but they still have THAT tone, for days.

To finish off this Dot, I strung it up with a set of Fender flatwounds, and was a bit surprized to find that these pickups had actually sounded just as good with my standard Ernie Ball Slinky set of rock 'n' roll strings on the Sheraton. In other words, the flatwounds didn't really get that much more of a mellow jazz tone than the Slinkys! That was a real head scratcher, and, as I don't use flatwounds on anything else, I'm wondering if it's just a function of the Fender-brand flatwound strings I used. Of course, they are brand new - maybe in a couple of months I'll be hearing the difference. In the meantime, I'll roll back that tone knob just a tad...

The bottom line is, with this axe, when you hear that VV neck pup workin', I have the sound that you'd expect to get from a big ol' fifties jazzbox... Now if only I could PLAY like one of those guys!

Spot now resides up north with one of my e-pals who just HAD to have a cool DOT. He also requested series and phase p/p mods, and I installed them before shipping it. Wow! Series makes these pups WAY-FAT! Sounds even better, now...