First, if it were me, I'd endeavor to make it playable if possible without resorting to the slide route. There are plenty of guitars that are beyond help that become slide guitars. For that matter there are 2x4s that can become slide guitars. Since your guitar is most of the way to being a fret-able guitar, it's probably worth trying to get it all the way there.
Second, you may be aware but, lowering the bridge will only work so far before there's not enough tension across the bridge to hold the strings in place. I had that problem with a Gretsch that needed a neck reset. I dealt with it through a combination of having the action higher than I'd like and not hitting very hard. I didn't end up playing it much. Ultimately I got the neck reset. So you can get the lower bridge but you may ultimately decide you need a neck reset, at which point you migh decide to go the slide route after all.
For pickup alternatives, I've known people to install piezo pickups on archtops. The guy I know best who did this wasn't very happy with the output though -- very weak -- so consider that. There's also a pickup available from GFS for archtops that screws to the edges of the neck. There was another recent archtop/pickup discuission here where I posted a link to that, and people suggested other alternatives too. Let me see if I can find that.
Good luck,
-ScottStatistics: Posted by cheepaxes — Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:45 pm
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