Neck Pickups for the Pedal Steel Guitar

Gus Callaway · From: California, USA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2qsWQvvBWQ

Glenn Demichele · From: (20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA

Thanks for posting. Yeah, I used a thin Sentell pickup as an experiment to sound more hawaiian. Here's a video with me going back and forth between bridge (left ch) and neck (right ch) pickup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbp4vpza5m8

I liked it and made a thinner one for the C6 neck on my excel, and changing my pickup selector switch to 3 positions (E9 bridge, C6 neck, C6 bridge).
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Larry Dering · From: Missouri, USA

Interesting results and a much softer tone.

ajm · From: Los Angeles

While I applaud his efforts, in the end I'm not sure what this accomplishes.

To me his neck pickup sounds like a drop in volume along with reduced highs. Note that I didn't say that it sounded bad, but rather the contrary. I can see where it could definitely be a usable tone to have available. However, couldn't you achieve the same thing with a GEQ pedal?

Also, he used two different pickups. IMO it might be more interesting to use two of the same pickup. Then you'd maybe be able to more accurately compare the difference in tone relative to the position.

Also, he didn't combine the two pickups. On a Gibson type guitar for example, that dual pickup setting can have a very "sweet" top end.
Not to mention if one of them is out of phase, for that Peter Green Les Paul tone.

Just my $0.02.

Gus Callaway · From: California, USA

Agreed it would be a more apples to apples comparison to show the same pickup, but for what it's worth I did start with a boom mic to place my standard size pickup above the neck position and compare. I found a very similar tone difference, so while the LACE with it's "jazz fusion" tuning does further emphasize the warmth, there's still a lot coming from the neck position.

As far as doing this in post, for me I was never able to get the same quality of tone with EQ. Telonics has a "Blend" knob that got close, but still it's maybe 50% as good as a proper neck pickup.

I was originally going to use a blend knob, but I'm actually going to be replacing my bridge pickup with a 10 string pickup soon. Plus I like the simplicity of avoiding any potentiometers in my signal chain.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Good stuff.
I had similar thinking a few years ago after seeing a Lace pickup that was thin enough to slide under the strings.
I did have some hope, after buying 10 pickups, that Lace might listen to some ideas and wishes I had but back then they basically told me to buzz off.
https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=232778

Ultimately my inability to engineer a mounting system beyond non-permanent adhesive strips kind of had the idea wear thin. I wasn't keen on having this be part of gig setups and I wasn't doing a lot of tracking work that called for this.
But it is still something that interests me. And incidentally, mismatched pickups or not, center position (both on) and phase reversal create very distinct and usable colors. And the infinitely variable positioning of the neck pup is one of the great, rarely implemented color controls.

Gus Callaway · From: California, USA

With the 10 string pickup I will be sending the 10 string signals along with the neck pickup signal to my processing unit. My hope is I can mix the 10 strings down to a single bridge pickup signal, then I could experiment with phase and blending with the neck pickup.

Per Berner · From: Skovde, Sweden

Not much difference apart from a substantial loss of highs.
A simpler solution is to move your picking hand further away from the bridge.

What I would like to see is a sliding pickup, that could be moved two or three inches without tools. Or two pickups of the same type, with separate tone pots.

Jack Wilson · From: Marshfield, MO

Desert Rose made a pedal steel with two pickups

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