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Topic: Pickup for Lap Steel? |
Dennis Brooker
From:
Iowa, USA
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Posted 23 Jul 2009 5:02 am |
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| OK, I'm a real newbie to lap steel - I'm the guy that makes custom printed wood veneer fretboards and does art work on guitars - I'm going to build a lap steel but I don't know squat about pickups and very little about electronics - Can someone recommend an adequate but not expensive single coil pickup as I'm going to build a lap steel - Please also tell me what I need to buy for the control for it as well - I do know about 1/4" jacks - As far as the tone, etc. right now since I'm not that educated I wouldn't know the difference between what one persons preference of one type of tone as opposed to another - Thanks for your input - Dennis Brooker |
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Olli Haavisto
From:
Jarvenpaa,Finland
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Posted 23 Jul 2009 5:20 am
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Dennis,
Check out Jason Lollar`s stuff. His Chicago Steel is a good Supro/Valco sounding pick-up and I think he now makes a replica of the Valco string-through pup.
http://www.lollarguitars.com/
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Olli Haavisto
Finland
Last edited by Olli Haavisto on 23 Jul 2009 9:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Ben Jones
From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
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Posted 23 Jul 2009 5:42 am
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Lollars are excellent pickups.
Look at mojo music supply for your pots and tone caps (once you've discovered the parts you need/want, you can try and source them for cheaper than mojo...at places like mouser, grainger, pedalparts, whatever). I have no idea how a lap steel is wired but guitars are typically 250K pots. CTS is a prefered brand of pot, switchcraft is a prefered brand of jack. The importance of tone caps is a debatable subject, but mojo has had little baby orange drops made just for this purpose, might as well use them. wiring schematics can be found online for nearly nay pickup configuration...most are quite simple. |
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Tom Wolverton
From:
Carpinteria, CA
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Posted 23 Jul 2009 6:10 am Lollar
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I recently put a Jason Lollar "Chicago" pickup in a 6-string lap steel and it really is nice. I am very pleased with it.
_________________
To write with a broken pencil is pointless. |
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James Mayer
From:
back in Portland Oregon, USA (via Arkansas and London, UK)
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Posted 23 Jul 2009 9:56 am
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| I recommend 500k pots and a .022 cap on the tone. |
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Roman Sonnleitner
From:
Vienna, Austria
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Posted 26 Jul 2009 2:23 pm
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Admittedly, Lollar makes great pickups - but they don't fit the "not expensive" requirements of the original post...
For great, but relatively affordable pickups, look here: www.vintagevibeguitars.com - Pete winds some great ones, his Stringmaster-type lap steel pickup would be great for classic, Fender-ish brilliant tones, and his CC Rider (my all-time favorite guitar pickup of any kind), if you want something warmer, fuller, yet not muddy.
If these are still too expensive, look for regular guitar pickusp - P90 types for full, warm sounds, or Telecaster bridge pickups for brighter tones.
BTW, I personally prefer 250k vol. and tone pots with single coil pickups, as they slightly attentuate the harsher, piercing treble frequencies, and make the lap steel sound fuller; as for caps: 47nF if you want to be able to role more treble off (for really dark tones), or 22nF (my own preference) if you want to have a more finely adjustable range (but less extreme results when turning the tone pot down all the way). |
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Dennis Brooker
From:
Iowa, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2009 4:43 am
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| Thanks for all your helpful comments gentlemen - I shall proceed and I'm sure to learn with each new lap steel I build - Best regards - DB |
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Peter Jacobs
From:
Northern Virginia
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Posted 28 Jul 2009 10:51 am
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I second Roman's suggestion of Vintage Vibe Pickups. They sound great, the price is reasonable and Pete Biltoft is a great guy to deal with -- he'll tweak things to fit the sound you want.
If you're looking for really inexpensive, you might try GFS Pickups (www.guitarfetish.com) or something from the Economy section at Guitar Parts Resource (http://guitarpartsresource.com/pickups_other.htm).
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Peter
---------
www.splinterville.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@splinterville6278/videos |
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Tom Pettingill
From:
California, USA (deceased)
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Posted 28 Jul 2009 8:40 pm
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Pete does a nice job with his pickups, always a good call.
Some of the GFS pickups are pretty good, many compare favorablly to the big name mass produced stuff from Duncan, DiMarzio, etc.
The sales hype on the pages can be a bit over the top, but they are a good buy for the $
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Some misc pics of my hand crafted steels
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