6-string pickup

Chase Brady · From: Ohio, USA

I hope that it's OK to post this here. I tried the Electronics section first, but didn't get much response.

First let me make it clear that I'm mostly an acoustic musician, so my knowledge of pickups is pretty limited. I do have a couple of electric lap steels, an 8-string and a 6-string, both made by Johnny King. The 8-string came with a single coil pickup which sounded great except for the hummmmmm, which I found very annoying. I upgraded it with a Lace Alumitone tone bar, which I'm very happy with. Now, in comparison to that, the Parsons Street humbucker in the 6-string sounds very dark and a bit muddy. So I'm thinking about upgrading that. So here are my questions:
1) Is there some inexpensive way to improve the sound of the Parsons Street pickup? It's a Stew-Mac exclusive that is well reviewed, but not made specifically for lap steels. Maybe change the pots or capacitor?
2) I don't believe an Alumitone tone bar would fit the rout for my 6-string. They of course, make a 6-string humbucker. Has anyone tried one of these in a lap steel? Would I likely be disappointed?
3) Are there other hum-cancelling pickups that would fit without modification that I should consider?
Any advice will be appreciated.

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

I can’t answer questions 1 or 2, but there are loads of humbucking pickups in every price range to consider. Measure what you have and compare to what you’d rather have.

Ask the many builders on the forum what they and their customers prefer, and then see if any of them will fit your existing routing.
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Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

If you like the sound of the single coil pickup aside from its hum, be certain that there is a ground wire in contact with the bridge. Shielding the pickup's cavity and under its mounting plate (if applicable) can also work wonders.

These puppies aren't perfect, but they do cut 60-cycle hum significantly:

I installed a set of StewMac Parsons Street humbuckers in a Gibson L6-S Deluxe rescue a year or so back, and they sound like a million bucks. The kid who bought the guitar is ecstatic with how it sounds. When compared to a relatively bright single coil, it's natural for a humbucker to sound dark and muddy.

George Piburn · From: The Land of Enchantment New Mexico

Since the parson street is a standard humbucker pocket,
there are endless options.

Lindy Fralin Pickups has a few lines of hum rejecting models that will drop right in.

His are two coils split and tweeked to reject hum while retaining highs and mids you are wanting.

I am certain other makers are doing the same basic eyedeers.

There are Rings- that house single coil sized (Strat like) of which are multiple types of hum rejecting to look into.
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

There are, literally, thousands of different standard-size humbucker pickups out there, new and used. If I hear you correctly, what you're asking is, more or less, what is out there that would give you a clean, accurate, full-range, and not-muddy sound in that package, which with cover is 2.75" horizontal length x 1.5" vertical length.

I would suggest you check out some standard guitar humbuckers that guitar players who want a clean, uncolored, accurate sound use. For instance:

1. The Bill and Becky Lawrence "Wilde" L-500 - https://www.wildepickups.com/products/l500

2. Bartolini Gibson-PAF-sized humbuckers - https://bartolini.net/application/n16/ - their classic wide-range/clean humbucker is the 1C, but the Tuck Andress might also be interesting.

3. Clearly, Lace makes pickups in a standard PAF package, either the original 80s Lace Sensors or Alumitones. I suggest checking these out because you like the Alumitone in your 8-string. Their web page devoted to these is a bit confusing-looking to me - https://lacemusic.com/collections/7?sort_by=title-ascending&limit=48 - but I would look at the ones that say something like 'wide range' and not 'but voiced for the classic mid range response humbucker tone". The Fusion Jazz 251 description sounds in tha ballpark, but I've never tried it.

4. If you don't mind active, you might consider an EMG in humbucker housing - https://www.emgpickups.com/guitar.html?cat=5 - there are a pile of them with different characteristics. The H/HA is their classic, low-noise but single-coil design. But even the passive EMG humbuckers are well known for their wide-range response. Kinda have to read carefully, since some are designed specifically to get more in the ballpark of a PAF.

I'm sure there are plenty of other noise-free pickups designed for a clear, accurate response. These are just some of the more well-known ones that you should be able to find plenty of demos for on, e.g., youtube. But a lot of humbuckers are designed with that 'warm' (to some, 'muddy') midrange response because they want to sound like a PAF in an old Les Paul. The "Parsons Street" reference is the address of the old Gibson plant in Kalamazoo. Most guitar players I know refer to pickups like the EMG, Lace, and Bartolini as 'sterile'. They say the Strat-style pickups don't have enough 'zing', and the humbuckers don't have enough 'warmth'. Different strokes.

Chase Brady · From: Ohio, USA

Thanks for the responses! This is good information.

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