Best Pickup for Lap Steel

S

skh515

New member
I've designed a lap steel and as soon as the parts arrive I'll begin construction. I've been looking at Tele lead pups. The Vintage '54 and Vintage for Broadcaster both seem like good possibilties. The room where I usually play is a Electro Magnetic Radiation nightmare. So, a Humbucker might be a good idea.

I've had two, make that three, thoughts about HBs for the project.
1. Tele Lead Stack wired into a 5 or 6-way rotary switch for Series, Parallel, tapped, out of phase, etc.
2. This idea is a little more...um, out there. O.K., I take a Vintage '54 and a Vint. for Broadcaster. I get one RW/RP from the custom shop and then put them next to each other like a Humbucker. Then I'd use the 5/6-way just like in option one.
3. Much less "Inventive." A standard SD HB wired as above.

I'd like to be able to get David Gilmour's sound from Dark Side of the Moon, or something close to it. And I also love what Ben Harper does with a Pedal Steel.

"What do you think sirs?" MST 3K

Steve
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

I'd email Jason Lollar and see what he thinks. He's a pedal/lap steel nut :) He makes killer pups, including replicas of the old Ric horseshoes. He is a wealth of knowledge on pup design and makes a number of steel guitar pups.
I'd be inclined to go with a humbucker based on what you've said. You could always slide a Phat Cat in there to see how a P90 would work, or try a split coil humbucker. I love lap steels. I bought strings for my Melobar a couple weeks ago. You reminded me I need to get that guitar out :)
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

I play lap steel. I have some Rickenbachers from the 30's and 40's, and some Fenders, Supros, Valcos and Airlines from the 50's. My '51 Fender has a pickup very similar to a 50's Fender Tele. It's very bright and my least favorite lap steel! If you're going to go with a tele lead pickup, I'd go alnico 2 and go with something fat, middy and warmer than the Broadcaster or '54: like the Jerry Donahue or maybe the Antiquity I. I'd go for the Jerry Donahue!

Lew
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

I think the Ultimate Lap Steel pickup, BTW, can be found on those 50's Supro/Silvertone/Airline Lap Steels made by Valco and also the pre WWII Horseshoe pickup Rickenbacher used. The post WWII Ricky pickup is great too but not as wide or as ballsy sounding. The pre WWII Ricky with the wide horseshoe pickup is what David Lindly used for all of those great solos with Jackson Browne...like Running On Empty. The Valco pickup can be heard on many Ry Cooder recordings and Ry even put one on his old Stratocaster!
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

FWIW, there's an article on Ben Harper in the artists section of the main site.

On his custom built laps, he uses a pair of split 59s.

I agree with Lew, David Lindley got a great tone with his old Rickys. If you're going for Gilmour's tone though, you should be able to find out what kind of lap he uses.
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

This comes from the Legendary Tones website.

Lap steel guitars also contribute to the palette of Pink Floyd guitar sounds. According to Gilmour, these were “cheap Jensen lap steels, I had customized with Fender pickups for slide parts.”
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

Well Jason Lollar does sell the pre-war Ric horseshoe pickup, but he wants $300 for it. That would probably blow my whole budget.
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

AFAIK, the Broadcaster pickup evolved out of the laps that Fender was making before the Broadcaster was developed. So if Gilmour used Fender pickups, and this is a guess on my part, I think he would have used something along the lines of a Broadcaster.


I think something like a JD, or a Hot or Vintage P90 would work well.
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

It's fun building and playing your own guitar, but if it was me, I'd get on Ebay and do a search for Lap Steel and then buy a 50's Silvertone, Airline or Supro made by Valco. You can find them for $250! And they sound amazingly great!

You want the type that the strings pass through the pickup and the pickup, bridge, volume, tone and input are all on one mounting plate.
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

Curly said:
FWIW, there's an article on Ben Harper in the artists section of the main site. On his custom built laps, he uses a pair of split 59s.
Click to expand...

You beat me to the punch! Ben Harper is definitely a fan of the '59 set.
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

Too late to stop now Lew.

I read on the SD site that people would take the pickups out of lap steels and use them as lead pups in teles. See the Antiquity 1950 Lap Steel description. That's what made me think of the early Tele/Esquire-type pickups.

Does anybody know if the 1950 lap steel pup is 6 or 8 strings? I'm guessing it's an Alnico 5. Could I pair it with an Alnico 2 pup like the Alnico II Pro?
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

skh515 said:
Too late to stop now Lew.

I read on the SD site that people would take the pickups out of lap steels and use them as lead pups in teles. See the Antiquity 1950 Lap Steel description. That's what made me think of the early Tele/Esquire-type pickups.

Does anybody know if the 1950 lap steel pup is 6 or 8 strings? I'm guessing it's an Alnico 5. Could I pair it with an Alnico 2 pup like the Alnico II Pro?
Click to expand...

If it's based on the 1950 Fender lap steel it would be for six strings. The originals seem to be alnico 5 and sound sort of like a Broadcaster pickup, but like most vintage 50's Tele pickups, they are not as hot as people fantasize. The originals are all under 7K...and the two I've measured were around 6.4K or so.

If you went to MJ in the Custom Shop you could get anything you want.

Lew
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

skh515 said:
Yeah, but what do I want?
Click to expand...

If you don't know I can't tell ya! :laugh2:

Personally, I think my old '51 Champion Lap Steel is to bright. It has a pickup comparable to an a5 Broadcaster.

I'd consider an a2 Jerry Donahue. Fatter tone, not as shrill as the pickup in my old lap steel, fatter mids and, IMO, a cooler tone. More like the pickup in my '51 Tele than the pickup in my '54 Tele.

Or consider an Antiquity I bridge pickup. Brighter than the Jerry Donahue but still warmer than an a5 Tele pickup.

Lew
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

O.K., so if I use The JD, what about the hum canceling?
What if I paired it with an A5 RW/RP pup, either a Tele lead or maybe a strat of some kind, or even the 1950 lap steel?

Wouldn't that give me a pretty good palette of different tones?
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

big_black said:
:headbang: Duncan Distortions all the way! :headbang:
Click to expand...

Ah yes, for that Heavy Metal/Steel Guitar tone we all know and love. :biglaugh:

I have considered using a Pearly Gates, or an Alnico II Pro or a '59. Something along those lines.
Is the JB the pickup some say sounds like a strat when split?

If you happen to see a post almost identical to this one, let me know. I know I posted it but it seems to have disappeared.
 
Re: Best Pickup for Lap Steel

The JB sounded like a very convincing Strat single coil when split w/500k pots in my maple necked Strat.
 
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