Another Rondo Mod.

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 1 Jul 2008 9:46 am

I went the easy way with this mod. Made a new bridge out of aluminum angle, and ordered 2 sets of string ferrules for a thru the body design. The strings line up perfectly over the pole pieces now.
The through the body design gives the Rondo a REAL good tone...gets that mahogany vibrating. LOL! This is now a player. I think it sounds great.

Rick Alexander · Post by **Rick Alexander** » 1 Jul 2008 9:57 am

Nice work Harry!
Can you post a sound clip?

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 1 Jul 2008 10:02 am

Can you post a sound clip?

I can,Rick, but not today. I'll try to get one on A.S.A.P.

Harry

P.S. I can't get over how good this sounds. Oh I almost forgot...I put a set of Jagwire strings on it too.

Mark Mansueto · Post by **Mark Mansueto** » 2 Jul 2008 9:31 am

Looking at the top view it appears that your original bridge was off by quite a bit. It doesn't surprise me that your mod improved the tone compared to what was on there before. I had thought about doing a string through on mine... now you've got me thinking about it again

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 2 Jul 2008 2:21 pm

Looking at the top view it appears that your original bridge was off by quite a bit.

Mark, that bridge was a mess. To start with it wasn't even screwed all the way down to the studs, and it must have been a quarter inch above the p/up. The lunch whistle must have went when they were working on my guitar, and when they came back they forgot where they were.

I had thought about doing a string through on mine... now you've got me thinking about it again

Well it really made a difference in the tone of my guitar. That stock pickup isn't too bad when the strings are aligned over the pole pieces and the string height is adjusted correctly.

Harry

Stephen Calhoun · Post by **Stephen Calhoun** » 2 Jul 2008 4:24 pm

1st post. I've been learning a ton for over a year. Just joined. Thanks to all.

My greatest lap steel accomplishment so far was checking my email last week in time to get an SX. It came yesterday. It's cute even if the one I received had the cover encompassing the knobs.

The bridge was barely screwed in for me too. Yet the strings, such as they are, were centered. As it is said in pedal steel land, this SX needs to be set up!

Nice job Harry. I'm going in your direction.

The cover has got to go. Bridge-wise, the angle used at the nut is 1/2 and it seems 3/4" x 3/4" is the ticket at the bridge. Feedback?

I know I can get 4 feet of angle at the local mega hardware. (I also pondered 3" brass nipples and several door handles.) Are there secret sources for pretty lap steel bridge angle pieces?

Again, you guys are great!

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 2 Jul 2008 9:01 pm

Well Stephen, let me be the first to welcome you to the Forum.

I did use 3/4 aluminun angle, but I trimmed the one flange down to 5/8 which is the height of the original bridge.

I ordered the ferrules,(2 sets), from Guitar Fetish, which is in your state, (Ohio).

http://store.guitarfetish.com/guitarhardware.html

Harry

Dave Bader · Post by **Dave Bader** » 4 Jul 2008 7:45 am

Mark Mansueto wrote:Looking at the top view it appears that your original bridge was off by quite a bit.

I think it's the pickup that is off. Look at where the strings line up with the fretboard dots now. You can see that the pickup sits slightly to the left in the route also.

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 4 Jul 2008 7:56 pm

I think it's the pickup that is off. Look at where the strings line up with the fretboard dots now. You can see that the pickup sits slightly to the left in the route also.

It doesn't matter now...with a bridge like this, you can center your strings with ease, and changing strings is a breeze.

Dave Bader · Post by **Dave Bader** » 5 Jul 2008 7:55 am

Harry Dietrich wrote: It doesn't matter now...with a bridge like this, you can center your strings with ease, and changing strings is a breeze.

True. Nice job buy the way.

Ryan Rukavina makes some cool brass and stainless steel bridges that would work well for this type of mod. They are wrap arounds so you'd still have to feed the string past the pick up but they would work more like your setup minus the string thru. I'd rather have the string thru part though.

Stephen Calhoun · Post by **Stephen Calhoun** » 5 Jul 2008 10:55 am

I'm lining up my ducks. Ferrules, EMP pu arrived today. Have to go get the 3/4 angle cut (2 3/4" piece). ...oh and do some filing.

Harry what was your attachment 'paradigm' for the bridge? Are those Philips head wood screws; or, did you go all the way through, sink receptacles, or ??? Any advice.

Gracias!

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 5 Jul 2008 11:27 am

Where'd you purchase the ferrules?

Good luck on your project. I hope to do a similar version, someday...

Stephen Calhoun · Post by **Stephen Calhoun** » 5 Jul 2008 1:35 pm

I picked up the ferrules (2 sets) and EMG select (single; dual blade $20) pick-up at http://www.stewmac.com

Being a hobbyist but not a handyman, the modding is a minor adventure. For example, 1/8" x 3/4" aluminum angle is what I found in the hardware store. Harry's nice mod looks to be using 1/16". So I'm going to file and crown the edge and flatten the peak to 1/16". Also, take it down per Harry's suggestion.

I bought a 99c piece of 1/8" craft plywood to replace the chrome cover until I find a nicer scrap of wood or plexi or a silver butter dish(!)

The PU is a 2 wire so that's as straightforward as it can be--for someone who hasn't touched a sodder iron in decades.

The SX has gone through several versions. The one with the cover I'd term the 'unnecessarily complicated' version. The glossy cover is (to me) useless. Much better to place the wiring cavity access from the bottom. Wouldn't it be possible to configure a bridge with a right angle for the strings and a trailing angle with notches or hole+ferrule(s) to seat the strings?

(I likely saw a picture of just such a bridge design on one of the beautiful homebuilts here on the forum.)

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 5 Jul 2008 4:58 pm

Harry what was your attachment 'paradigm' for the bridge? Are those Philips head wood screws; or, did you go all the way through, sink receptacles, or ??? Any advice.

Stephen

They are just phillips round head screws, and they are just screwed into the wood...no receptacles.

Where'd you purchase the ferrules?

Ron

I got them here.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/guitarhardware.html

Scroll halfway down the page.

Harry

Dave Bader · Post by **Dave Bader** » 6 Jul 2008 4:54 am

I saw this at stewmac website. They make special furrules for the top of the guitar. They might be a better choice then the bottom mounted ones.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Hardware,_p ... ml#details

Jody Perritt · Post by **Jody Perritt** » 6 Jul 2008 5:09 am

Very nice job. I'd like to do that to mine. Can you tell a big difference in tone with the strings thru the body? I know there it resonates more thru the body, but can you actually tell it when plugged in?

I tell ya, if you really want to make that rondo scream put a p90 in it. I've got 2 rondo's now; One I got a while back, and one I just got last week. My old one has a duncan P90 in it and I tell ya, there is just no comparison. The p90 is clear with lots of sustain. I think I'm gonna put a GFS p90 in this new just to see if there is much of a difference between a duncan and GFS. The price difference is there.

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 6 Jul 2008 7:20 am

Good job Harry, lots of mod potential with these SX's.

Jody ... P90's are a great pickup on a steel.
The GFS P90 is a decent pickup and compares favorably with the Duncan, well worth the money.
Though, I think the best buy for a P90 is one of Bryans hand wound BG-Pups P90 for $66, http://www.bg-pups.com/p90.html
I'm partial to his AII mag version, but he does a Alnico II/V hybrid that is sweet too.

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 6 Jul 2008 8:04 am

...and I'll probably pop in my Wallace TrueTone which is currently out of it's DynaLap home.

But...

Anyone know who makes 8 str. P90s?
A Gibson original would be costly. I seem to remember someone making these.

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 6 Jul 2008 8:35 am

Jason Lollar makes excellent pickups, but nothing that's specifically a P90 style.
http://www.lollarguitars.com/Pickups.htm

Stephan Miller · Post by **Stephan Miller** » 6 Jul 2008 3:50 pm

Actually, Lollar made 8-string P-90s for the Harmos guitars. I called him a few months back and was told that he has some he can make available, but that if someone needed one with a different string spacing than those he has in stock, there would be extra cost involved. I didn't get into specifics about string spacing or cost with him.

Nobody else (that I know of) presently makes an 8-string P-90. If I'm wrong, somebody chime in.

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 6 Jul 2008 7:47 pm

Can you tell a big difference in tone with the strings thru the body? I know there it resonates more thru the body, but can you actually tell it when plugged in?

Well Jody, it seemed to deepen the sound, so to speak...it's hard to explain. The sound is fuller. Sounds a lot like my Charlie Christian pickup on my Gibson EH150.

I'll try to get a sound clip on here tomorrow

Harry

Mark Mansueto · Post by **Mark Mansueto** » 7 Jul 2008 6:18 am

Jody Perritt wrote:I tell ya, if you really want to make that rondo scream put a p90 in it. I've got 2 rondo's now; One I got a while back, and one I just got last week. My old one has a duncan P90 in it and I tell ya, there is just no comparison. The p90 is clear with lots of sustain. I think I'm gonna put a GFS p90 in this new just to see if there is much of a difference between a duncan and GFS. The price difference is there.

Jody, definitely let us know how the GFS sounds in the SX. I have yet to buy a new pup for mine and I haven't decided on one yet. I have mod's planned for both of my SX's but I've been really busy so they've been put on the back burner for the time being.

I'm also interested in the BG that Tom mentioned.

Hey Tom, didn't you use GFS before?

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 7 Jul 2008 7:36 am

Mark ... I have used a few of the GFS pickups with good results. They are a great buy for the money and compare favorably with the big name mass produced pickups like Duncan, etc.
Jay, the owner of GFS, designs and specs what he wants and then has them built in Korea. By buying by the container load, combined with his low overhead business model, he can keep the prices down.

BG-Pups on the other hand are a hand wound pickup built in northern California by Bryan Gunsher.
For me, Bryan's pickups respond better to pick attack, have great note separation, and more sparkle and chime with an open / airy articulate tone, good stuff

Mark Mansueto · Post by **Mark Mansueto** » 7 Jul 2008 8:58 am

Thanks Tom. sounds like a good deal for $66.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Another Rondo Mod.

Another Rondo Mod.

Welcome aboard, Stephan!

More into cream than scream...