What pickup came in the old Magnatone laps??

[Jim Fogarty]

Pretty straightforward question. I see a lot of Magnatone lap steels for sale, but I've never heard much about the pickup. What kind is it, or what is it comparable to?

Humbucking? Single coil?

How are they regarded, generally?

This one, for example:

https://reverb.com/item/32648098-magnat ... ark-silver

Thanks!

[John Dahms]

Starting out as Dickerson and seen under a dozen or so brands the model and its variants were produced for many years from the late 30s to 50s. There are many versions out there to choose from. They have 1 single coil pickup with a horseshoe style magnet and iron slugs (some later ones have 2 blades) and are permanently mounted under the acetate wrap MOTS finish. I am embarrassed to say that I never documented how many ohms the pickup were wrapped to over years.
These are good utility instruments and can sound good or not depending on how the wind is blowing. Over the years every component went through changes based on when it was produced and for what company.

[Frank James Pracher]

I recently rewound one of these (MOT student model). It was quite a challenge but it turned out nice. Constructions of the pickups is pretty simple but they can sound real nice... the MOT student models tend to be a little bright but the tone control can tame this down and they warm up nice.

The pickups measure all over the map across the different models.. The student models seem to be around 3.8k on the opposite end a couple of G65 models I have measure close to 10k.

[Glenn Wilde]

Mine has a big singlecoil.

[Bob Womack]

My first lap steel was a Magnatone student model with only a volume control (no tone) and the pickup was punishingly bright, harshly so. It developed a intermittency so I tried to go in and touch up the solder joints but the MOT shattered, killing the fingerboard. It spent too many hours in the window of a pawn shop, I suppose.

Bob