The Steel Guitar Forum

OK! where do you people get your
8-string pick ups?

Jason Lollar has a good selection.

Check out www.vintagevibeguitars.com. Pete has a stringmaster style pickup that I'm anxious to tryout since I've found some his other pickups to be great. As Brad mentioned, Lollars are excellent as well. I had a chance to see Derek Campbell's lap steel a few weeks ago and he had an incredible Dimarzio humbucker with a coil tap, but I couldn't find it on the dimarzio website. It must have been a custom pickup.

I've got that 8-string pickup from VVG that Jim mentions, as the neck pickup in a twin-pickup lap steel I built - sounds great, I loke it even better than the Lollar Chicago Steel that sits at the bridge of this guitar.

I will have to third giving Pete at vintagevibe a chance. I had him build this pickup for my GFI Pedal steel. The difference between the original GeorgeL and this is as stunning as it looks. I wish I had a new lap steel to put one on as well. This is 100% custom made to my design specs and would fit an 8 string lap steel nicely with a 3 1/4" blade width. To my knowledge nobody else does a CC style pickup this big without charging big $. His design allows for the magnets to be removed and replaced with ceramic, AlNiCo, (or anything else you can find). I have AlNiCo and it sounds crystal clear and very open.

Forum member Rick Aiello makes very nice "around the strings" pickups as well. Lots of options available...

Harry

That's a beauty ...

Something really special about that # 38 magnet wire with a blade ... ain't there

Harry Sheppard wrote:

Oh yeah, that looks nice! I've got the HB-sized version of that pickup in the neck position of a Thinline Tele I built, and that's one of the best sounding pickups I've tried EVER!

Another +1 for Pete. He built me a Strat size blade pickup for my Melobar lap. What a difference -- even the guitar player heard it!

Roman,

This is not his standard CC pickup. As Rick said, I had him use #38 wire which changes the sound completely. It reads about 2.4k ohms but is more powerful than the GeorgeL humbucker it replaced but is very clear and open sounding. Most Pedal Steel pickups are wound with thinner guage wire up to 17k-24k ohms but they tend to be very midrange tone oriented. The GeorgeL humbuckers are just horrible if you want a bright, clear sound. Pete shields these pickups well and pots them in wax so there are no microphonic noises which is a plus on my pedal steel. This pickup gives my GFI Pedal Steel as close to Lap Steel tone as is possible and I must admit it sounds pretty good. I think it would be cool to try one of these in a Sierra Lap Steel. I bet it would amazing...

Harry,
thanks for the explanation - the similar looks made me think it is the same type...

I have only one guitar with an original pickup, a 7 string bakelite that measures about 2200 ohms. It's a very strong pickup. I was under the impression that more turns/resistance made more power. I'm confused about the #38 wire making better tone etc , but it sure seems to. The old original Ric pickups sort of varied in DC resistance, but mostly sounded good.

Two questions: Can the #38 wire be obtained easily? And is the wire wrapped around the bar.My reason for asking is that I am thinking of trying my hand at winding my own pups. :whoa:I guess I should have said blade instead of bar

Bill Creller wrote:... I was under the impression that more turns/resistance made more power. ...

I'm no pickup expert, but resistance in itself is not a good way to measure the power of a pickup.
Resistance readings can be a way to compare two pickups of the same wire size and same construction, but is irrelevant when comparing apples to oranges.
Bigger wire has less resistance, and being bigger, you can't get as many winds on a bobbin as a thinner wire.
Thats the reason a pickup with 38 wire will read considerably less than a thinner wire pickup.
Also, from what I understand, there is different frequency characteristics between coils wound with different sized wire, though I don't recall exactly the specifics.
Coil shape and size also add to the equation, short fat vs tall and skinny, etc.

I'm sure one of our resident members in the know can correct what I've gotten wrong and fill in the rest of the story.

Tom ... you are correct on all counts

Ricky horseshoes (well, until the "Hall" years) , Charlie Christians, Bigsbys ... all used # 38.

DC resistances between 1.5 K Ohm and 2.5 K Ohm ...

Some new pickup with a silly name uses # 38 ... too

Gary ... you can't get it from places like Stewart Mac ... but you can get it here:

http://www.mwswire.com ... the best

or

http://www.electromechanicsonline.com/p ... 0SPNGD.asp

Make sure you get "Single build" ... anything heavier and you won't get enough turns on your bobbin ...

Approx 5000 to 5500 turns is what you want.