The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi posses the cheapest lap-steel guitar worldwide available:



as you can see, a single-coil pick-up is mounted;
I preseume it's nothing else that a poor quality pick-up usually installed on a standard electric guitar.

The problem is HUM NOISE (a part teh impersonal feeling of the pick-up), as usual in any single-coil.

So, i'm looking for a new pick-up to substitute it "place-to-place" (I mean without any modification to the chassis)

A solution could be to use MINI-HUMBACKER pick-ups; someone experienced these ?

But someone suggested to me another kind of pick-up technology (tehere wasn't humbuckers) very noisless and with a powerful sound; but Ido not remember the name of these pick-ups

any suggestion ?

BTW, I looking for a not too expensive device possobly that I could purchase via PAYPAL

thanks
giorgio

i found old info I lost:

A low-noise pick-up someone proposed to me in past was that:

1) LACE SENSOR

Don Lace Lace Sensor
http://lacemusic.com/electric_pickups/l ... specs.phpù

2) HUMBUCKING :

Seymour Duncan little 59 mini Humb
Seymor Duncan Jb jr

Any experiences / comparison between two technologies / alternatives ?

giorgio

Fender Lace Sensors are a fine option, I have those in one of my Strats and they work great. Look at the sites for Fender, Seymour Duncan, etc. they have a noiseless single coil pickups designed to sound like normal pickups but without the noise. I am using the Fenders in both Strats and Teles and have been very pleased with the tone and the lack of noise.

A lower priced option would be GFS Neovin pickups.
Should fit right in your guitar.
I have no experience of that model, but their lipsticks and P-90's are actually guite good.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/coju20nepino.html

Ulf Edlund wrote:A lower priced option would be GFS Neovin pickups.
Should fit right in your guitar.
I have no experience of that model, but their lipsticks and P-90's are actually guite good.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/coju20nepino.html

interesting; in facts these are mini-humbucking inside taht seem singlee-coil outside as I read in the web site you kindly pointed out

infortunately only a set of three pickups are sold ... "GFS Noise-Free NEOVIN Pickup Sets"; I mean they do not sell only one pick-up ...

another problem I always have ... I need an European web dealer (possibly accepting paypal payment) I still do not found! The problems is that that 99% of USA web site do NOT want to sell in Europe ... for example very well done http://www.guitarcenter.comjust rejected my ask (Btw I do not understand the reason why)

giorgio

Loren Claypool wrote:Fender Lace Sensors are a fine option, I have those in one of my Strats and they work great. Look at the sites for Fender, Seymour Duncan, etc. they have a noiseless single coil pickups designed to sound like normal pickups but without the noise. I am using the Fenders in both Strats and Teles and have been very pleased with the tone and the lack of noise.

yes, thanks

[OT]I listened your music on myspace; I appreciate your use of esoteric electric instruments ... fretless guitar ... I'm just purchased a squire fretless bass

and you seem to realize your compositions using pretty only plucked strings .. as me ...

so I guess you could enjoy some master-of-work on that vision, following my friends on myspace ...

giorgio

That pickup looks like it is too far from the strings. Raise it until it is the width of two quarters from the low strings, maybe one quarter from the high strings. This will not eliminate the hum problem, but will give a better signal-to-noise ratio that minimizes the problem.

David Doggett wrote:That pickup looks like it is too far from the strings. Raise it until it is the width of two quarters from the low strings, maybe one quarter from the high strings. This will not eliminate the hum problem, but will give a better signal-to-noise ratio that minimizes the problem.

you are probably right ... but what do you mean with "two quarters from the low strings" ?

sorry for my poor English (I'm Italian mother tongue living in Italy)

giorgio

infortunately only a set of three pickups are sold ... "GFS Noise-Free NEOVIN Pickup Sets"; I mean they do not sell only one pick-up ...

They ARE available as singles but for some reason they have made it a separate cathegory. You have to choose "Neovin single pickups". Here's a direct link: http://store.guitarfetish.com/nesipi.html

Ulf Edlund wrote:

infortunately only a set of three pickups are sold ... "GFS Noise-Free NEOVIN Pickup Sets"; I mean they do not sell only one pick-up ...

They ARE available as singles but for some reason they have made it a separate cathegory. You have to choose "Neovin single pickups". Here's a direct link: http://store.guitarfetish.com/nesipi.html

yes, I read, strangely there this "GFS noise-free" is not more mentioned .. they seem standard single-coil ...

It's the same p-ups but the website is a bit confusing.
Check the model# and compare to the sets. They have better, or at least more detailed description in the "set" department than in the "singles". The pics do however show four-lead humbuckers.
If you wanna be 250% certain you can just shoot them a mail and check. I have found them to be helpful.
Hope this helps.

Ulf Edlund wrote:It's the same p-ups but the website is a bit confusing.
Check the model# and compare to the sets. They have better, or at least more detailed description in the "set" department than in the "singles". The pics do however show four-lead humbuckers.
If you wanna be 250% certain you can just shoot them a mail and check. I have found them to be helpful.
Hope this helps.

yes, grazie Ulf! giorgio

Giorgio Robino wrote:
you are probably right ... but what do you mean with "two quarters from the low strings" ?

Quarters----25 cent pieces, US currency ($.25)




Translation---2 quarters = approximately 3 mm.

Jon Light wrote:

Giorgio Robino wrote:
you are probably right ... but what do you mean with "two quarters from the low strings" ?

Quarters----25 cent pieces, US currency ($.25)




Translation---2 quarters = approximately 3 mm.

OK! thanks for translation-by-image

What type of music are you playing? In this lapsteel, A Tele with a Loni Specter "Redneck" square-neck conversion neck, I have a Barden in the bridge, and two Duncan Hotrails in the other slots. They fit right into the Strat-sized cutouts, are very quiet, and can be very "hot" or very "clean" depending on where you set your volume control.
http://www.stevesmusiccenter.com/SDSHR-1.html




BTW, next time he's in Italy,(he just returned recently) I hope you'll go see my best friend, Neil Zaza perform. The band he uses in his European tours is from your country.

Hi John
yes, I considereed the minihumbacking (as Duncan Hotrails you suggest) as an option.

[OT] I play "my" type of music ... a sort of ambient music, probably far from "stereotypes" of this sort; anyway there are more than 4 hours of my music available for free in my website:

http://solyaris.altervista.org

I just watched on youtube some videos of Neil Zaza; I acknowledge this artist has a personal fingerprint, but I do not like too much virtuosism ... yes, I'm a fault finder ... no, really I do not love (nowadays )rock music and a part jokes I thank you

giorgio

The mini-humbuckers I think are the best solution. Not only do you lose the noise, but they have more of a midrange growl that sounds great for lap steel.

The "noiseless" single-coils - Lace Sensors and stuff like the newer Fender "noiseless" line - have one drawback if you like a biting single-coil sound; they don't have it. They sound smoother, with more of a hi-fi sound...and to me they sound really sterile.

A little noise with single-coils goes with the territory, and they have worked fine for decades. With clean power from the wall outlet, no fluorescent lights or dimmers, and a decent distance from your amp the noise should not be significant; if it is the pickup may need repotting (if it's wax-potted at all) - that alone can kill a lot of noise. Also, shielding the bottom of the pickup cavity (which is probably bare wood) can give you a big improvement. On my Fender pedal steels I've started shielding the control cavities, pickup cavity AND the underside of the guitar below the pickup(s) and wiring (one of my 400's has two pickups) and that really quiets things.

But one big problem many players have is playing too close to the amp. If you have your guitar with the amp right next to or in front of it, you WILL have single-coil noise (especially with tube amps). Move 5-10 feet away (depending on the guitar) and the noise drops - sometimes almost completely.

Jim Sliff wrote:The mini-humbuckers I think are the best solution. Not only do you lose the noise, but they have more of a midrange growl that sounds great for lap steel.

The "noiseless" single-coils - Lace Sensors and stuff like the newer Fender "noiseless" line - have one drawback if you like a biting single-coil sound; they don't have it. They sound smoother, with more of a hi-fi sound...and to me they sound really sterile.

yes I'm converging to the mini-humbuckers...

btw, in my case ... I do not use an amp ... lap-steel go through effects chain and afterward directly to mixer with a DI-box (ususlly two because the effects output is stereo)



have a nice week-end
giorgio

Sorry for the confusion about the "quarter" coins, Giorgio. I didn't notice your location, and your English in the first post was so good it didn't clue me.

In both those photos the pickups seem too low. Try raising them closer to the strings. For most of us that works for single coils playing live, unless there are dimmers or screwed up electric wiring nearby. However, for critical applications and studio work, humbuckers may be required.

And, if the pickups won't adjust much higher, you can try lowering the bridge height adjustment screws.

Giorgio, as a couple of others mentioned, try adjusting the height of the pickup. If you still want to try a humbucker, here's a low-cost unit made to fit (more or less) a single-coil slot:
EMG from Stew-Mac
Stew-Mac will ship internationally.

thanks all,
Michael, are these "EMG Select" humbuckers Pickup ?

Anyway I infortunately I still experience the usual problem: 99% of web dealers (see suggested site above) do not ship outside US or do not accept PAypal as payment, or both

Someone could suggest a web site in Europe that accept PAYPAL payment ?

many thanks

giorgio

Seymour Duncan Hotrails is an excellent choice. I have used one of these in a Morrell S-6 and it absolutely does the business of being versatile. It will rail like a banshee too. You probably should change your volume and tone knobs and capacitoras well since you are in there. Those steel guitars have cheap components. But with new quality strings, pickup, tone and volume controls, this steel will open up some eyes. I have tried it before and quality is always better than quantity. look at the Frankenstein lead that Eddie Van Halen built or shall I say modified to his specs, that is being replicated to this day.

I like Bill Lawrence stacked pickups, they have the most natural single coil zing of any of the other stacked pickups I have tried. JP

Giorgio Robino wrote:Michael, are these "EMG Select" humbuckers Pickup ?

They are. Stew-Mac offers several others as well. I just chose that one as an inexpensive example.

If you click the arrow to the right of the price, you can see the price in other currencies. If you follow the link at the top of the page, you can get more information about international orders. You can also display the site in other languages. I don't believe that they take PayPal, but they do accept credit cards, which you usually need to use PayPal anyway. They also accept International Money Orders.

I have only done business with them here in the US, so what I wrote above is taken from their website, not from personal experience. I think that if you spend a little time looking around their website, you can learn what you need to know. Good luck in your search.