The Steel Guitar Forum

Carter recommends "George L's" pups. What's everyones favorite pick-up for a Carter steel? and how does it differ from the original?

Hi Jerry,
My first Carter from factory came with XR 1600 pick up. About 8 months later a traded a Darby for another Carter, it had the George L pick up. It was so much better than the XR16, I sent for another George L. I'm not sure if Carter has a standard pick up they consider factory as I've seen different pick up on new model on there web site.
Bottom line, Get the George L.
Good luck,
Bob

I have the george l's on mine, I do wonder what other pick-ups would sound like but I am happy with my decision

I have had 3 Carters, each had George L's, the current at one time had a set of Wallace Tru tones which I could not use due to excessive noise at a regular gig. It now has a George L E66 on the E9th and a George L E-ON on the C6th. I am not a pick-up fanatic but I can say that the guitar is very consistent and sounds good to me !

t

I have the original pup in mine which is a GeorgeL SS, it sounds great to me, but just like many others are always search for better tone, just wanted to get feedback from others. So far it sounds like Carter nailed it.

Mine has George L's. However, I have nothing to compare it to as this is my first steel.

Mine came with an L910 and other than a minor tweek of the Session 400 eq this pu works for me
Ray

Mine came with an LXR-16. I tried a Truetone, then a George L EON, and currently have a Tonealigner that I like the best. The George L EON was good too, but not as balanced as the Tonealigner.

My first Carter D-10 had the George L's that the factory recommended, they sounded fine.

The last Carter I had built, an SD-10, I ordered with the Lawrence XR-16 wich I like better when I venture out into "Hughey Land".

My 2006 Carter S10 came with the E-66 as ordered. Last month I switched to the Tonealigner, to experiment with getting better balance. The Tonealigner has a little more body and the balance I’ve been trying to achieve.

Come on George and Michael, I have OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder) Now I'll have to try the Tonealigner or quit reading the forum. Tony, Tell me not to worry about it. That my George L's are fine.
You guys are breaking my piggy bank. Help me out.
Bob

My Carter D-10 has the Wallace True Tones. I can pretty much dial in the sound I am trying to get on any given night but, sometimes it seems they are not real forgiving. My Right Hand Technique has to be "Right ON" or I do not get the sound I am looking for. Also a light touch and a controlled heavy right foot make a big difference. If I get excited and sloppy the tone suffers.

Don't get me wrong - when I am playing well the axe sounds great!

My Carter has the George L SS. They are like a 10-1 with more bite. Its their standard pickup now and it sounds great. Smooth sweet and fat but it has to be further than a quarter from the strings for its best tone. I got mine dropped to almost two quarters since its a hot pickup at 19.5. Great tone with Hilton, Steel blackbox and 112!

I can say, having removed, replaced and whatever.. the difference between E-66, True tone and XR-16.
What the Variables are to my ears.
They all have good points depending on light touch heavy etc. and I am a heavy handed player..
E-66 sounds good but to me lacks clarity on the bottom end and can be shrill on highs.
True Tone has the best over all sound, cleanest lows with intense high end, not shrill, but intense.
True tone is the most responsive to touch dynamics and harmonics.
XR-16 Has the best of the 3 in tone balance between strings sounding even, Clean lows nice high end.
I have not had a problem with the True Tone hum on my steel but opted for XR-16 humbucker because I like the way they function predictably live.
THE AMP, Amp settings, and Playing style affect tone way more than the pick up.
The best tone/sound improvement I have ever gotten is with a Session 400 amp and a Peterson tuner.
Please keep in mind, I have played some of the other pick-ups just never done the apples to apples thing through my equip.
Carter recomends the SS pick-up I believe...

My 2005 S12U has a George L 12-1 on it.

John, what is that pickup you have there?

It's an Lace Alumitone pickup.

I've been working with Jeff Lace for about 2 1/2 years to come up with one of these that would work on a steel guitar. The prototypes he sent me were ok, but didn't have enough power. He gave me this one and a 12 stringer at NAMM. He told me he had been thinking about how to resolve the power issue and had finally solved it.

It sounds great.

We'll have them in a few guitars at the Dallas show for you guys to try out. We really would like your feedback.

XR16's on all the video's I have posted on YouTube. I liked the old George L's TPP on the PRE BCT Carter, but for me the XR16 is just right on this particular Carter.

Bill

Hello John,

I am fascinated by the pick up you showed us above.

My Friend Don Price brought his new Blackjack (Jackson Steel) over to show me.

The pick up in his Balckjack looked like a big Joe Barden Danny Gatton model pick up, but it only had one rail in the middle.(A big rail).

I assume it was a single coil pick up. There was no hum. Lot's of treble, and it's sustain lasted as long as you kept pushing the volume pedal down. The sustain quality was very surprising and desirable.

The sound was like the very old Emmon's or Sho-Bud steels like you heard Tom Brumley play on tunes like "Together again" and Buckeroo". Not a lot of warmth but the In your face Telecaster like sounds of good good George Jones/Buck Owens/ Conway Twitty pedal steel.

Does the sound of this new pick up have the "feel" and the sustain of what I described above?

I kind of hope it does not because I thought I had reached the end of my quest for "That Sound"

One more thing I forgot to say about the XR-16.
I had struggled with distortion effects and seemed to have stay on certain groups of strings not getting the sound I wanted, The XR-16 works great with my effects and distortion, no problem.

John, would I be right in thinking you had a prototype of this pup fitted on a black SD10 at the Dallas show two years ago? as I remember it had no cover on it, but sounded just great, at least I was impressed with the sound.

I've done some experimenting with different p-ups in two Carters and my favourites was a Truetone followed by an old George L's PF-I and the stock XR-16.
I liked the TT for the clear sound with smooth, rich mids.
The XR-16 had some more sparkle to it and the PF-I somewhere in between the both.
To me the E-66 sounded OK, but with less body than the trio above.

My first Carter had the standard E-66 in the front and the 1-10 in the back.The E-66 was too shrill to my taste and the 1-10 was OK but nothing special to my ears. I got a set of Truetones and they were so so but didn't really do it for me. That guitar didn't have BCT and was an all wood body guitar too so all thi stuff comes into play. The one I have now is a formica guitar with the BL-710 p-ups in both necks. I used these p-ups in a Legrande II and they were far better than the original single coils that came in it so I figured whynot and I'm glad that I did. So far I like these better than any I've tried to date. They have a big body sound and real bite that I like.

Here's my 0.02 which adjusted for inflation and other factors comes out to around $17.15.

Truetones have a very nice open sound but hum like heck at various clubs that have large lighting systems.

E-66 upper mids and highs can be very shrill.

XR-16 would be a great choice with the BL710 coming in extremely close.

John F.

When the Lace Alumatone BassBars pickups were introduced, I immediately wondered what they would be like on a PSG. Videos on them on sixstring basses were really impressive; a very even, balanced tone, with crystal clear top end, but not shrill. An almost acoustic quality.

There will be a lot of discussion of this pickup, I think. I hope someone posts video or audio, of both the music and the comments.

Rich P.