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Topic: Original Supro Horseshoe pickup? Solved! |
Paul Arntson
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 30 Apr 2009 7:07 pm |
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(edited may 08)
The Supro had a horseshoe from a 39 Rick.
See Jim Sliff's guitar on this thread:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=115472&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=100
The pickup is exactly what had been grafted onto the supro body.
I saw an unusual Supro MOTS today. If it was cobbled together it sure looked professional.
Has anybody ever seen a MOTS Supro lap with a horseshoe?
It had a brown MOTS body (more like grey) like we all know and love. But...
In place of the normal square string-through pickup sat a Rick-looking horseshoe pickup, but it was all painted black, and didn't show any signs of once having been chromed. It looked about 1 1/4" wide. The gap between the two horseshoes was extra wide.
The pickup said patent no 2089171 (which I looked up and it is the original Beauchamp frypan patent.)
The knobs were some sort of mutant flying saucer.
The tone rolled clockwise like a normal guitar, not backwards like I have seen on some Supros.
There was no serial number on the back. The tuners were closed back Klusons with fresh looking white buttons.
The fretboard was a nice flat piece of rosewood with dot markers, not painted.
The weirdest thing was that all the plastic looked fresh, no yellowing. The fretboard had no bar dings.
It just looked wierd.
The pickup was mounted in a square piece of metal that was the same size as a normal Supro pickup/controls/bridge assembly. The corners were not rounded. The bridge was a separate unit screwed down in front of the triangular string holes.
They wanted 250$ for it at the store, which was fine. I compared it to my old brown Supro which I happened to have with me. The tone on the mutant guitar was louder and much brighter. That might have been due to higher value pots, not sure if that would have been enough to account for the difference. My old Supro had a touch more bass response.
I was trying it through a silverface fender vibro something or other.
Just wanted to know if anybody had ever seen such a model, or is this put together by somebody. The guy in the store said they just took it in trade and didn't know anything more.
I didn't buy it immediately, but it sure has me wondering.
Any ideas??
The one thing that looked fakey was the 1/4" modern phone jack that was drilled into the black pickup assembly. It looked new. I didn't see evidence of removal of a jack anywhere else.
If somebody cobbled this together they sure did a clean job. But if they didn't, how come the plastic all looked so fresh??
Is that pickup by itself worth something?
-Paul
Last edited by Paul Arntson on 8 May 2009 2:33 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Kevin Greenberg
From:
Lakewood, CA
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Posted 2 May 2009 8:48 pm Supro
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| Hell, the pickup by itself is worth $250! Sounds like a custom job. |
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Paul Arntson
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 2 May 2009 9:32 pm
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Hi Kevin,
Yeah, that was what I was kind of thinking, too. Maybe I'll swing by and grab it just cause it is so weird.
Somebody on the forum would probably want the pickup...
I seem to remember seeing a "Stella" branded lapsteel in a photo once that had some kind of horseshoe, but this one is better looking than the one I saw in a photo. Sounds good too.
Wish I could have taken a picture to post.
Anyway, thanks for your opinion.
If any of the other Seattle guys read this, it is at Al's Guitarville on 15th. Somebody ought to snag it who can appreciate it.
I'm kind of overburdened on too many steels myself right now. |
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Kevin Greenberg
From:
Lakewood, CA
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Posted 2 May 2009 11:49 pm Supro
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| I may be assuming here, but i think by the time mother of toilet seat steel guitars came out, no one but Rickenbacher and the steels they made with other names like Ace and Bronson, was using horseshoe pickups. But back in the day, I think they sold pickups to other companies. I don't recall where, but online somewhere I once saw a white Epiphone Electar from the 30's or early 40's with a flat black horseshoe pickup. It looked like it was either stock, or done by someone who knew what they were doing. And it looked just like a Ric pickup. Maybe someone can chime in and enlighten me! |
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Paul Arntson
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 5 May 2009 11:10 am
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Like this one?
http://www.telapex.com/~cejjrpe/epimodm.htm
I believe they stopped using the horseshoe in 37 and went to a model not patented by Richenbacher.
I had an 8 string like this. Very unique instrument.
The pickup I saw bolted onto the Supro looked just like the illustration to the Beauchamp patent. It must have been an early rick one somebody grafted on there. |
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 5 May 2009 5:55 pm Joaquin Murphy............played a horseshoe, didn't he?
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I tho't for sure I've seen Joaquin Murphy playing an early Bigsby with a horseshoe type pickup mounted thereon.
Right or Wrong? |
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Kevin Greenberg
From:
Lakewood, CA
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Posted 5 May 2009 8:24 pm
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Paul, that's the one! I wonder if they made those pickups themselves, or did Rickenbacher make them?
Ray, I've seen that too somewhere, and read about it as well on the forum once. |
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Paul Arntson
From:
Washington, USA
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