The Steel Guitar Forum

I need a new pickup for my ShoBud Fingertip. I thought I could get one of the used George L pickups for sale on the Forum, but I noticed that they have four mounting tabs, while my 'Bud has three. Am I going to have to modify my pickup bracket? Are there pickups available with the correct configuration? Anybody have experience with this problem?

I'm not really familiar with the fingertip model, but most Sho-Buds have what is considered a narrow mount pickup v. wide mount. The narrow one has 2 tabs at one end and one at the other, whereas the wide mount has 2 tabs on either side. Hope this helps.

Here's a pic of a narrow mount Geo L's from an old closed thread. clickhere The new ones come with all the tabs and you break off the ones you don't use. [visit www.steelguitar.net accessories/pickups for a shot of a new one]

Mine has two holes on one side, and one hole in the middle of the other side.

Here's a picture of my pickup bracket:



Two holes are for attaching the bracket to the deck, and the other three holes are for the pickup screws.

Jason, you can mount any modern narrow-mount pickup in the pickup cavity of your Sho-Bud. You will have to drill new holes in the wood to screw the mounting screws in. You won't be able to use the original mounting holes in the aluminum pickup mounting frame. My suggestion would be to get Jerry Wallace to rewind your old pickup so you can use the same mounting configuration.

An early Sho-Bud pickup, such as your fingertip, would have had a large aluminum plate on the bottom with three mounting bolts with springs. It would be simple to mount any pickup to such a plate and mount it there. It would also be simpler to just screw the new pickup down to the wood, but if the guitar hasn't been altered, I'd try to not put any new unnecessary screw holes in it.

Bob T. was posting as I was typing. I agree, if you have the original, have it rewound. If you don't have the original, why not have a reproduction made?

Jason a widemount will go in a fingertip cavity but there is no room for raising and lowering. I found this out when I needed to use one while my pickups were being rewound. A regular narrow mount will work if you just mount it to the plate that held the old pickup. Then you can adjust the height the way you did the old one. Also consider an Alumatone. That is what I ended up installing in mine. For a George L a 10-1 works great. They come with a selection of tabs and you just break off the ones you don't need.

The original pickup took a hit. The bobbins split at the pole pieces, the coil broke, and the mounting plate broke. In other words, there's nothing left to rewind!

I think a narrow-mount George L is gonna be the thing to get.

Thanks everybody!

The broken pieces of that old pickup would give a lot of information to someone who needed to make a repro. Don't throw it away. Someone would like to have the pieces.

Jason,
Have you put a request into the "Wanted To Buy" section? I'll bet somebody has one. Your guitar is too nice to alter!

Jason contact Harry Jackson. There is a chance that he could wind you a new one.

To my ears; a George L is the WRONG pickup to be putting in a Shobud. It does not pickup the natural sound that the shobud is noted for. My opinion is based on at least 25 Shobud's I've worked on had George L pickups; and sounded bla....until I put a single coil in or Bill Lawrence humbucker.
If you just have to have a humbucker(which I don't see the need; I record with a single coil all the time); than you want a Bill Lawrence. Bill makes the closest thing to a single coil sound in his humbucking pickups.
Ricky

Ricky Davis wrote:you want a Bill Lawrence.
Ricky

Is there a particular model that you would recommend?

I like the looks of the TrueTone pickups. What do you think about those?

Yes the Bill Lawrence 710 narrow mount.
But yes I'm a HUGE Fan of the TrueTone; seeing that I helped Jerry Wallace design the TrueTone for the Sho~bud.
Get a Trutone wound to 17,500 full and 11,500 on the coil tap, and you'll never look back.
Ricky

TrueTone it is!

I assume that you have one of these available for purchase. How much?

JASON:
GET THE MOUNTING PLATE FROM JOHN COOP, THEN CONTACT TRU TONE AND HE CAN MAKE YOU A NEW PU TO FIT, WORKS GREAT.JUST FINISHED THE REBUILD ON MINE AND IT WORKS FINE.

Is the ' True tone' tone much different than the george sound?? I have been reviewing that myself and have been in the market for a possible replacement for the E66??

The TrueTone is a single-coil pickup, but the George L is a humbucker (I think). Think of the difference in tone between a Strat and a Les Paul. Single-coil pickups are bright, chimey, and "open" sounding; humbuckers are less noisy, but are darker and thicker.

I need to replace the microphonic PU in my pro 1. I need a bright PU please. any suggestions.?

my steel is here on page 3
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 1&start=50

David, have you considered potting the microphonic pickup? One of the original PUs in my '62 Strat became microphonic to the point that it was unusable. With nothing to lose, I found some instructions on the web somewhere on how to pot it, and it worked great. I still use that pickup today.

It was very easy to do, melt some wax in a double boiler and dip the PU in it. I think there are some precautions about how hot the wax should be, and how long to leave the PU in, but it wasn't rocket science. Google it.. the info is out there.

David Hartley wrote:I need to replace the microphonic PU in my pro 1. I need a bright PU please. any suggestions.?

my steel is here on page 3
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 1&start=50

David, Drop one of those 705's in to your 'bud, and send your 'bud pickup to Jerry Wallace. (The 705 IS narrow mount?) Get him to wind it to 17,500. Loosen your strings and put some painter's masking tape on the changer housing, and you can slide that pickup out without scratching your housing. Cut your wires off right at the pickup(it's going to get new wires anyways) and you can solder up your 705, and drop it back in. Tighten your strings back up, set your pickup down 3 quarters width, and your good to go--don't even need to turn your guitar over. Your third string probably won't survive the retightening, so keep a new one handy.

Ricky Davis wrote:To my ears; a George L is the WRONG pickup to be putting in a Shobud. It does not pickup the natural sound that the Shobud is noted for. My opinion is based on at least 25 Shobud's I've worked on had George L pickups; and sounded bla....until I put a single coil in or Bill Lawrence humbucker.
If you just have to have a humbucker(which I don't see the need; I record with a single coil all the time); than you want a Bill Lawrence. Bill makes the closest thing to a single coil sound in his humbucking pickups.

I agree with Ricky entirely.
I use GeorgeL pickups in steel guitars that I build, and I also own two Sho-Buds. To my mind, changing a Sho-Bud pickup for a GeorgeL would be a retrograde step.

Ricky is dead on about a georgeL in a shobud. My fingertip came to me with an E66 in the E9 neck--gawd-aweful sounding contraption. Now, in another guitar--like some of the modern ones, an E66 is fine. I had Jerry Wallace build me a pair of Truetone pickups to fit my fingertip--sounds incredible now.