The Steel Guitar Forum

I've been playing my Goldtone Weisenborn a lot lately. I have a Dean Markley Pro Mag sound hole pickup in it that I like the sound of. The problem is the first and sixth strings are not as loud as the middle four. I presume that this is because the pickup is too far from the strings. I can't see anyway to raise the pickup. If I mount it on top of the hole it is too thick and touches the strings.

On my Dobro, I have a Fishman on the cone plus a Lace neck pickup through a stereo end pin jack which gives a lot of versatility.

What do other people use on the Weisenborn? I don't want to spend a huge amount on the Weisenborn, since it is basically number 4 in hierarchy of instruments I play.

Hi Jim,

They might be a little more money, especially since the addition of their buffer box is really necessary to get the full benefit of the sound, but the Sunrise pickup is the only thing I would use. The sound from that system is truly astounding... http://www.sunrisepickups.com/

I have a Baggs M1 Active on mine and like it a lot. The pole pieces are adjustable so it's easy to balance between strings. It is built intentionally somewhat microphonic to preserve the tone of the guitar, but you can still crank it if you want to get some electric grit.

Dave

I also am a fan of the Sunrise pickup.
I also use a Baggs under-the-saddle pickup in conjunction with the Sunrise.

I like the Baggs M1a also. Recently installed a Seymour Duncan SA-6 mag-mic, and I REALLY like this pickup alot in the weissenborn (replicas) I have.

I use a K & K under the bridge plate; sounds great!

I've had a Sunrise pickup in my Weissenborn for over twenty years now. Although I am primarily a bluegrass dobro guy, my Weissenborn with the Sunrise is by far my best sounding live performance instrument.

For whatever reason, my experience with preamps has been different than Julian's: over the years I've run the Sunrise through a variety of preamps, including Richard Battaglia Chard Stuff preamp, Pendulum, Fishman and LR Baggs preamps and the Sunrise buffer box. While all of those preamps have their pros and cons, my Weissenborn/Sunrise rig sounded great through all. I couldn't really detect any significant differences - sound wise - between the Sunrise buffer box and the others.

Mitch, have you done the a/b between the M1 and the Seymour Duncan?