The Steel Guitar Forum

Check this link out to follow the amazing work of Frank Ford in making the Shoes in collaboration with Jason Lollar who made the bobbins, wound them, etc.

They are back my friends, 1.5" pre-war Horsehoes (despite the picture of a post war Ricky on the web site)....they may also be making some 1.25" as there is some demand for them too as replacements, for bass players , as well as, their making a sweet bottle neck quitar pickup.

Contact Jason Lollar (link in article ) for details.

http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/Produ ... shoes.html

Let the fun begin...

Yea, great to see Jason get some more of these out. I've been following some of Jasons posts when he announced them last month and a couple things that caught my attention is he says the magnetic field is improved in this revision and he also made these with adjustable pole pieces too. They are not cheap at $400 a pop, but they sure are purdy

.

Yea, but good luck finding a vintage pre-war Horseshoe at all, much less for $400. So, all in all, its a bargin. And, Jason is doing 6 string and 7 String...maybe 8 string also. I'm just thrilled to see it all come together.

I got a 6 and a 7 right out of the chute. And you're right they're "Purdy"

... good luck finding a vintage pre-war Horseshoe at all, much less for $400 ...

Could not agree more. And with the improvements, I would not be surprised if they end up sounding better than many of the originals. Just having adjustable pole pieces for better string balance is a big plus.

Been a long time comin', can't wait to get my hands on 'em! Kudos to Frank, Jason and James.

Can these pickups be constructed with four mounting/adjusting screws (two each side) on the length sides?
The multineck I'm planning will have necks too narrow to accommodate the finger screws on the ends.

Thanks

Really looks great. Can you comment on the sound?

James Williamson wrote:Yea, but good luck finding a vintage pre-war Horseshoe at all, much less for $400.

I recently had the luck with two nice post-war 8 string shoes @ $100 per, with perfect chrome surrounds.
8s of any era are tuff to come by, so here's hoping these new ones will cover that.

Really enjoyed the link to see the process. One pic shows an old box of new shoes... it's like a pot of gold!

@Rick...contact Jason Lollar he'll probably work with you to find a solution.

@Mike....I can't comment on the sound yet as I've got to get Mike Dotson to make me something to put them in first...hoping someone else here has gotten one and already made a home for it, so we can hear them. But at this point Jason has made me so many pickups that all sound fantastic, that I'm sure their going to sound amazing.

Rick, they can be mounted from the bottom with some mods. I'm sure Jason can help you.

James, anytime!

Mike D, we'll talk soon, OK?

O'tay!

These look great, and appear to made in the correct "old" ways. I really appreciate the photo play by play. It looks like a lot of work in them shoes.
Todd

Got Frank to update his pictures of the Ricky to substitute a prewar body with 1.5" Horsehoe...so all is right with the world...he still says 1930's and this one's likely pre war guitar with post war assembly but close enough to illustrate the old Horseshoe pickups.

Anyway, scatch my intial comment about the late model Ricky that was there at first.

Also, looks like he added some pics of the furnace operation which is really cool (or hot as the case may be).

So is the Rickenbacker patent/trademark/whatever no longer an issue?

Well, I'm just the messenger here so I can't really comment on legal issues, but its my understanding that the best legal and trademark advice indicates it no longer an issue....obviously Jason Lollar has been around this block a few times, so he wouldn't bring them out if he had a concern.

Good to see these back!

So how do you adjust those pole pieces? Do you have to disassemble the pickup to get to the adjustment?

Hi Kekoa,

The pole piece adjustment is a Jason Lollar question, as I haven't tried to do it yet so have no idea, but of course you are likely to need to remove the bobbin from the shoe to get at the adjustment, but I'm really not sure.

james

I was having Jason use threaded holes in the bobbins he made for me, in place of the usual pole pieces, I used 6-23 Allen head type set screws for poles, and later I tried 8-32 poles, with the idea that more mass in the poles would be better. Can't say they were better. The bobbin/coil has to be removed from inside the magnets, to adjust the poles, the way I did it. And of course the whole pick-up can be adjusted higher or lower on either end etc, for treble & bass adjustments.
The old pick-ups were risky to adjust by pushing pole pieces up or down in the bobbin, and not messing up the windings etc.

Frank sure did a nice job on those, a real craftsman!

Well Bill, I went out and checked one of new Lollar Horseshoes and sure enough as far as I can tell without taking the bobbin out of the shoe, he put some threaded pole pieces in there with an allen wrench socket on top. I'm guessing that means they can be adjust from the top. It might even be possible to adjust without taking out of the shoe if your L shaped allen wrench is short enough on the L side. Also, it takes a pretty small allen wrench.

James Williamson wrote:It might even be possible to adjust without taking out of the shoe if your L shaped allen wrench is short enough on the L side.

Now that would be way friggin cool, making these more than mere replications but 'improved', and the hefty (but fair) price less painful.

Yeah, I have s few wrenches cut off to do that, but it doesn't work too good, and depends on how high or low the screws are in the bobbin etc, so I just try to figure which ones need adjusting, and take it apart and do it. Usually it's OK once it's set, with out any more fooling with it.

That is pretty cool!

A few months ago, Jason Lollar rewound a dead fry-pan 1.5" pickup for me, and told me he typically winds them a bit hotter than the originals. No complaints from me! He did a wonderful job -- and included a ground wire (the original fry-pans lacked that -- and used the aluminum body as the ground conductor).

--Jamie

I believe the ground was one of the pole pieces, which of course touched the magnet on the bottom end..not a great idea was it....
The last coils I had wound are low impedence types, which I asked for. More like the originals. But can't really say that they are better or not as good etc. Jason's coils all work fine (of course!)

Would the 1.5" pickup fit the same footprint as the 1.25"? I have a 1.25" and would like to drop the 1.5" in...

My pickup works fine, but it's a bit unbalanced -- the bass strings are significantly louder/hotter than the treble... and i can't seem to find a way to adjust the pole pieces

Thanks,
james.