Question about my Canopus guitar

Steve Green · Post by **Steve Green** » 6 Feb 2011 8:40 am

I've got a Canopus S-8 steel guitar that I got on Ebay a while back for $440. It came with practically everything you could imagine: the case, 4 legs, leg bag, heavy duty cord, a Jerry Byrd bar (kinda small for my big hands), some Jerry Byrd instructional material, a Korg tuner, and even the key for the case. The only thing it didn't come with, was an owners manual. There may have never been one, I don't know.

Here's my question. The guitar has one pickup, and 3 knobs. The knob nearest the tuners is a volume knob. The knob farthest from the tuners is a tone knob. I don't know what the middle knob does. It's a 3 position switch, but with only ONE pickup, what does it do? I can tell it changes the sound of the guitar, but I don't know what each position is. Perhaps series / parallel? Perhaps in-phase / out-of-phase?

Hopefully someone on here can help. Pics attatched.

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 6 Feb 2011 9:18 am

Maybe it's a coil tap switch?

Steve Green · Post by **Steve Green** » 6 Feb 2011 10:14 am

Andy Sandoval wrote:Maybe it's a coil tap switch?

Andy,
That crossed my mind, but most coil taps I'm familiar with are only 2 position switches (coil tapped or not). This switch has 3 positions.

G Strout · Post by **G Strout** » 6 Feb 2011 10:27 am

Hard to be really sure without actually looking at the wiring or being familiar with Canopus guitars. Perhaps it is a variation on the Gibson "Varitone" circuit?
That is a "notch" filter that uses a range of capacitors to achieve a reduction in frequencies at different switching points on a rotary switch.
gary

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 6 Feb 2011 10:35 am

Steve, I do not know what that knob is either..
but I do know you got one beautiful Steel there
for a great price IMO.

Congratulations and good luck with it.

Roy

Dana Blodgett · Post by **Dana Blodgett** » 6 Feb 2011 11:25 am

It kind acts like a pickup position switch I think.The pick up looks like an old Sho-Bud, I heard a couple of guys playing these in Waikki a couple of weeks ago they sound sawsome, similar to a Fender Stringmaster IMHO.

Dana Blodgett · Post by **Dana Blodgett** » 6 Feb 2011 11:27 am

It kind acts like a pickup position switch I think.The pick up looks like an old Sho-Bud, I heard a couple of guys playing these in Waikki a couple of weeks ago they sound sawsome, similar to a Fender Stringmaster IMHO.Great price,this is exactly what I'm lookin for in the near future.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 6 Feb 2011 11:39 am

Can't find any info on their websites, but try this email address: canopus@din.or.jp

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 6 Feb 2011 12:13 pm

The ZB custom has three coil taps.

Kelvin Monaghan · Post by **Kelvin Monaghan** » 6 Feb 2011 12:56 pm

It's most likely used in conjunction with the tone control where it selects different size caps to give a change in the roll off slope.
Try each position and vary the tone knob see if you hear a different tone it's probably pretty subtle though.

Cheers

Richard Shatz · Post by **Richard Shatz** » 6 Feb 2011 1:24 pm

Kelvin Monaghan wrote:It's most likely used in conjunction with the tone control where it selects different size caps to give a change in the roll off slope.
Try each position and vary the tone knob see if you hear a different tone it's probably pretty subtle though.

I think that's probably correct. Some National New Yorkers have a control like that. I've seen two types. On one the control was labeled bass, mellow and brilliant, and the other was labeled Hawaiian, chimes and harp.

Don Kona Woods · Post by **Don Kona Woods** » 7 Feb 2011 12:33 am

Steve that was a very good find on your Canopus.

The position or alignment of your knobs on your Canopus is the same as the Double Necked Canopus on the Canopus website.

I noticed that the S-8 Canopus on the website has the knob alignment all in a row.

I also see on the website double pickups on all instruments whereas you have only a single pickup.I think that your Canopus is probably an earlier model.

I don't know if there is any special significance in the alignment or positions of the knobs, but I am curious.

I did wonder was your Canopus once a D-8 Canopus? Then I thought again, probably not.

Aloha,

Don

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 7 Feb 2011 1:54 am

The price you paid and what you received are both awesome. I have the T-8 CUSTOM FENDER, the D-8 NATIONAL, the D-8 RICKENBACKER, the D-8 TRADEWIND, (all great guitars in top condition) but NONE of them come up to the quality, tone of the D-8 CANOPUS. I bought my CANOPUS new (3 years ago), it did not come with instructions...just came with the BEST of quality.

If you send an e-mail CANOPUS, Yasu will respond.

Steve Green · Post by **Steve Green** » 7 Feb 2011 5:17 am

I got these pics from the Canopus website:

http://www.din.or.jp/~canopus/joe2.htm

My guitar appears to be exactly the same model that the LADY is playing. It could be the exact same guitar. Because of this, I don't think mine was once a double neck.

I also found a Youtube video showing several of their models of guitars(except mine), against a backdrop of beautiful Hawaiian scenes and music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dmiDXmeUhU

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 8 Feb 2011 12:01 am

Kelvin Monaghan wrote:It's most likely used in conjunction with the tone control where it selects different size caps to give a change in the roll off slope.

Since it looks like a single coil pickup, that is my guess, too. The difference might not be that subtle- on my GeorgeBoards Stealth the switch toggling between .022uf and .047uF makes quite a difference.

I think that a tone cap switch might be more noticeable and usable on a steel guitar because the tone control seems to be set back more than on a regular guitar. (I know I had my tone controls set to 10 for about 35 years before I figured out that there was a reason that they were installed.

)

Steve Ahola

Jason Hull · Post by **Jason Hull** » 8 Feb 2011 3:54 am

Why don't you take the control cavity cover off and take a picture?

John Allison · Post by **John Allison** » 8 Feb 2011 6:28 am

On my personal triple neck (one single coil pickup per neck) I used a 4-position rotary with .01MF caps in a daisy chain configuration to give different tone presets. I did it order to be able leave my normal tone control available for tone swells. Your single coil pickup could be wound with multiple taps, as suggested, but the multiple capacitor, variable tone circuit sounds more likely.

Russ Cudney · Post by **Russ Cudney** » 8 Feb 2011 6:50 am

Kelvin Monaghan wrote:It's most likely used in conjunction with the tone control where it selects different size caps to give a change in the roll off slope.
Try each position and vary the tone knob see if you hear a different tone it's probably pretty subtle though.

Cheers

Yes, kind of like a Fender Esquire....

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 10 Feb 2011 6:38 am

It's an impedance switch using two coils either individually or combined.
Like
1. Main Coil
2. Secondary coil
3. both, Presumably out of phase, BECAUSE the switch is also called a (Problem Switch) here:- (ボリューム, トーン & ネック切替SW×３) translated = Volume and tone & problem switch SW×3

The Kanji for the single neck 6 string reads :-
Canopus YS-6s シングルコイルピックアップ(インピ-ダンス切替SW付) 22 1/2" スケール
お渡し価格: 120.000円 (4本脚,ケース付)

Which translated reads:-
Single coil picking up (impedance switch SW assistant) 22 1/2" Scale passing price: 120.000 yen (with four leg and case)

Logical deduction would lead one to guestimate that the meaning behind the terminology "Problem" (ネック) and "Impedance" (インピ-ダンス) is as I've suggested.

Of course I'm only guessing, and could be blind-sided by my viewpoint.

Bill Leff · Post by **Bill Leff** » 10 Feb 2011 6:34 pm

That guitar sold for over $1400 US new. That's quite a deal you got!

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 10 Feb 2011 10:05 pm

The pic shows me, (at left with double-neck), along with 2 of my students. The lady is playing the exact guitar which you have and (strangely), it seems to have a better tone than my D-8 ! Perhaps it is just my imagination. And you can rest assured your guitar has always been a single neck, was never chopped from a double neck. I'm 83, have been trying in vein to play the steel guitar since 1942...in all those years, I have never played a better guitar than the CANOPUS, and I have played a lot of steel guitars in my time.

Yasu is now making another great model, the "Buckie" which I am very tempted to purchase. 2 of my students have "Buckies" ... they are fabulous guitars.

You got one helluva deal on that guitar, believe me !

Butch Pytko · Post by **Butch Pytko** » 14 Feb 2011 9:20 am

I'm wondering about the Canopus key head & scale length. In the first picture, it looks like the key head is routed-out wood with key tuners attached. On the Canopus web site, because of the frontal-only distant pictures, I can't quite tell if the key heads are the Fender pan-head types or not. Just wondering if there would be any tonal difference between the two? Also, on the Canopus web site, it says 22 1/2" scale. Since I have a Fender Stringmaster with 24 1/2" scale that has great tone, was wondering why it seems the current steel builders are sticking with 22 1/2" scale?

Dana Blodgett · Post by **Dana Blodgett** » 14 Feb 2011 10:34 am

I was in Waikiki about three weeks ago and saw Greg Sardinha play an old Fender stringmaster for a couple of hours. The very next day he was playing a beautiful "Sunburst" Canopus with a Hibiscus on the front! Both guitars sounded very good and I would say that the "Canopus" sounded awesome, very similiar to a Stringmaster! Casey Olsen was playing a "green" Canopus that reminded me of the color of an "LDG". I am guessing these are Custom finishes.I can't say how good they sounded to me other than awesome. Casey and Greg are both great talents.
My guess about the scale length is (22.5")that it might be easier for bar "Slants." Their guitars were NOT lacking in sustain either!

Steve Green · Post by **Steve Green** » 14 Feb 2011 6:26 pm

My Canopus doesn't have the Fender style tuner pans that you see pictured on the S-8 at the Canopus website. It could be that mine is an older model no longer in production. Regardless, I couldn't be more pleased with the tone, sustain and overall quality of this guitar.

You can hear my guitar in THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO (Steel break @ 2:19). i'm running it through a Hartke Kickback 12 amp, 120 watts, 12" aluminum-cone speaker, and a Fender SFX Satellite amp for reverb + delay.

Jackiso · Post by **Jackiso** » 15 Feb 2011 6:00 am

Baz's effort to read Japanese prompted me to contact Mr Yasu Kamiya direct who runs Canopus.

As Andy says it's a coil tap switch to change the impedance of the pickup to 8k, 11k or 14k so that you get three type of sound, mellow, normal or crisp(sharp). Caps are not used here.
Jack Isomura
Yokohama, Japan

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