The Steel Guitar Forum

Anyone tried a L-710 in a Emmons p/p (E9)? I just dropped one in there and I think I like it so far. Powerful and clear.

Brad Sarno
'66,'69,'84 Emmons p/p, '69 Fender Twin w/BW

Brad,

I put one in my 1985 Emmons PP about a year ago and like it very much.

PS: It was great to meet you in St. Louis.


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I have a 710 on my E9 neck . I thought the original Emmons single sounded better, but the hum was driving me nuts. The 710 does sound very good , just not as sweet( if you will) as the Emmons. Does anyone make a stacked humbucker, like Seymour Duncan makes for strats and teles. To my ears that is the closest a humbucker can get to the single coil sound.

Oops double post<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Glenn Austin on 18 September 2002 at 04:52 PM.]</p></FONT>

Glen, the Lawrence 910 is sort of like a stacked humbucker. It's single coil sounding but a bit darker than other pickups. Listen to John Hughey or Hal Rugg lately? That's a 910.

Brad Sarno

I have a 710 in my S10PP. I like it a lot. Nice tone without the buzz.

I am still trying to decide about changing to the 710 in my PP. Everyone tells me if it ain't broke, don't fix it! But in the studio......

I have been sort of wrestling with this issue myself. My 1978 Emmons push-pull has single-coils and sounds great. So far, I do not have noise problem. After visiting the Bill Lawrence room at the ISGC, I started thinking about installing the L-710.

Some do not like the L-710 on these guitars because they are so hot they can create a distortion problem.

One guy suggested the new Tommy White George L pickup. It is rated 18.5, where the E66 is rated at 17.5, I think.

I guess my view is that the hum issue will probably arise in some venues and it might be a good idea to go ahead and "bite-the-bullet" and install a humbucker if it sounds close enough to a single-coil.

I am still deciding...

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Frank Estes - 1978 Emmons D-10 8+7 #2441D

I have the 710's on both necks of my 66 Emmons and couldn't be happier. It's make for a better recording guitar. I'm having an old Sho-Bud pick-up rewound by Jerry Wallace. He claims to have eliminated the hum in single coils and will give you a refund for any reason so what the heck, I'll bite on that one.

710's are a wonder; the problem is that they weren't made to be in all guitars.
A few years back I ordered a new Fessenden(which Jim Cohen eventually ended up with).
The guitar distorted terribly with a new pair of 710's. I had Bobbe Seymour adjust it for me and he taught me the single most important pickup lesson of my life. 710's are HOT and in order to get them to work right they need to be down low. Real low. Bobbe cranked 'em down to about 3/8" to 1/2" below the strings! The guitar sang and sustained and the distortion was gone! I was humbled and amazed.
The problem with 710's is that the prototypes were designed by Bill Lawrence to fit in an old EMCI/MCI Arlington guitar and that particular guitar allows the pickups to be cranked down low enough to do their magic. Many guitars( and you know who you are darlings)have a post or somesuch in the way and the 710's never can get down low enough to avoid the distortion threshold. Luckily the Fessenden did not have the problem.
Futhermore, the distortion is compounded if you use a buffer/sustain box like I do. They often add a few db's and just make the hot pickup even hotter and the distortion worse. When the 710 is down low enough, the box makes a great pickup even better.
Finally, if you should be lucky enough to own early 710 pickups, they were made to be even hotter than the current 710 and the ability to lower the pickup becomes even more imperative. When lowered in the right guitar they are a joy to play.
My EMCI with an old pair of 710's cranked way down is, as I understand it, the way the pickup was designed by Lawrence and is the best sound I have found to date.

Interesting, I've got mine within a quarter (25 cents) of the strings and I have no distortion at all.

I played a Zum with a Bill Lawrence on it, the pickup was so powerful that it completely overloaded the pre amp on my amplifier, almost to the point of destruction. I'll never use a Bill Lawrence again.

Frank

Don't do it. Would you put Les Paul pickups on a Tele?

bob

Bob, Brent Mason has a Gibson humbucker in the neck position of his gray Tele. I will probably do nothing for now.

OK, I can see where I'd like some more room to lower the 710 in my Emmons. It's such a hot pickup. It appears to be bottoming out on the heads of the phillips screws that hold the changer down. There's a lot of head sticking out above the actual changer piece. Has anyone ever ground down the screw head to get another few 1/32" of room? What about grinding into the pickup. That sounds safe doesn't it? The 710 does sound good where it is but it seems to make me pick lighter than usual.

Brad Sarno
St. Louis, MO

Bob,
I've had the 710's in the guitar for almost a year now and there is absolutely no problem whatsoever. The guitar was being gone through when I bought it so I sent these pick-ups to have installed while it was down. I've still got the originals but after having the 710's in a Legrande II I thought I'd try them on the P/P. I've always kept my pick-ups at the same distance from the strings and did it the same way for the 710's and it's fine. The sound is clear as a bell and zero hum. The single coils have a great sound as everyone knows but I hate the hum especially if you're going to record. The 710's do it for me. I've been playing an old 72 Sho-Bud lately and am having a single coil Sho-Bud pick-up rewound by Jerry Wallace. He scatterwinds them and claims there is no hum. If it turns out that way then I'll have the single coil tone with no hum. Send me an e-mail in a couple of weeks and I'll let you know how it turns out.

I just installed an L910 on my Zum and am very pleased with it. Had trouble at first because my Nashville 400 was not set right. I pulled an operation manual for the 400 off Peavey's web sight and set exactly as they suggested and I could not believe what I heard. The exact sound I've been looking for ever since I've been trying to play the steel. If any one likes a nice quite mellow tone I would recommend the 910 with the N400
set exactly as recommended by peavey. I ordered my L910 from Larry Petree, Bakersfield.

Earl
ZB D10, 11-4
Zum D10, 8-4
Nashville 400

Model 710-8 was developed for those having trouble with distortion. It is a 710 with a somewhat lower output (as I understand it.)