The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi I have no experience of using or playing steel guitar equipped with humbucker pups ,and iam planing learning Hawaiian style . I have been looking at with a view to buying a 6 string lap steel made in Germany by E B M which looks to be of reasonably quality and is equipped with a rails humbucker pup.My question is has any forum member had any experience of that instument, and would it be suitable for my purpose. Thank you for any comments.
Best regards S. Campbell.

Hi Stewart,
I have an old Gibson BR3/4 to which I fitted a humbucker and it sounds great through a Fender Princeton 112 Amp. I also have a homemade 8 string with a hot-rails humbucker Bass pickup and that sounds good too. My 3rd Lap Steel is also a homemade (6 string) with an overwound (hot) Telecaster pickup and I think this guitar has the best sound of the three, great low notes and clear highs.
Regards,
Keith.

Hi Keith
Thanks very much for your reply I much appreciate it. I'am at the present time working my way through Doug Beaumier 25 songs for lap steel and find it a great learning tool,I play some pedal and fiddle,but in my old age fancy doing Hawaiian and I thought the A B M German built lap with the hot rails would be a good choice, thanks again for your input.
Regards Stewart.

Stewart,
Here are a couple of my recordings using a Humbucker Pickup on a home built Guitar playing Hawaiian Music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAE76yLxEA4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTmg9o1UXOo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWn8PVH4iWM

James Kerr.
Also Scotland.

Hi James
Thanks for your input, and your vidios not only sound fantastic,but also with the photography are a work of art.
I'am the proud owner for a lot of years now of one of your crafted Springfield Pedal Steels (looks like the twin of the one you play)and it is still as good as new. Hope you are well.
regards Stewart.

Good to hear from you Stewart, and good to hear you still play Steel Guitar. If I can help in any way let me know.

James.

The original Gibson Company in Kalamazoo made two standard production lap steel models with humbucking pickups. (It's worth noting that the so-called "humbucking pickup" was patented by Gibson after it was developed by Seth Lover, one of Gibson's engineers. Mr. Lover was eventually lured away from Gibson by CBS, where he also developed Fender's humbucking pickup.)

Here's Gibson's original PAF humbucker on a circa 1957 Ultratone. Very few of these guitars were manufactured, and even fewer exist today that have not been cannibalized for their pickup, which is worth about double the rest of the instrument:



This is a circa 1967 Century fitted with Gibson's mini-humbucker that was famously used on their series of Firebird guitars in the mid-late 1960s:



These are great-sounding guitars that would not sound out of place playing traditional Hawaiian music. It's worth noting that their string spacing is significantly narrower at the bridge than Gibson lap steels equipped with the more common wide oval (race track) or P-90 single coil pickups.

For those who think a Gibson humbucking pickup would be too fat sounding, just back off the volume knob on the guitar and it will clear up really well.

Hi Jack and John
Thanks for your replies and the history of the Gibson humbucker. I have made my mind up and I will go for an humbucker equipped lap guitar for my hawaiian learning venture .Once again thanks for taking time out to reply and I wish you all the best.
regards Stewart.