The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm looking for suggestions on a good 12 string splittable humbucking pickup, that when using only single coil, doesn't sacrifice any of the quality of a good dedicated single coil pickup. I'd like to know who makes them and what some of your experiences are with them.

The George L 5 position pickup features 2 humbucking positions, 2 single coil positions, and one position with what sounds like the coils out of phase with each other.

Frankly, I've notice no difference in tone on any of the first 4 positions on my guitar. The only thing the single coil positions do on my guitar is lower the volume and add a 60 cycle hum. The out of phase(?) position has a distictly different sound though, and it'a actually pretty cool. I usually the regular humbucking position but I switch to this one from time to time when I think it appropriate.

Thanks Mike. Would you recommend this pickup?

If you can find a Dan Shields "Craptrap" that's what you want. Jim Pittman builds a nice replica of that same pickup as well.
-MJ-

My D-12 Mullen started out with 4 12-5 pickups by George L. I had them wired for humbucking, and tapped positions. I have since replaced the 2 "bridge" pickups to get a sound more like my D-12 Franklin. No tap now, but I still use the 12-5 in the neck position.
Dave

I don't believe George L's makes the 10-5 or the 12-5 anymore.

I have to agree with MJ on this one.....I had a Dan Shields on my Sierra's and it soon became one of my favorite pickups..
3 distictly different tones, and all good !...
If you split things up with just about any other pickup , the tone suffer's ...They are jack of all pickups, and master of none..Quite the contrary with the Dan Shield's pickups....All positions sounded good !!.....Jim

I've got a George L 5 way 12 string pickup you can have for the postage. It came on my S12 Sho-Bud and I personally did'nt like it. I'm a Wallace True Tone man myself.

Jerry

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I haven't been able to locate a Dan Shields,and think I may go with a True Tone and stay single coil. If anyone has anymore feedback on the Shields or where I might find one, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I haven't been able to locate a Dan Shields,and think I may go with a True Tone and stay single coil. If anyone has more feedback on a Shields or knows where I can find one, I'd love to hear about it.

Hi Barry:

I was good to meet you last month and I enjoyed our visit. I believe that Danny Shields has passed on. Dimarzio makes a multi
tap humbucking pickup. I have one for my Sierra guitar that is mounted in the sliding bezel. I do not know if they have a mounting system for this pickup for other steel guitars. You can't go wrong with a Trutone pickup as Jerry Wallace can wind the resistance to your liking.

Regards,

Lenny