The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a set of BL 710s and a set of Wallace True Tone pickups. Some of you guys who have tried them both, i am interested in getting your thoughts on both. I am looking at changing out pickups in GFI Ultra D10.
Thanks
Craig

710's = no hum & TT's = usually have hum. Personally, I prefer humbuckers simply for the "No hum" effect.

710's for me. No doubt about it. My favorite pickup.

Craig,
I have a BL710 in a Fessenden SD10 and Wallace true-tones in a D10 Zum. The 710 never hums even if you lay your hand across the strings and bottom out the volume pedal. In the same situation, the TT will hum. But for me, that's not an issue because I never need to do that. With the 710, you can squeeze a lot of sustain out of a steel using the volume petal and not worry about the hum. As far as the true-tone, I have never heard a hum under normal playing circumstances. I simply turn up the volume control on the amp high enough so that I only need about half of the volume pedal. For me, this eliminates the hum from the TT caused by pressing the volume pedal too far down. As far as the sound, I am very pleased with both. I once did a recording with a 710 in the Zum and when I listened to previous recordings with the TT in the Zum, I couldn't hear a nickel's worth of difference. In fact, had I not known which one was which, I probably could not have known, just by listening. But if I had to pick only one to live with from now on, it would be the Wallace True-Tone. I can't really pin-point why, I just like the sound of it slightly better than the 710.

Mitch

P.S Hey Billy!

I took 710s out and put Wallace True Tones in. The sound improved a lot to my ears. Now I'm using BL 705 and like them a lot. I think it just depends on what sound you want.

The TT are warm and natural. Single coil sweet.
The 710 are solid and twangy. Humbucker quiet.

Only once have I played a club where the TT was unusable because of terrible noise.
Playing in the back half of the volume pedal helps.

It is important to consider your entire signal chain when choosing a pickup.

For example, both Lloyd and Paul F use the 710s, but their tone is quite different.
Their other equipment choices complement their styles. Nowadays Paul plays through a high power tube amp, with a fairly dark speaker. Lloyd plays through a relatively low wattage solid state amp with a Blue Marvel.

Every component choice, from your picks to the speaker, affect the tone you achieve. Not to mention your technique and musical ideas, which are paramount.

I’ve never heard a humbucker that really achieves the sweet attack of a single coil. But in most musical situations, the differences fade in importance to the playing.

They are both great pickups!

John

BL 710 is a great PU.....But it might be a little to
bright in a GFI. I have heard BL 705 in a GFI & that's '
a killer PU for that steel.
Just my 2 cents.