The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi,

New old member here. I pulled out my old SX and dusted off my J. Byrd learning book. I plan on starting from scratch as I never made much progress. I’ve never been real enamored with various aspects of the SX especially the pickup. Opinions re just replacing the pick up or just buy a better instrument (or kit) appreciated.

Thanks

Here's my two cents worth:

It's gonna be difficult pulling off Jerry Byrd-style slants on an instrument constructed with very narrow string spacing due to its generic Asian Telecaster components. You can change pickups, pots, nuts, bridges, fretboards, etc. to the point you have more $$$ into the thing than you'd spend on a suitable instrument in the first place.

Lotsa bang for the buck in a brand new Melbert lap steel. Vintage Gibsons can often be had for a reasonable sum. If you have the dough-re-mi, look for a vintage Ric.

Depends on the exact model. I think the 8 string is well designed, plays very well...the electronics weren't great but I swapped in a Lace Alumitone and it sounds great now I think. It's long scale which I like, and the strings lay nice and flat with my string gauges (have issues with that on my Magnatone). I think in certain (lower voiced) tunings and for certain songs it can sound as good or better than my other 8 strings (Stringmaster, Mag, and Clinesmith frypan).

The 6 strings may be a different story...they do use the generic components, adjustable bridge, etc., I think. Don't own one so can't speak to them...and if you have other reasons you don't like the guitar, maybe an upgrade will be in order (bearing in mind all guitars, especially vintage, will have quirks and odd features you have to work around). If it's just the sound of the pickup, that's an easy fix.

I have to qualify my remarks as even though I play them occasionally I am certainly no expert on lap steels, but I have been playing guitars and pedal steel guitars since the 60s and 70s.

I'm quite happy with my SX6. It has the P90 style pickup. The string spacing is 3/8. It may be just slightly narrower at the nut, but not by much.

The only thing I might change someday, and it's certainly no big deal, is the control pots for just a tad different taper particularly for the volume control.

Each to his own of course, but I think these guitars are a very good value and they play and sound just fine to me.

I defer to those most knowledgeable however.

you will never sound or play like jerry byrd...none of us will..lol.

your sx guitar is just fine to learn on. when you get to the point where you know the guitar is holding you back and not your playing is holding you back.... thats when you get another guitar.

best to you. byrd is a master for sure. anything you learn of his playing/teaching is fabulous.

Thanks for the replies. For now, at least until I make some progress, I’ll just use the SX. After a couple of days, it will be a while until what I’m doing even sounds like music.......🙄

I bought one of the early ones that came with a very nice hard shell case and had a stand-alone stand available. I like the mahogany body and fretboard but disliked the pickup and especially disliked the bridge and cover. The good thing is that the SX is easy to upgrade and the bridge uses common attachment holes. I replaced the single coil with two Bill Lawrence L500 rail pickups and replaced the bridge with a slightly modified wrap around stop tail piece.


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