The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a custom made c6 tuned six string console with a strat pickup.....it has a bit more noise than my gold tone lapsteel....and was wondering if anyone had any experience with a stacked humbucker ( samore duncon) on their single slot laps...

Jerry, tried several stacked humbuckers and finally settled on one made by sentell pickups. Clear and bell like tones, but with fatter tone than most. Contact Jerry Sentell
and he will hook you up. I have 3 of his pups and find them all to be of high quality......with the sound(s) I was looking for.

Thanks g stout..... I got his info online and am going to contact him this week..I appreciate the info....and his stuff sounds reliable....and and his selection is great...thanks again. Jl

I just bought a repro "1939 Century" Epiphone Electar lap steel. It was advertised as having an "Epiphone 500B Blade Humbucker Pickup." What it clearly is, is a Fender Jazz Bass style pickup with a "rail" magnet and stacked coils, sealed in plastic. It's plenty wide enough, probably for a 5 string bass, and it sounds great to my ears. Something to keep in mind if you ever decide to build one.

Jerry Ledsome wrote:I have a custom made c6 tuned six string console with a strat pickup.....it has a bit more noise than my gold tone lapsteel...

Are the strings grounded through the bridge? Are the pickup and control cavities adequately shielded? Unless you are playing in an extremely adverse environment (lots of neon or florescent lighting, gigantic transformers, bad wiring etc.), a single coil pickup can be as quiet as a church mouse.

These things work well to an extent, but are sometimes prone to emitting odd artifacts:

Some times just moving a little, as in twisting, will just about stop a buzz. Noticed this while recording and at a large church I used to play at. RP

Seymour Duncan's Duckbuckers are strat-sized but with side-by-side coils, with adjustable polepieces and more or less single coil tone.