The Steel Guitar Forum

So after 2days of Forum search’s, I got a question:
Pickup has one magnet on the treble side, the other is the wood.
The wood side=muddy
The treble side=really bright
Besides another magnet, which I don’t have, any pole pieces or? adjustments I could do to even it up?
Thanks for any ideas.
Steve

There are pole pieces that you access through the holes in the top plate of the pickup. Be aware that with age, they may be stuck, and the screws (I hear) are brittle, so be careful if you attempt to turn them. I've never had to adjust mine, so I have no idea how easy or hard it is. There are several threads here on the forum about it, though

Here's a good breakdown on how to adjust pole pieces on a Valco String Through pickup. It's from a tremendously informative website put together by Denny Turner.

http://www.dennysguitars.com/BillRicklesSuproP16.html

Steve,
You might want to post something in the "Wanted To Buy" section of the Classifieds here to see if someone has a spare magnet you can pop in in place of the wood plug. Maybe that'd achieve the balance you want.

You might be able to get a set of magnets from Jason Lollar... years ago I talked to him about it. They weren't listed in the catologe but if you message them they may be able to help you.

I had a single magnet Supro/Valco years ago and I was able to balance out the sound by adjusting the poles... You might want to try swapping the magnet and the dummy I can't remember if I ended up liking this better or not.

It might be worth trying swapping sides between the magnet and the wooden block.

Dave

Thanks for all of the ideas!
I’ve had this steel for lots o years and I just learned about the
one magnet thing! Well, off to the workbench with new info at hand.
Thanks again!
Steve

Thanks Ted Duross, I’m reading that Denny’s Guitars article first. Great info.
Thanks

Can some one show a picture of the magnets in question,as i have a supro and am not sure if my guitar applies to a wooden plug.

Carl McLaughlin wrote:Can some one show a picture of the magnets in question,as i have a supro and am not sure if my guitar applies to a wooden plug.

Carl,

If you look at the Denny Turner article, the fourth photo down shows a string through pickup with the top removed and the magnets at each end of the pickup.

Did the factory actually replace one side magnet with a wood piece? or was it done by someone repairing old guitars.

From what I’ve read, this was a factory practice on the student/lower end guitars at some point. Experts - please correct me if I’m wrong!

They came from the factory that way.

Hi Everyone,
I have a 1961 Valco Tonemaster with the string-through pickup and I just had a closer look at it today because I'm looking to install a Certano Bender (Has anyone installed a bender on this model lap steel? I hope it doesn't diminish the value of a vintage instrument). Like some of you found, I also have a single magnet on the bass side, and a painted wood block on the treble side. It sounds to me like they were made that way based on some other forum posts I've read. Wondering if I should go down the rabbit hole of trying to find a matching magnet?
Thanks

I've owned several of these old Supro / Airine / Valco guitars with one magnet and one wooden spacer. The height of the individual picks screws was a key adjustment, especially when I'd change string gages for a new tuning.

I seem to remember reading something about possible patent infringement versus Rickenbacker's horseshoe pickup that was a full surround, that prevented using two magnets. Did I just dream that or can someone verify?

I bought magnets for my Supro from Lollar, and by adjusting the pole pieces was able to find a nice balance in sound.

Klym Bolechowsky wrote:Hi Everyone,
I have a 1961 Valco Tonemaster with the string-through pickup and I just had a closer look at it today because I'm looking to install a Certano Bender (Has anyone installed a bender on this model lap steel? I hope it doesn't diminish the value of a vintage instrument). Like some of you found, I also have a single magnet on the bass side, and a painted wood block on the treble side. It sounds to me like they were made that way based on some other forum posts I've read. Wondering if I should go down the rabbit hole of trying to find a matching magnet?
Thanks

I wouldn't look at a bender as a bad thing on a old steel myself, most lap steels, barring the few really desirable ones like Fry pans, Bakelites, New Yorkers and certain Fender's and Gibson's will never be super valuable vintage guitars, so I say go for it. I'm actually thinking of putting them on my Supro Comet.

Of course, I now have to pull out my two Supros and check the magnets, they both sound great but......... You know..

I have an extra magnet if you want one. I replaced the original dummy set with a Lollar pair.

Here is a cheap but very useful magnet polarity tester.
Especially helpful when you have 2 magnets and you want to make sure you install them correctly!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134096481868