The Steel Guitar Forum

I posted earlier that my daughter got me a Recording King P-90 lap steel.
I have 2 problems...
One, it sounds okay, but it doesn't really sound like a steel. I had a # of lap steels when I was young, and my National was the 1st one to sound like a steel guitar.
That's the 1st reason for changing the pickup.

Second, it has too much hum for me. I play in quiet groups. so I want a humbucker. Plus, it's not a very good pickup to begin with.

I thought to put a BL805, or George-L TW, or something with blades instead of pole pieces, to make up for the string spacing. Does that make sense?

What has been your experience with this? I'm sure some of you have done something like this.

I know. Just buy a steel that sounds like a steel. I can't afford to. But I can buy a pickup!
Thanks for any and all help.

George l makes some 8 string pickups.....or they used to. Would be a better size fit than a 10 string pickup. I use the E66 on the 9 string guitars I make. Wider spaced 9 strings fit nicely over the 10 string model E66. Also check out the lace pickups. They have a bar assembly. You have so many six string humbucker pickups to choose from. Why not start there?

There are makers building lap steel specific pickups. Lollar comes to mind...

https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-st ... ar-pickups

And found these online. I’m not familiar with him, but they look look like very nice pickups for reasonable prices,

http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/pickup_lap.html#

Just popped in to add that Pete Biltoft at Vintage Vibes is terrific - he made a blade, strat sized pickup for me several years ago that sounds terrific. Great communication, and he’s happy to customize to make what you want. Great prices, too. (I have no affiliation, I’m just a happy customer).

And, as the others have said, there are a lot of off the shelf choices for humbuckers. You can probably find something that drops right in at any price point.

I concur with the opinions expressed above about Pete Bilcroft at Vintage Vibe. He made me a custom Strat-style rail pickup with flat, unradiused rails that I installed in a Studio Deluxe Fender. A truly excellent pickup; far superior to the stock Fender. Jerry Sentell's custom pickups are equally great.

Proper shielding of all cavities containing electronic components can make single coils nearly as quiet as humbuckers in most situations. Be sure to run a ground wire to the bridge, no matter which pickup you choose.

Thanks everyone. Some good choices there!
Yea, there's lots of humbucker choices out there, but not all are made with steel guitar in mind. Plus, the guitar is routed for a P-90, so unless I get a P-90 sized humbucker, I'll be doing some additional routing ( worth it for a cool pickup ).

A Firebird pickup or Gibson style Minihumbucker with the soap bar surround will fit right in the hole.

No problem using a George L's 10 string pickup on a 6-string lap steel. I do it all the time.

You could check with Sentell, they build to your specified string spacing etc. and cost just a fraction of a Lollar.