The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello ladies and gentlemen: I have a bottom line Slingerland Maybelle that I like a lot. Two things are odd: The cord is directly attached to the pickup; I've never seen that before on any instrument. Should I get it retrofitted for a quarter inch plug-in? I'm afraid of ruining the original work. It's probably 60 years old or so.
I'm getting ocasional distortion in my amp, are the volume controls just dirty? It has two volume controls.
Thanks!

It's not that uncommon to see a lap steel with a built-in cord. If you are having problems with the cord, you could have it replaced, but I would recommend against modifying the guitar if it's working well for you now.
Distortion in your amp could be from many things, but usually not from a volume potentiometer (unless the distortion to which you're referring is crackling because of a dirty pot).

------------------
Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars