Tele Bridge Pickup For Lap Steel

Nomad

I'd welcome comments from those that know of such things...

I want to make the pickup for my lap steel project, and I have bits for a Tele bridge pickup. I'm looking for something that's sweet, fairly mellow, and with decent bass. Bright and twangy isn't really what I'm after. Not sure how much output is feasible with a single coil, but leaning towards a bit of drive into a lowish gain valve amp would be nice as long as it cleans up with the volume backed off. (Amps are Fender Blues Deluxe and Laney Cub 10 - both lean towards mild overdrive. Heavier crunch will be with a pedal.)

The guitar will have a scale length of 530mm, and the pickup will be perpendicular to the strings. The current intended position is pickup centre at 80mm from the bridge, although this could be changed a bit. The guitar is made of meranti (similar to mahogany). Nut and bridge will likely be machined brass.

Been doing some reading, and it seems that the early Fender lap steels - the Deluxe 6 in particular - used Alnico 2 and had about 8350 turns of 42 gauge wire. I don't know what the metal baseplate was, or even if they had one. I have a choice of steel or brass baseplates. The pickup will be mounted on a plastic scratch plate.

My thoughts at present...

Alnico 2 magnets, 42 gauge wire, about 9000 turns. Not sure about baseplate, but understand that the steel one will bring the resonant peak down a bit, so I think it's a case of experiment. Not sure about winding, vis scatter or uniform, but I'm leaning towards scatter on the assumption that the number of turns with a uniform wind might compromise the treble too much.

Am I on the right track?

Jimbro66

I can offer a few comments but you have clearly done your research so I may be adding nothing new. You mentioned the Deluxe 6 and I do have a Deluxe 8 so have some experience of their sound.

Firstly, as you've probably found, most the Deluxe/Stringmaster pickups do use Alnico 2 and respected replacements like the SD Antiquity Stringmaster also do. Alnico 3 is another possibility to consider for the sound you describe. It's a long time since I opened up my Deluxe but I don't recall the pickups having Tele-type base plates.

You'll know that the Deluxe has two closely positioned pickups with a blend control under the bridge cover. I find that using a single pickup, particularly the one nearest the bridge, does not give a particularly full sound so I amost always use the blend control to mix the outputs and fill out the sound. That does not give the sugar-sweet sound you get from combining pickups in a Tele, which are much farther apart, but just a fuller sound. The other advantage is that the two pickups combined can be hum-cancelling if wound appropriately.

I don't know if you know but some years ago Melobar produced a lap steel, the Teleratt, that had Telecaster pickups. It was meant to appeal to Tele players who wanted a constant tone when moving between guitar and slide. I don't know if it sold well but you may find some sound samples on the net (if you haven't already) to give you an idea how your single Tele pickup might sound.

As far as wire gauge and number of turns are concerned why not take a look at the descriptions of the Oil City Tele-style pickups or, maybe, get Ash to make one to achieve the sound you have in mind  -  unless you'd really prefer to build your own. Perhaps a slightly over-wound pickup to provide enough output to overdrive your amp without sounding fizzy? - bearing in mind that the vintage spec pickups weren't designed with overdrive in mind.

Good luck
Jim

Nomad

Went with the 9000 turns of 42 gauge (too keen). It measures 6.62K.

Nomad

'Scuse the short reply earlier - was just off to pot the pickup.

I notice the Antiquity one didn't look like it had a baseplate. At the moment, the screws I have fit the steel plate, but the ones in the brass plate are bigger, so I'll assemble it with the steel for now (until I can get some suitable M4 screws for the brass one). I recon brass should be fairly close to no plate given that it's non-magnetic.

I considered two pickups for a while (and rwrp for humbucking), but decided to go with one to keep things relatively simple. I've never made any sort of guitar before, and this is only my second attempt at a pickup. As a build project, I'd much rather make the pickup (it was this on the horizon ages ago that led to me making bits to adapt my lathe to work as a pickup winder). Aside from that, the slide instrument challenge has a spend limit of £100, and buying one would likely blow the budget. And making your own is good fun anyway.

It wasn't really about Tele style pickups per-se - I just happened to have flatwork and bits for Tele pickups. I don't generally like bright, jangly sounds on guitar, so it was more about using the same construction but deviating a little from the norm to hopefully get something a bit smoother. Time will tell...

chickenbonejohn

Don't over-think it.  Tele pickups work fine in a lap steel. Using a budget telecaster bridge and pickup is an easy way into making a lap steel.

Nomad

chickenbonejohn said:

Don't over-think it.  Tele pickups work fine in a lap steel. Using a budget telecaster bridge and pickup is an easy way into making a lap steel.

Yeah, already made. Details here...

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/65975/nomad-s-lap-steel-build