TelecasteRy Cooder inspired lap steel pickup

Tele-scopic · March 2023

I bought a Mojo lap steel pickup from @paulnb57 just before last christmas and have only just put a guitar together to try it out! It was a sunny morning so I thought I'd take some pictures even though it is not fully set up.

Image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9wqyo4gbycokhom/lapsteeltele1.jpg?raw=1

The neck is a vintage tele neck from Northwest Guitars - in my fairly limited experience I think it is meant to be a fat 50's. The body is a cheap thing off E-bay made from Paulownia - I sanded it to 240 grit and then gave it a couple of light coats of boiled linseed oil as an experiment. Even though I say it myself I'm really pleased with the results - the grain seems to be darkening each day.

Image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u0zsh19qs8erth7/lapsteelteleback1.jpg?raw=1

I wired it to the Eldred specification as recommended by @paulnb57 and I was really pleased to find that James' House of Tone had a guide and also made buying the 2 capacitors required really easy. I was getting a bit confused by both caps being a value containing 47 and at least one zero bigger or smaller. Pico, micro, kilo, acre? I dunno.

Fitting the pickup itself just needed 4 extra small drill holes in the body. Thanks to Marc of Mojo who cleared up a small technical issue for me. @paulnb57 very kindly also sent me three pickguards with the space for the large pickup already cut out. If I feel creative in the future I could try adding a single coil or a humbucker in the neck position.

All I need to do now is learn how to play slide.