So my wife got me a '50s lap steel for Christmas. It sounds awesome, but the pickup is wrong. Someone replaced the stock pickup with what looks like a dogear P-90. Again, I love the sound, but the polepieces don't line up under the strings, and the highest string (D-I have it tuned to open D) is weak. Does anyone make a P-90 with a blade polepiece? Should I look at Tele/Fender Champion style pickups? Thanks.
what brand lap steel? how many strings?
lollar makes pickups wound specifically for steel. But you can use almost anything on a six string lap.
my national has some unknown humbucker and my old fender has a tele pickup.
Heres lollars stuff
http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=steel-guitar-pickups (http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=steel-guitar-pickups)
Thanks, Chovie. I was hoping you'd chime in. It's a Silvertone made by Harmony. It original had a P-13 pickup which was made by Gibson for Harmony, but I guess someone yanked the pickup and the wiring harness and replaced it. Six strings, just your basic mid-50s student lap steel. I've been looking at Lollar's Chicago Steel 6 pickup, but I wasn't looking to spend $$$$$. I'm sure it sounds great, though.
Nice. Those old silvertones can sound and look great.
I'd probably try to just find something relatively inexpensive that was a guaranteed fit.
tele pickup or something?
The lollar steel pickups are more for corksniffers, restorationists, and guys with more than 6 strings.
I once had a vintage steel pickup rewound for me and it only cost $20 or so.
You might wanna see if that P90 is vintage and worth rewinding too?
to be honest i dont know alot about pickups.
steel pickups are supposedly wound a little hotter than guitar pickups whatever that means.
have fun, sounds like its gonna be a fun axe
The Charlie Christian style pickups are bladed. Here's the Seymour Duncan, but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/products/custom_shop/other_pickups/charlie_c_repro.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/custom-shop/specialized-1/charlie_christa/&usg=__jAKC-LN8McsLBmMx6CYSJBeq4Gc=&h=300&w=600&sz=70&hl=en&start=15&sig2=TvVxb3NtfoNVOaYVDXQGdQ&zoom=1&tbnid=yJcIR0A018hWLM:&tbnh=68&tbnw=135&ei=S_H4TpPxDIiziQL_sLXCDg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcharlie%2Bchristian%2Bpickup%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1
Ah, here are some less expensive CC-stylee pickups:
http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/windows/sc_ccWin.html