What are your opinoins on the best drop in single coil pickup for the Rondo lap steel. Thanks for your help!
What pickup size drops into it, strat, tele, minibucker?
What sound are you looking for?
What does the circuit comprise of? ie 3 way>Volume>Tone
Do you want vintage spec, modern or have no preference?
I have heard that swapping out the stock pup for a telecaster pup works. Seymour Duncan has many to choose. in fact, he makes a vintage tele pickup that works pretty well. I have built a few lap steels and used them. they have beautiful clear clean tones and with the right amp or overdrive pedal they sound awesome.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/specialized/specialized-instruments/1103445_1950_la/
Only strat pickups are a dropin fit. Any suggestions, and thanks for your help! Would be nice if they made one of those Antiquitys for the strat.
Thanks Dogbite, that one should do!
Personaly I like the sound of the P90's in the lap steels. Not sure if anyone makes a strat sized one that sounds like it though. Will need mods to fit a normal one.
Paul B
There are lots of guys doing a P-90 style strat pickup. I haven't built or played one - but involves replacing the rod mags you'd have in a normal strat single coil and using adjustable pole pieces over a bar mag below the coil. Sort of like the cheaper ceramic pickups you find on import and student strats. In fact, I saw a guy who was converting the coil from those ceramic pickups into P'90 types. You could get that grittier P-90 jangle by fitting a steel or copper plate under a normal single coil if you were so inclined. It's cheap and reversible, I've seen a lot of guys do it. Callaham, Lollar, GFS and Fralin all offer the plates as many others do as well, I'm sure.
realy?? ive never heard of that. I might just give that a shot. I have the strat pickup in my lap steel, and its a tick low.... and I do a lot of fab work so I have lots of steel, tin, oddball metals also.. How thick are they? Thin like a pice of sheet metal, or thicker like a piece of strap steel??
Paul B
? 1/16 maybe.
