Here's a shot of my two lap steels. My problem is with the pickup in the guitar on the left - my '35. Over the last 80 years, the strings have worn away the pole pieces and worn grooves into the bobbin itself. The magnets are the horseshoes - the polepieces are probably just steel slugs. All of the strings sound real strong except for what would be a G string on a normal guitar. In open E tuning, it's a G#. The polepiece for the G# string is worn down almost completely. So the G# string sounds weak. And I can't raise the pickup on the treble side without what's left of the E & B polepieces hitting the strings. So I'm thinking of disassembling this 1935 pickup and grinding what's left of the polepieces down flush - like they are in my '38 pickup. I also have a 1938 Ricky lap steel, the guitar on the right, and the polepieces in its pickup are flat - flush with the bobbin. They were never raised in the first place I guess. It sounds great. Here's the pickup that needs work: Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!
Fralin's a good choice. I'd also consider Curtis Novak, who's apparently worked on quite a variety of vintage pickups. How can this happen in the first place? Wouldn't the string be muted by the pickup while it was grinding through the poles?
Thanks for the replies! I'm thinking of asking Lindy to take a look at it. Jason says on his website that he's no longer doing repairs. As for how the damage happened, it must have been played for a long time by someone who didn't think to adjust the pickup down so that the strings weren't rattling away on the polepieces. Doesn't seem like you could even make music with the strings buzzing against the polepieces but that's what it looks like happened. The guitar is otherwise in great condition. Thanks again!
Call Skip Goez in St Louis 314/647-1211. He has the original polepieces for that pickup and can repair yours.
Thanks! I might give him a call. But I took my own advice and was able to improve it quite a bit. I loosened the treble strings and got them up and out of the way and then took took a small flat file that was thin enought to fit between the top surface of the bobbin and the underside of the top horseshoe magnet, and filed down what was remaining of the "E" & "B" pole pieces. Then, I was able to adjust the whole coil on the treble side closer to the strings and now I'm getting a fatter tone from all three strings. I may take it apart just to do a cleaner and more complete job in the future but it already sounds a lot better. I've always thought that Strat pickups with flat poles had a fatter sound than those with the same magnet and wind but with raised poles. Duncan SSL-2 vs. SSL-1 pickups for example. Today's experiment with the '35 Ricky sure bore that out.
Check out Rick Aiello on the Steel Guitar Forum - he kinda specializes in building and repairing these old horseshoe pickups.
How you doing buddy? Good to see you here. Actually, Seymour has worked on this very pickup. It was dead and Seymour was kind enough to rewind it for me but I didn't ask him to correct the polepiece issues. The shot of me holding it was taken right after I got it back from Seymour and before I installed it back into the guitar. He did a great job rewinding it but I should have thought to ask him to fix the worn polepieces too. In any case, I fixed them myself and played it a bunch last night - it sounds excellent! Almost identical to the one in my '38, now that I've filed down the poles in this '35 pickup to match the flat poles that appear to be stock in my '38 Ricky pickup. I like my old Supro a lot too, but these 30's Rickenbackers are my favorites. I very much appreciate the suggestions as to resources. I think I've fixed the problem though.
