Pickup recommendation, please

My mate has an SX lap steel and was mumbling about selling a heap of stuff to buy a Fender lappy.

I told him it's only a piece of 4x2 with a set of tuners on one end and a bridge at the other so the only real difference apart from the name will be the quality of the pup.

Current pup is a P90, so the options are a better P90 or a coil tapped bucker.

Style wise we play country and 56 style rock & roll so we want predominantly clean with a bit of grit occasionally.

He plays it through Digitec multi effects pedal and a Hartke bass amp which does sound really nice.

If it was mine I'd probably leave it as it is but he has a nagging belief that it could be better.

So over to the masses, some recommendations please that preferably don't require routing which I can do but would prefer not to because it would be irreversible.

There are a lot of people who think a p90 is the best pickup ever made. Cheapest might be to swap out the magnets for alnico. Better might be to get a better P90.


If noise is an issue I guess you could put a mini-HB in without much mod. Wilkinson makes a bunch that I have heard good things about.


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Hi Dave, after many years of owning a Gibson Les Paul, I have become a recent convert to P90's and am in the "best ever made" camp, so I am biased. I'd stick with a P90.

I have been really happy with my Tonerider P90's but on a whim I put a Lollar as a single pickup in my LP Jnr. Although Lollar come very highly recommended, in reality (to my very old and much abused ears) there seems to be little difference in tone between the Lollar and the Toneriders, but the Lollar has slightly more sustain. The Lollar certainly has better "Street Cred" than the TR's but at twice the price I will probably stick with the TR's for now.

I have a single coil in my 50's Maton Lap Steel and that thing honks, its an old Fender style single.

Is it the dog ear or the stock P90? probably could flick the magnets and smooth it out a little with some A5, remembering there are good ceramic pickups just as their are bad Alnico ones.

I know some of the SX pickups are pretty lifeless, but the cost of these guitars and lap steels, they arnt expensive, so i dont see the point of putting $100 pickup in a $100 guitar. Having said that i took the bridge P90, (very bright and bighty) out of my Agile 2200 JR and put a Rory Gallagher made by Kent Armstrong in the bridge and it transformed it, but they cost alot.

I would recommend one of these, they get a good rap.
http://www.guitarfetish.com/P90-Guit...kups_c_83.html

+1 for the GFS P90's. I use the dog-ear version in my LP Jnr builds. Considering the price very good value and not too different (to my ear...) to the dog ear P90's in my Epi Casino

i am another vote for upgrading the p90.
however, unlike Tony (who has a good point) , i think that just because it is an inexpensive guitar that the pups should be too, or that it is wasteful to put expesive ones in. (no disrespect tony, just a different view, you are a great contributor)
put in the ones in that sound they way you want. many a cheapie axe has been transformed by better pups. that said if an inexpensive option gives you what you are looking for then get those

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stan

i am another vote for upgrading the p90.
however, unlike Tony (who has a good point) , i think that just because it is an inexpensive guitar that the pups should be too, or that it is wasteful to put expesive ones in. (no disrespect tony, just a different view, you are a great contributor)
put in the ones in that sound they way you want. many a cheapie axe has been transformed by better pups. that said if an inexpensive option gives you what you are looking for then get those

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No offence taken Stan, everyone has their own views and these are always respected, but the GFS for under $50 should do a very good job instead of paying $100+.

I for one are guilty your honour of putting very expensive parts in cheap bodies, many times, and will do it again, then again its my money as is it anyone elses hard earned to spend as they want. I just try and give people an alternative thats up there construction wise without the cost. A lot of the time i am dealing with people with not alot of money, school kids, musos etc and they want to put a million bucks into a cheap guitar when the alternative is to tame it down a bit and put the money saved toward what they really want in the long run, the amount of time i do myself out of a winding job because i am trying to save people their hard earned, i must be an idiot sometimes, but that just me.

I can wind him a P90 to his spec if he wanted, i can wind anything anyone wants, i even have a new tin of mojo dust, but i cant compete price wise with the mass produced Chinese pups etc, and some of them do a really good job, haha maybe i need to get some made for me to my specs for 99cents a pop ;) like Duncan Designed or the likes.

On a side note the Koreans make some really good pickups.

agreed there Tony , if the GFS ones are inexpensive and sound good, then they are certainly worth the consideration...

that is why this forum rocks: compared to many others, there can be a respectful exchange of different ideas and no one gets flamed

some good advice on this thread. Really it's up to the owner of the lap steel to experiment with other pickups to get the sound he wants. The GFS P90's sound like good value

Thanks for the feedback guys, it's a dog ear P90 in there at the moment which makes a bucker a bit more problematic.

I have GFS pups in my PBH-4 and am quite happy with them, but then again it's not my ears that have to be happy so I'll see what I can find in the way of sound clips for him.

Just thinking on my feet a bit, I have a Tele bridge pup sitting on the shelf so I'll knock up a stainless plate to mount it where the P90 is so Bob can try that before we start spending money.

He's a pensioner with limited funds so I'm trying to keep costs down, also have an HB option we could try but that will require routing which is last resort