pickups used in early fender lap steel guitars

I was told everything is original, including the pickup, and I trust the seller who is a well known dealer here in Las Vegas.īased on the Clarostat pots (w/ blue stamp code), I've been able to date it to late 52 or early 53 and the bridge SN is 2893, so I lean more on the 1952 side.Īlso, the tuners have the flat head screws and I read that the 52's mixed flat head screws on some parts and Phillips on the bridge and cover, etc.

It is an early 50's Champion lap steel with the pearloid molded finish and included an alligator case and a cool vintage Stevens AP&M bar slide. Hi, new to the SD Forum or any forum really, but decided to join as I have some questions related to my recent purchase of a Fender lap steel. With regards to the lap steel pickup I just rewound, it was originally connected to a circuit where the 6 numeric EIA pot codes were read and decoded.

What 'fat tone' means to one person is the same as one man's ceiling is another man's floor, I do believe. So, the elemental dogma for passive transducers is, the more coil wire around the bobbin, the more output and the more midrange perceived. Or more turns of thicker wire for even more 'fat' treble tone. Another route to take is by using thicker coil wire. To me, 'fat' treble tone simply means more midrange that was created by increasing the coil wire turn count around a specific bobbin. It's kinda like attempting to define the color purple to a person blind from birth. To each their own, there are no rules, no standards, no generalized 'best' of anything other that what tickles yer fancy.Īs most of us know, it's quite difficult if not impossible to put sound/tone into adjectives that make empirical sense. We preferred the 'fatter' sound of well wound pickups and abhorred the screechy 'icepick ear bleed' 'underwound' ones. These differences are all good and in keeping with Leo's business plan - make a good product and profit. Over the 50s and into the mid 60s, Dad and I observed Many variations of Leo's 1950 to 1964 electric Spanish guitar bridge pickup metered resistance, rod magnet composition (A5 cobalt or A3 copper), diameter, and lengths. To a good degree, this can be borne out by perusing Nacho's 'The Blackguard' tome and reviewing data collected about dozens of Fender pickups. įrom my observations that date back to 1953 when I was a tot and Dad began building acoustic and electric guitars, and with regards to the pickups that Fender stuck in their guitars, basses, and lap steels, there was/is no very specific Leo Fender 'standard' for pickup build with regards to rod magnets used, bobbin coil wire gauge, and most importantly the coil wire turn count and coil wire winding tension. An awesome pickup with lots of true vintage Fender vibe. īobbin wound counter-clockwise with 43AWG coil wire, new leads soldered on, magnets recharged North top, black string wrap wound around the coil wire, light wax potting (75% paraffin wax, 25% pure beeswax), ready to make that great lap steel or Tele/Esquire music. īobbin cleaned and sanded, magnets tape wound for added insulation. Ĭoil wire (looks like FormVar) stripped off and a naked bobbin that had been lacquered for magnet insulation. Notice the white of the string showing through the black wax coating. The Spin Doctor confirms A5 rod magnets and North top polarity.

Notice the black coloring on the yellow hot lead - that's the black wax Fender used for pickup potting, and it also shows how deep the pickup was suspended in the wax pot (not much). This will make a very fine classic 1950 Tele or Esquire bridge pickup, screwed right into the body and using a half Tele vintage bridge, or the basis for an excellent lap steel guitar retrofit or build.

'Average' is a key word as the amount of coil wire going around any 1950 Fender pickup bobbin was highly subjective to say the least! To insure a bit fatter treble I wound to 8.1K resistance for 2.32H inductance. I stripped the bobbin, cleaned it, insulated the rod magnets with tape, rewound with 43AWG coil wire (counter-clockwise), added new leads, recharged the magnets (top north), wrapped the bobbin with black string, light wax potted.įender Lap Steel pickups used A5 rod magnets and with 43 wire the coils averaged 7.6K resistance with an average of 2.13H inductance. The coil wires going to the eyelets and leads were fine. Arrived yesterday and did some testing - there is/was a definite open inside the coil.

Pickups used in early fender lap steel guitars