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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on January 9, 2015 at 5:48am

I've built a few lap steels, and happy to see another member doing the same. Pickup choices are a tough one. Especially when comparing price vs. sound. The silver lining is that if you don't like one, you can try another.

Also, if a single coil doesn't do it for you, a humbucker might do the trick. But one thing to consider is where the pickup will be positioned. Near the bridge will result in a tight, bright overall sound. Further forward, say at the spot that would be similar to a neck position on a regular guitar, will have a fuller warmer sound overall.

Phrygian Kid made a great observation about pickup location regarding the "neck" position. The sweet spot would be where the 24th fret would be. So, if you're building a lapsteel with a standard lap scale of 22.5", a pickup in the sweet neck position would be 16.875" from the nut. If you are planning on a 2 octave fretboard, then just past the 24th fret is good too.

On a longer scale, say 25.5", the sweet spot is 19.125" from the nut.

Look forward to seeing the lapsteel when its finished.

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on January 9, 2015 at 8:50am

thnx mate. :)

another consideration with steel guitars is sustain.  Most steels from when they were at their peak in popularity (1940s-50s) had specially designed pickups rather than just using a repurposed guitar pickup (which at the time would have been a rarer commodity at any rate)

You see the magnet in a guitar pickup kills sustain, leeches energy from the moving string.  some of the most desirable, collectable steels had pickups which the string went through rather than over, so that the magnets were pulling the string up just as much as down, consider this ricky 'horseshoe' pup

or this supro one, which is what Ry Cooder famously put on his 'CooderCaster', Jason Lollar makes a repro of these (which is what this one, in bridge pos is)

finally consider my personal fav, the fender 'trap', trapezoidal pickup, I got three of these on my '48 triple custom, and a spare 8 string one in my drawer (not for sale sorry) for me this is the 'holy grail' of guitar pickups although they are a little flimsy in construction (the bobbin is waxed paper)

I made one once, it was quite successful and one of my favourite builds, but quite a bit of work.  Hopefully i'll get into some more sometime/  I used veneer wrapped around a couple of dowels or bolts or something for the bobbin

Another thing you'll quickly notice about steel guitars is the pickup is usually very close to the bridge, often even closer than the bridge pickup on a tele or strat or whatever.  The closer it is to the end of the string the less the capacity of the magnet to steal sustain (at the expense of power, everythings a tradeoff of course, like anything else)

So, to answer your question...

any guitar pickup will work, no problem.

But ideally you want to look for one which is overwound, but with weaker magnets.  You might get a couple of cheap chinese stratties, wire em into series for a 'supercoil', bust the magnets off the bottom, pot em in wax or epoxy, then try to fit them inside a 'box' or tube of sheet steel (cross section of hollow rectangle section steel, thin,  like roof guttering stuff etc)  (and in such a way that the strings can pass through this tube as well, just above the coil..) and snap one of the magnets back onto that steel tube..

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