Supro/Oahu Lap Steel Pickup

Thanks Michael, for your speedy and informative reply. Much appreciated.

I've found your Dave King guitar page now, and very well hidden it was too!!

www.michaelmesser.co.uk/davekingreview.htm

I'm slightly concerned about the issue of the two Oahu coils being out of phase and then connecting another pickup to it.

Lollar says:

If you combine this pickup (typically installed in the bridge position) with a neck pickup or any other pickup in any position and you use both at once in combination half of the strings will be in phase and half will be out of phase.

This sounds like a very bad thing, even to my limited electrical understanding.

Does your Telecaster have a 'both pickups together' setting, so you can have the Oahu and the lipstick pickup working together (i.e. a 3 way selector)?

From the pictures, it looks like the hint of a 'toggle' (i.e a two way switch) but I can't be sure.

I've managed to 'pickup' (ouch) two of these Teisco Gold Foil beauties.



I think you can probably guess the rest of my plan...

Hi Michael (and all),

Another Michael here, and a newbie to your forum.

I have had a Supro/gold foil Strat project on the bench for a number of years, and would like to finish it. I have always found the tone of these instruments to be fascinating, especially having played the Supro as a lap steel many years ago (courtesy of a lifelong enjoyment of David Lindley's and Ry Cooder's collaborations). Reminiscences aside, I would like to get a final product while I am still young and nimble, so I have some questions...

Where I stopped my project is at the electronics stage. No problems with acquiring parts or the overall build. All of that has gone smoothly. I patterned my efforts after a typical Tele wiring diagram - tone, volume, three-way switch - and most of the soldering-related work has been straightforward. However, I am stumped by how to address the Supro .05 MFD wax capacitor that is situated between the pots. In your experience, does this need to somehow stay connected as it was originally built? Or does it need to be moved, checked for worthiness, replaced, or what exactly? I have always feared losing tone by replacing any of these original parts, because the original lap steel I scavenged everything from (a "lavishly appointed" 1954 brown MOTS Supro) worked perfectly, and had the most amazing tone and sustain you can imagine.

I also see that you do not mix the two pu's when you play, and being personally familiar with the tone of both the Supro and the gold foil, I can certainly understand that concept. However with the philosophy of never building a "can't" into a project if you don't have to, what about using a blender pot instead of a three-way switch? That way, I would still be able to play each pu individually, and if I wanted to combine at varying levels (even if I don't know why I would want to do this), I could. Obviously if that is an option, a whole new set of questions arises, but we'll deal with those if this first idea has any merit.

Peace, thanks and great forum!

Michael T

i989.photobucket.com/albums/af16/leeophonic/coodercaster/Godinpickupchange022.jpg

This is my lollar powered guitar, with a blend between the two pickups as opposed to the switching option, cannot recommend Jason & his pickups enough, he also makes the horseshoe again much to Rickenbackers annoyance(I hate it when companies pull the copyright card and yet have no intention of offering the option themselves aka Dobro!)

Regards

Lee

Leeophonic - I love that clip, it really makes me smile, thanks for posting it.