8 String Tele Style Pickups

[Tom Pettingill]

Thought some of the Tele fans might get a kick out of this. I'm building a 8 string lap steel and wanted a set of Tele style pickups for it. Lots of great 8 string steel pickups out there, not so much in Tele style, so I ordered up some magnets, fiberboard and jumped in head first. The flatwork was not too bad, but it took a bit of head scratching to figure out what I wanted to do for a neck cover.
I'm not going to do the winding though, I'll leave the rest to the pros.

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[Mightyaxeman]

Hey Tom what does the new lap-steel look like? Those pickups are beautiful.

[Tom Pettingill]

Thanks, it was fun putting them together. Here is a rough idea where its heading, 24" scale, swamp ash body, figured black walnut drop top, and birdseye maple neck.

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[Mark Davis]

Fender Stringmaster pickups would work but dont have the std tele way of mounting like the bridge pickup you made.

Good job on those pickups.

[Tom Pettingill]

Thanks Mark! ... I thought about some Stringmaster pickups and also some of the Vintage Vibe CC's, but in the end wanted something different for this one. The project was originally conceived as a 6 string with Tele pups and figured I'd go for broke and give it a go.

[Mark Davis]

Originally Posted by Tom Pettingill

Thanks Mark! ... I thought about some Stringmaster pickups and also some of the Vintage Vibe CC's, but in the end wanted something different for this one. The project was originally conceived as a 6 string with Tele pups and figured I'd go for broke and give it a go.

You did great be sure and post pics of the finished project.

Ive been playin lap steel almost 40 years now started in 71 love it.

[Tom Pettingill]

Thanks Mark, I'll definitely post up some pics when I get her done.

Ive been playin lap steel almost 40 years now started in 71 love it.

It is a great instrument and a ton of fun. I'm not much of a player, but enjoy building them. There are some mic pics of my steels at this Photobucket page http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn87/tompettingill/

[Tom Pettingill]

As promised, here she is and I am extremely pleased with how she came out, both in looks, but more importantly her voice.
I had Bryan Gunsher at BG-Pups do the winding and he nailed the tones I was shooting for first time, I would not change a thing!
The tone is is everything I had hoped and imagined, crisp, clear, airy and articulate, sweet and smooth with a sexy bite. With a little gain she pushes the amp and has a killer overdriven tone.

And a recap of some specs:
24" scale
modern 3/8" string spacing
chambered swamp ash with a feathered black walnut top.
black walnut neck with birdseye maple fretboard and head cap.
4 way rotary switching
matching knobs and pickup rings
string through set bridge with a phosphor bronze saddle
Grover Rotomatics

This one is kind of hard to get captured in pics, but here are a few that didn't come out too bad.

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[LarryM]

Beautiful!! - Very Danelectro looking....
What is the tuning?

[Tom Pettingill]

Thanks Larry ... its setup in a C6 variant with a D on top, low to high A-C-E-G-A-C-E-D