Rondo SX now w/P90

[Ron Whitfield]

http://www.rondomusic.com/lapproash3ts.html

Anyone here got one yet?

[Tom Cooper]

I bought the natural blonde one with p-90 and really like it. There is one thing, the p-90 sounds really good, but very weak output. I know that weak magnets were a trait of old pickups, but I'm really thinking of getting a hotter pickup. Still a great value for little over 100$ case included. I drag mine around all the time. Got it tuned to Bm7. After seeing Sol Hoopii playing an old Dickerson and sounding beautiful, I think I'll be fine on a cheap steel. The Rondo SX is one of the best low budget lap steels. I have 2 of them now. The old mahogany and the new swamp ash. Use them both to get a break from my D-8 A6/E13 tunings. Bm7 is cool because you can tune it straight G dobro, Duane Allman D, or even up to A6 if you have the right string gauges. Very useful these cheap lap steels! Just pickup and go.

[John D. Carter]

I bought an SX and wasn't too impressed with the original single coil. I put a single coil Eastwood vintage pickup (looks like a humbucker) in my SX. I like it. It has a lot of punch with great tone!

[Steve Ahola]

Tom:

I have had a lot of luck replacing the magnets in P-90 style pickups. I have replaced the Alnico 5 magnets in my PRS P-90's with Alnico 2 for a sweeter and warmer tone and they sound almost like a boutique pickup. (I picked up an assortment of humbucker magnets in Alnico 5, 2, 3 and 4, as well as ceramic just so I can experiment around with them.)

There is one caveat about the P-90 magnets. There are two magnets in each pickup and they are mounted so that the sides nearest the adjustment screws (and optional keeper) have the same polarity. It seems like they would be mutually repelled but that strong force of repulsion turns the adjustment screws into the opposite pole. So you have N-S-N or S-N-S, both of which are stable.

I suspect that the arrangement of magnets and pole pieces is responsible for many of the qualities of a P-90; pictures of metal filings showing the magnetic flux created by a P-90 are quite different from those of a PAF style or Fender style pickup.

As you might have guessed I really like P-90's a lot.

[Andrew Goulet]

Should be here in a few days. I'll let you know.

[Tom Cooper]

Thanks for the tips Steve. I am a hugh P-90 fan also. May leave the stock one alone for now, Kinda has a nice tone, just low output. Could always juice it with a box if I have to, but for now I am just enjoying the mellow tone. May put a beefier p/up later on, but now I am in the middle of another P-90 standard guitar project. I have a reissue Gibson Melody Maker with a screamin P-90 in it and I want to add a neck pos. tele p/u to get more variety and tones, esp for rhythm. It just a reissue and I want it more playable. Been called to play some elect. gtr in a band I play steel in also. Kinda fun to play electric gtr again after playing steel only for 5 yrs. I really like both my Rondo SX laps. I use them quite a lot. Best value in low end cat. If I wasnt tapped out I'd be checking out those new Stealth Gboards. Great value as well. TC

[Steve Ahola]

I got a Gibson reissue LP Jr in 2004 and tried every possible combination of magnets (even using a different one on each side) but ended up going back to the ceramic magnets (which I usually hate) because it gave me the best range of sounds and tones from the two controls. I don't know if their policy has changed but it seemed like Gibson didn't want people to know that they were using ceramic magnets in a lot of their P-90's (with ceramic being associated with hard rock).

Even cooler than the P-90 is the wide oval pickup with magnetic pole pieces that Gibson used in their late 40's Centuries and Ultratones, which used the same basic design as their Console Grande pickups. With the ferrous metal plate holding the bridge and the pickup it was almost like the metal baseplate on a tele bridge pu- but with a wider shorter coil. I'm surprised that no one seems to be using that design in their guitars.

Yes, those Stealths are great! I think that the next step up would be a Clinesmith... those things have me drooling! But until I win the lottery or rob a bank I am very happy with my Stealth. (A note to Washington: how about sending some of that stimulus money *our* way to support the lap steel builders- true entrepreneurs in every sense of the word!)

Steve

P.S. I see that Rondo is still using that adjustable wraparound bridge. I found it extremely difficult to change the strings because it was so close to the pickup. I am thinking about upgrading mine with a bridge fabricated out of angle iron* running the strings through the body. (StewMac has the ferrules that go on the top of the instrument.)

* see Jason Lollar's blog on hotrodding the Rogue EA-3's.

[Tom Cooper]

I actually have a Lil Roy Morrell with a Lollar Grande Console P/up and it is fat as hell. Just crazy! I will check out that blog as soon as I can.You are right. Cut through like a knife, but you can smoothe them out with tone knobs if you need.I find that I have to roll the tone off most new p/ups that are hot. I play a late 40's Consolettel with 8 string P-90's fantastic tone,but a little weak after 70yrs. I'm gonna leave them alone for now. May have them redone. I use a preamp mixer to play other instruments thru the Peavey Delta blues amp so I can boost it already. Luv to learn more about P-90 style p/ups. Thanks for the info. TC

[Steve Ahola]

I actually have a Lil Roy Morrell with a Lollar Grande Console P/up and it is fat as hell. Just crazy!

So the Lil Roy has the same string spacing as the Console Grande? I have two of the Morrell MJMP-6N's and the string spacing seems pretty tight.

On my Century you need to crack the tone control open just a tiny little bit- and that third control (treble pass) can sweeten the sound by removing some of the mids. I tried running the pickup straight into the amp bypassing the controls and it tore my ears off! I consider that an early form of noise reduction: by having to turn the tone control WAY down you also eliminate a lot of the noise of a single coil pickup. I was amazed that something so harsh and bright could be toned down to something really sweet and mellow (the distance between the string and the pole pieces made a big difference as well). I've attached the wiring diagram for my Century in case you want graft that circuit onto Lil Roy

[Tom Cooper]

My lil roy has really narrow string spacing. I would never buy one again, or any Morrell anything. They are glorified junk, but since I already had the damn thing I went ahead and got the hot pickup. It actually plays pretty good. Lil roys not as bad as new Morrells. They are really bad. Next time I will save up and just get something decent. Will talk to my tech about wiring. As a matter of fact, I have been wanting to set up the Consolette with wiring/caps/etc that would give me the boo wah sound, plus tone more like the Grande. Thanks for the diagram. Much appreciated. Will come in handy. I may not get to it right away, in the middle of recording project, but next year some time for sure. Would like to get boo wah sound with out volutone pedal.(another piece of crap). God I wish they made things like they used to. Or did they break down too? hahaha!

[Steve Ahola]

God I wish they made things like they used to. Or did they break down too? hahaha!

Well, the ones that were crap were probably thrown away and not passed down from one owner to the next over the years. Still I doubt that a lot of the crap made today will still be around in 10 years, let alone 20 or 40.
So do you have the Delta Blues with the single 15 or the two 10's? I just got my DB115 back yesterday from a friend I had loaned it to and I think it is one of the best production amps around for lap steel and maybe pedal steel as well.

[Alan Brookes]

I put palm levers on my original SX. It gives it a lot more flexibility and I can play a lot of pedal steel licks.


I wish they would make an 8-string version.

[Steve Ahola]

Wow! Did you fabricate those levers yourself, Alan? Amazing

[Alan Brookes]

No, Steve. It's the Duesenberg Multibender. Check out these threads...
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 5&start=75

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... o&start=25

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... deusenberg

It's a ten minute installation, most of which time is taken finding your tools.
In fact it takes longer to change the strings than to screw in the Multibender. Fortunately on the SX there's plenty of space. As an alternative you can fit a Hipshot Trilogy, which gives you instant retuning of any of the strings. Just make sure the bridge is in the same position or the fingerboard will be out.

You can't fit both the Trilogy and the Multibender to the same instrument. They wouldn't work together and there's not enough room even if they did.

[Alexa Gomez]

I got the SX P90 lap steel and really like it a lot. The P90 and Grover machine heads are similar to the ones in their Agile guitars, which I like a lot, too. So, I suppose I'll resist the urge to replace and just leave her stock, except for the bridge which I'm replacing with one without the saddles, which hurt my hand after a spell. Mine's sunburst and weighs a ton due to the swamp ash construction, so she sustains mightily. I'm currently running it into a Rocktron Surf Tremolo's three stages of compressor, tremolo, and noise gate which produces a lovely sound through my Pignose 7-100. Though I'd need someone to help me schlep this cutie to a gig, I think I'll keep her.