Taming the low strings on my Oahu Tonemaster

[Mark Evans]

Picked up one of the earlier Oahu Tonemasters in the last week to diversify my primarily Weissenborn lap steel cohort. Loving the vintage bark of this slider, and slowly figuring how to work it.

I put a mishmash set of nickel John Pearse lap steel strings on it, tuned to E/E7.

One quirk is the low end strings really BARK (I.e. loud, rumbly) vs the treble end. A but unbalanced, forcing a lot of muting on straigh bar chords. Right hand tech may resolve this… but I’m wondering if anyone else has encountered this? I’m wondering if phosphor bronze string on the bass side might soften the tone spectrum? Obviously these sweet old pickups don’t have adjustable poles.

Any help is much obliged
Mark E
Denver, CO

[Allan Revich]

You might try going lighter on the bass strings and heavier on the treble strings—within practical limits of course. Also, if you can adjust the pickup height you can try that, especially if it’s possible to raise one side higher than the other.

[Steve Lipsey]

INo picture so hard to tell..
Is this one with a pickup cover, and if so have you looked under the cover to see how the pickup is sitting?

[Mark Evans]

INo picture so hard to tell..
Is this one with a pickup cover, and if so have you looked under the cover to see how the pickup is sitting?

It is the earlier version with the wood block handrest. Back panel does come off and there are PU adjustment screws.. I spent a bit more time tweaking it and did get a slightly better balance.

I do note this: in a random effort to balance it/tone down the bass end, I mounted phosphor bronze strings oin the 4th and 6th. The gauges are essentially are correct for an open E set… BUT the 5th (a nickel wound string from John Pearse) definitely projects way more volume.

(I’m awaiting delivery of some JP and SIT nickel wound lap sets)