Telonics Pickups - I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink!

[Ken Byng]

The Telonics 34 PW pickup looks like a mixture of the Lawrence 705 (the best steel guitar pickup I've heard personally) and the Tonealigner. The Telonics 84 looks very much like the Tonealigner.

Mark - thanks for demo'ing the pickup. As with all things electronic, it pays to try things out first before buying. The Alumitone pickup received a lot of press when it came out, and guys were buying it and putting it in their guitars (with difficulty in some cases). A number of these have taken them out again because they were too bright sounding. If you don't have a bad sound, then without trying something first you could be disappointed if it doesn't deliver what you want.

As an example, Lloyd would not be prised away from his beloved Lawrence 710 pickup, and loves its warmth and all round clarity. He gets offered all sorts of freebies, but sticks with what he likes best including his Sho~Bud guitar, Fender amp and Sho~Bud volume pedal. He still gets a wonderful tone from his relatively old fashioned kit.

Having said that, the Telonics products are all very well put together and work extremely well. Quality always has a market.

[Mark]

Thanks for posting a reply Ken. Re. the Alumitone; I guess you could equally argue the George L's E66 and Wallace True Tone both started out as retrofit pickups and were successful, so much they were adopted by some steel guitar builders as their stock pickup.

What impresses me is the extent Dave tests his product. In his development section he has really nice guitar built by Frank Carter - builder of Infinity Steel Guitars. The pickup area of the guitar has been modified to allow rapid pickup changing. You can change a pickup in about 5 seconds. The test pickups are mounted on an aluminum plate that slides rapidly in and out of the test guitar. As well as his own pickups he has a range of stock pickups ready mounted on a test plate. As I played, Stacy Beaty would change pickups so I could hear the difference.

After about two or three hours of testing I arrived at a choice of pickup that I thought was superior to anything I tried. As I did this, Stacy noted my comments and the number on the pickup. At this point Dave stopped the test and we all went out for lunch. I thought that was it! After lunch he asked me to repeat the test again.... he was interested to see if I would select the same pickup again He has done this same test with many other players, and some big name players.

In the test room you can play tracks from your MP3 player, you can use a Telonics rig through just about any speaker combination you wish, he even has an old Fender valve amp in there. Before you start the test Dave helps you get a good sound out of your own guitar and you can play as loud as you wish. The whole process is about creating a real situation type test, under controlled conditions, so the results can be evaluated fairly.

The whole day was quite an experience...

Mark

[Ken Byng]

I have often felt that the MSA facility to change pickups is something that should have been universally adopted. There are situations where a humbucking pickup would be called for, and others where a single coil would be preferable. To be able to slip a pickup in and out almost instantly is absolutely ideal for making an on the spot assessment between product A and product B (or even D, C and E).

It is great that in these recessionary times there are still companies around like Telonics that are prepared to put in R&D resources into steel guitar products. It is after all, a relatively niche market.

Now if someone could only develop a noisless single coil pickup for pedal steel.

[Mark]

Now if someone could only develop a noiseless single coil pickup for pedal steel.

I'd say Telonics already have that nailed..... The effects of making a pickup humbucking or not, and the affect that it has on the sound are relatively easy to compensate for in the overall pickup equation

Mark

[Mark]

Dave Beaty has written a pickup "Installation and Usage Information" guide.

It's quite interesting and gives you and insight into the work they have done.

http://www.tpa-az.com/page7.htm Scroll down the page and click "here".

An extract from Dave's text:
"we developed special test and manufacturing equipment and defined some twelve (12) critical electrical characteristics necessary to make repeatability possible (none of them were DC resistance by the way)"

Dave also warns: "that if mis-adjusted, the Type 34 and Type 151 can produce excessively cutting highs!" This is what I inferred in my last post; to achieve a single coil sound a pickup doesn't need to be single coil. A single coil traditionally sounds bright and lively because it's charateristics make it so. There is no reason a humbucking pickup can't be made that has similar characteristics. This is part of what Telonics have done.

Mark

[Basil Henriques]

So, what's the current price of a 409-PWT (Wide Base Ten String) please ?




CLICK THIS to view my tone bars and buy——>

[Mark]

Hi Baz

Apologies for missing your post on the Forum... Friday the 13th... I don't know how I missed it!

I see on another post you've picked up a pickup

If you need anything you can contact via email - [email protected] - That's one of my daily pickups.

Best regards
Mark

PS - Heard you were at Pontins Nr Lowestoft last weekend. Three steelies on stage! Great stuff

[Basil Henriques]

Hello Mark, I don't know why the SGF link didn't work for you, I get notifications daily ?
The pickup I've got came to me by way of a barter for a couple of tone bars from a guy in Thailand, it's brand new; but I am happy with the PF1 on my stage Emmons and my TV Emmons has the George L's 10-5's which I definitely won't change. So I'm left with a pickup I don't need..

The gig last weekend was fun, but all that way just to play for an hour, we had to leave home at 06:00am to get there in time to do a sound check, we went on at 14:00 and were home at 22:30.: A long day, little play but good pay.

Had a good chat with both of the other steelies there, I've known Martin Cleary since forever, but the other guy I've never met before.
Hope you are keeping well, Pat and I send you and yours all of our best wishes,

Respectfully
Basil
BTW I'm selling the pickup and a couple of Fender volume pedals to raise money to buy a Telonics volume pedal hopefully.

[Mark]

Okay on that.
Let me know when you're thinking of buying your pedal, there's a few options to consider.
Best
Mark