Supro needs some love

[Adam Laye]

I recently picked up what appears to be a 57 Supro lap steel. You can probably imagine how excited I am about this find - it plays and sounds way better than I could have even expected.

There are few issues I was hoping for a little insight on. The third string is pretty dull and lifeless when plucked compared to the glorious sustain on strings one and two. Considering the pup is nearly 70 years old, should a rewind correct this issue?

The tone pot was a bit intermittent. If the volume and or tone pots need replaced I am open to suggestions for appropriate replacements. A quick search suggests 500k pots.

Finally, the input jack of the guitar is a male which requires a screw on female cable which, thankfully, came with the guitar. Is there any reason to keep this male jack? I have the inkling to replace it with a traditional female input.

Thanks in advance for any insights. Can’t wait to get this in shape.

[Jeff Bell]

Have you tried adjusting the pole pieces? Perhaps it's too low on the third string. I have a 1960 similar to yours. I need to replace the pots in mine too.

[Glenn Wilde]

Agree, pole piece adjustment should fix it. Be careful though, make sure you have the right size screw driver and that it's not rusted in, if it don't want to move, a little 3 in 1 oil.

[Jeff Bell]

Good point. I used a screwdriver from a glasses repair kit.

[Eric Dahlhoff]

Great pickup there! Adjust gently...
I see no reason to keep the ancient jack. It's not a rare "one of a kind".
Replace it with a normal 1/4". You'll probably have to use a long (deep) one. But it's worth the upgrade.

[Adam Laye]

Thanks kindly. I am away from the instrument right now, but can I assume that I remove the screws of the top plate to access the poles for adjustment?

I’m also wondering about the pros and cons about a rewind. I really like the sound of the pups and wonder if it is possible to improve upon, or how to even know when it is needed. I am already blown away by the output of it compared to my other steels.

[Peter Jacobs]

Great deal on a great steel! No need to remove the top plate — the holes will let you get a jewelers screwdriver to the top of the pole pieces. As others said, be gentle and don’t force it.

[Bill Groner]

Great deal on a great steel! No need to remove the top plate — the holes will let you get a jewelers screwdriver to the top of the pole pieces. As others said, be gentle and don’t force it.

Pete, it was a great steal on a great steel!

[Peter Jacobs]

[Adam Laye]

[quote="Peter Jacobs" post_id=3258751 time=<a href="tel:1751635356">1751635356</a> user_id=993]
Great deal on a great steel! No need to remove the top plate — the holes will let you get a jewelers screwdriver to the top of the pole pieces. As others said, be gentle and don’t force it.

Pete, it was a great steal on a great steel!
[/quote]

It’s great to be in a community that gets it.

[Clyde Mattocks]

If the pole piece on that string is frozen and you can't turn it, you can super glue a small piece of wire onto the screw the right diameter to get it up with the rest. The trick is to have some way to hold the wire in place while the glue dries as the magnetism will try to reorient it. One of my old Supros has has this fix and it works well.

[Michael Kiese]

Great find!

I only have one thing to add as a word of CAUTION.

DO NOT. I REPEAT, DO NOT attempt to rewind this pickup.

The bobbins were made out of paper. If you open it up, the whole thing will disintegrate.

For this reason, Lindy Fralin stopped rewinding those old Valco pickups a long time ago.

Enjoy your project. I have 2 supros will Valco pups, and I got Rick’s NiBro replacement mags. Definitely louder and beefier than the original mags.

Enjoy!

[Michael Kiese]

By the way, I've been to Ryan Fowler's guitar experience. That's a great shop. The people that work there are very friendly.

Glad to see they more than fairly priced this steel.

Good people!

[Adam Laye]

By the way, I've been to Ryan Fowler's guitar experience. That's a great shop. The people that work there are very friendly.

Glad to see they more than fairly priced this steel.

Good people!

Truly!

[Adam Laye]

I gave the third pole a *gentle* turn to see if it would budge and it broke a portion the top piece. How far down the creek am I at this point? It still plays but I don’t know how I’d make any adjustments.

I spoke with Tom Brantley in NC who claims he’s worked on hundreds of old Supro’s and can get it in good working order.

[Glenn Wilde]

I've had two pickups rewound by Tom, he did a fine job. You got such a good deal on that that having it fixed is well worth it.

[Michael Kiese]

I gave the third pole a *gentle* turn to see if it would budge and it broke a portion the top piece. How far down the creek am I at this point? It still plays but I don’t know how I’d make any adjustments.

I spoke with Tom Brantley in NC who claims he’s worked on hundreds of old Supro’s and can get it in good working order.

I've never heard of Tom, but if he can rewind a Valco pup, then he must have 3D printed his own bobbins or have done something similar.

It's worth a shot. I'd be very interested to see how his solution works, so please report back once work is complete.

I've never opened up a Valco. Lindy Fralin's warning was enough for me to not mess with it.

[Glenn Wilde]

I gave the third pole a *gentle* turn to see if it would budge and it broke a portion the top piece. How far down the creek am I at this point? It still plays but I don’t know how I’d make any adjustments.

I spoke with Tom Brantley in NC who claims he’s worked on hundreds of old Supro’s and can get it in good working order.

I've never heard of Tom, but if he can rewind a Valco pup, then he must have 3D printed his own bobbins or have done something similar.

It's worth a shot. I'd be very interested to see how his solution works, so please report back once work is complete.

I've never opened up a Valco. Lindy Fralin's warning was enough for me to not mess with it.

He does make bobbins, I haven't had him do a Valco pickup but he did a '46 K&F boxcar for me, he had to make a bobbin for that.

[George Piburn]

I've worked with Tom Brantly for Decades and hundreds of GeorgeBoards custom pickups, both when did mine with Lindy Fralin in the late 1990's and later when Tom opened his own shop.

Tom has emerged as one of the Best at dealing with all sorts of rebuilds of vintage Steel Guitar PuPs.

Let him or another expert work on this antique, it is well worth whatever the price.

BTW -- did that steel come over with columbus?

[Rick Rienks]

I bought a 1961 Supro some time ago. I can appreciate how you feel about your new good old ‘57. Other than stiff pole pieces and defunct tuners, mine is in great shape. I replaced the tuners with Gotoh locking, and got a better gear ratio. I did notice my 3rd string was weak. A gentle attempt to adjust the stiff pole piece caused me to pass on any force, awaiting proper inspiration.

The replies you received encouraged me as regards adjusting the pole pieces. I think will try the oil trick. Maybe I can balance the string response. My approach would be a drop of oil where the pole pieces enter the plate and then wait overnight or so. Next, before applying any torque/twist to the screw slot I will use a wood or brass stick of a diameter to pass through the cover plate hole, and tap it gently. This to see if the vibration may assist oil penetration, freeing the pole piece. Maybe a few days (?) of the soak/tap and then a Gentle attempt to rotate. I really do not want to damage the slot in the head. The various helpful voices here are a great resource, thanks to you all.

[Michael Kiese]

I just remembered an easy trick, so I'll share.

If a polepiece is too low, and you have no other way to raise it, find yourself a small little steel washer or nut.

You can place this on top of the polepiece. The magnetism will flow through that little washer, and it in effect, shortens the distance from the top of the polepiece and the string.

This little trick will work with any metal that is magnetic. Iron and steel are your best bet.

Just find yourself something small. You can keep it in place with some rubber glue.

Simple and elegant solution.

It's an old trick people used on Horseshoe pups. Their polepieces are literally iron nails. Sometimes people mess with the polepiece heights throughout the years and file 'em down.

[Adam Laye]

Thanks for the interesting suggestion. I still haven’t sent the pup out for service so I’ll give it a try and report back.