Lollar Pickups Blog

We are making a reproduction of the classic vintage pickup with the “jangle” in it’s bones. These pickups were used from the mid 50s to the 70s and are known for creating a signature “bell-like” tone . They are also often remembered as being a distinctive part of the John Lennon sound.

This pickup was used for both guitars and basses, and in typical ’50’s fashion, there was no allowance for string number or spacing variation. For example, some basses were installed with pickups that had 6 pole pieces. The new versions of Lollar ”Broiler” pickups measure 7.8 KΩ for the neck pickup, and 8.1 KΩ for the bridge pickup. They can be used for surface mount or pickguard mount.

Lollar "Broiler"

We have modified the appearance to avoid trademark issues regarding the two horizontal black lines on the face of the pickup, but the internal construction and winding is the same as the vintage versions.

Overall size is 3.5” x 1.5.” The pole spacing in 2 inches as measured from center to center of the outside poles. The pole pieces are .25” diameter AlNiCo 5 rod magnets.

The Lollar "Broiler" pickup is made with AlNiCo5 magnets

The pickups are available our web site, so you call us directly or order online.   The price for a set is $260, plus shipping.

Some of you have already made use of the various video clips about installing Lollar pickups. But we are posting this blog to make sure we let everyone know about this great resource.

Currently there are 6 videos available on YouTube. You can link to 5 of them directly on our web site. They include a 5-part series on Lollar Mini Humbucker installation, a 3-part series on installing Lollar Strat pickups; a 7-part series on Lollar P-90 pickup installation; a 2-part series on Lollar Charlie Christian pickup installation (for Tele); and a single video that takes you through a Lollar Melody Maker pickup & pickguard installation. There is also a newer video that has not yet been linked directly to our web site. That video is a good instructional video on proper pickup height adjustment of Lollar pickups. That video is currently accessible directly through YouTube.

Lollar McCarty style pickup is perfect for the Godin 5th Avenue acoustic archtop

Also, over the next few weeks we will be posting two new video segments. One of them will show Jason installing a Lollar McCarty style pickup / pickguard assembly onto a Godin 5th Avenue acoustic archtop guitar. The second new video will feature steel guitar player extraordinaire, Orville Johnson, demonstrating and comparing the Lollar Chicago Steel pickup and the Lollar Supro style pickup.

1-What motivated you to release a 4th edition of your book, “Basic Pickup Winding?”

I was seeing fake copies of my book being passed off on eBay as original copies. The book has become collectable, selling for between $250 to $500 a copy, so you can imagine a lot of fakes were being produced and sold. We actually had people that bought these copies and send them to us for verification to see if they were legitimate or not.

Basic Pickup Winding by Jason Lollar

Trying to reproduce a printed product like a book to match in every way is actually quite expensive and usually there are 5 or 6 obvious telltale differences in the copies that we can easily identify. I never cared if people sold used legitimate copies for whatever price, but being deliberately fraudulent is something I just couldn’t put up with. Even though it has been out of print, I still wanted to retain my copyright in case I wanted to sell it again so I have always patrolled for people selling unauthorized copies in any form. I wrote the book, it’s my property, so I feel anyone benefiting from its sale or distribution in any form should be me. I think people severely underestimate the time and effort it takes to create, edit, publish and service a book of even its smallish size. I had originally intended to write more material to make a 4th edition, but so many pirate copies had been selling for $500 a copy recently that I decided to just clean up the last edition enough to re-print that and get it out there as quickly as I could. If there is an official expanded edition coming out it will be some unknown amount of time out there in the future. 

2-When will it be ready to be released - approximately?

Things should be ready in the next 2 to 4 weeks. I am just having a few problems with formatting on a few pages and need to determine what’s causing the problem. Once that is cleared up I could probably have the first batch within a week or two after that.

3-What format will it be in?

I am re-issuing it as a printed book again with a spiral binding because it is used as a reference while you are working. It’s more useful to be able to have the book on your bench. The spiral binding allows you to lay it all the way open without the book springing shut and also allows you to fold it in half so it’s the size of one page if you like. That keeps the workbench space it consumes half its possible size. Also being a printed book you can write notes on the inside of the front and back covers so all your specs are in one place.

4-What will be the selling price - even a rough idea?

I am considering a price around $35 but that’s just an estimate. I need to look over the cost of materials, printing, binding, advertising and distribution.

5-What is the best way to know when we can place an order?

The best way to keep up-to-date would be to subscribe to this blog. It automatically sends out an email when anything new is posted. When the book is ready, we will post it on this blog.

I have been using a very cheaply made lap steel that is available from several sources- you’ll see them on online music stores and eBay. The last two I bought were labeled “Rogue” and these came with screw on adjustable legs- I really like to have the legs as my first real non pedal steel was a 50’s Fender Stringmaster 8 string triple neck.

"Rogue" brand lap steel with legs

I got these from Musician’s Friend for around $80 each including a heavy duty soft shell case, the oldest one I have was labeled “Artisan” and it came with no legs but at any rate I extensively modified the guitars. The most important thing I did was I replaced the nut and bridge and I converted the guitars to a string through body like an old Telecaster. These cheap little lap steels make a useable rig if you take the time to set them up right and put a good pickup and electronics in them. If you can’t do this work yourself I suggest patronizing one of the many fine lap steel builders working in the USA today many of which offer my pickups as standard fare and are listed on my website. The quality of lap steels being made today by these small businesses can not be equaled or surpassed by these cheap import models and they often exceed the quality of the finest vintage instruments.

These lap steels originally come with a narrower spaced nut and bridge (the bridge is a standard guitar bridge which is too narrow). Wider string spacing makes bar slants and finger pickup much easier. For slanting the bar (a sort of advanced technique) wider string spacing makes it easier to play in tune and the wider string spacing makes it easier to bend strings behind the bar to get pedal steel type sounds. 

Angle iron nut on a modified lap steel

Look at the photos and you’ll see I just used some angle iron and I made a nut and bridge about 9/16″ tall.  Typical lap steel string spread at the nut is about 1-31/32 and at the bridge 2-3/16″ compared to on a guitar 1-5/8 and 2-1/16. 

Angle iron bridge and 1/8" spacer

I painted the angle iron with black “Hammerite” which you can get at any paint store.  The bridge and nut were 9/16″ tall, so the Supro® pickup needed a 1/8″ shim to be in proper alignment. 

Holes were drilled for new ferrules and output jack

As you’ll see in this photo, I also modified the guitar by drilling holes all the way through the body and put string ferrules in the back.

I also relocated the output jack to the side of the guitar rather than where it was originally located in the pickgaurd. This required a hole to be drilled for the jack and a new jack plate needed to be made.

I also routed the pickup cavity out so I could mount a variety of pickups.  This step is not necessary if you mount only the Supro®.

New plastic pickguard & fingerboard

In this photo you can see I made a new pickgaurd out of plastic.  This turned out to be  much easier than working with the original metal pickgaurd.

I also replaced the fingerboard.  This was not a necessary step.  But I have the tools to do it, so I went ahead and put some lipstick on the pig - so to speak.

The only snag was only two of the 4 mounting screws for the pickup actually bit into wood - the two mounting screws closest to the fingerboard are machine screws which I made two threaded holes in the pickgaurd for them to tighten up against because the screws were located over the route for the original pickup which was quite deep. The pickup is mounted plenty solid this way.

To learn more about the Lollar Supro® lap steel pickup, visit our web site.

Supro®, and the “Supro Lightning Bolt design” are registered trademarks of Zinky Electronics, LLC.  Lollar Supro style pickups are a limited production, under license of Supro USA.