6/19/14

1961 Supro Lap Steel Cleanup, Pt. 2 (Completed)

Finishing up the Supro was very straightforward.  The hardest thing - if you can say that - was polishing out a couple of lightly corroded spots on the control plate.

This corner was probably the worst.  You can see it's really not bad at all.

After a few passes with Mother's Aluminum Polish, it looks great.

The polish won't remove rust, but it take off light corrosion like this very easily.  It puts a great shine on plating or bare metal that's in good shape.

Here's the finished control plate.

There were some small string divots on the bridge, so I filed it a bit and went over the edge with 400 grit sandpaper.  The edge that the strings pass over is super smooth now - I wanted to make sure the strings couldn't snag and break on it.

I'm restringing it with Scotty's lap steel strings.  The high strings are plain and the bottom three are semi-flatwound, which helps reduce bar noise.

This set says "C6," but there are a lot of tunings you can use it with.  I'm thinking about trying an E9, since my Oahu is tuned to C6 right now.

I lined the strings up so they pass right over the pickup's polepieces.  These pickups sound fantastic.  Super clarity and good power.

This one, in fact, seems to be a bit hotter than the one on my Oahu.

Pickup and bridge cover back in place.  I polished all the plastic - including the knobs - with Novus #2 polish.  They came out great.

The mighty Supro logo.

The finished steel ready to twang!
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1 comment:

  1. billy loganJuly 28, 2019 at 2:53 PM

    Hey there, crawlsbackwardwhenalarmed - luv ur blog - i found it whilst trying to understand the electro-magnetic miracle of the string-thru p/u. Mine's on a 195? Silvertone lap steel- p/u looks A LOT like on your Supro. Been squinting at the magnets that hold the roof up, so to speak. To my eye, looks like there is no electrical connection between them and the under-the-strings p/u; no connection to the wiring, either.

    IF IF IF that's correct-

    maybe a Sharp Technical Person would create a gizmo (cross-section like a very short (magnets), wide (metal roof) staple) An electric guitar player could, when the mood strikes, just put gizmo above a p/u on their axe, then remove it to return to their axe's factory tone? Keep it in place w/duck tape n velcro or Command picture-hanging adhesive, scotch tape and cotter pins, w/other magnets in the pickguard? or would more magnets screw everything up? STP = crawlsbackwardwhenalarmed. If u gonna experiment with this idea, delete this comment so as nobody steals it. uninformed hunch- the slap-on string-thru would increase output of the factory p/u a bunch? idk. if so, might require customized caps n resistors? or maybe just go with the hi-output sound, no circuit changes? IF my assumption's ok, gizmo prevent the cannabalization of endangered vintage string-thru lap steels for Coodercasters.

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