During the past two years, we've had many inquiries for a pickup that has the sound of a single coil but without the hum. In 1972, I designed such a pickup. The patent was granted September 2, 1975 - US Patent #3902394. This was the first noisefree pickup on the market that sounded like a single coil. The pickup had a line of magnets through the center - like a single coil - and on each side of the magnets was a coil axial parallel mounted to the strings. For this reason, we called it the Sidewinder. While standard humbuckers pick up the strings at two points, the Sidewinder, just like the good ol single coil pickup, picks-up the string at one spot!

Now, the steel guitar is quite a different baby, and it requires a pickup with a totally different frequency range and sound spectrum than a guitar pickup. Early in 2000, I decided to make a Sidewinder for the steel guitar. I built the first prototypes - duplicating the sound of good-sounding single coil pickups.

Also, it was at the same time that Hal Rugg, one of the finest steel players in the scene, called me. During our conversation, he offered to help with the fine-tuning of the Sidewinder. Every week, he tested different versions in the studio and on stage. After each test, we had long conversations about minor changes to achieve the best possible single coil sound. By March, Hal introduced the Sidewinder at the Dallas Steel Guitar Show and got the highest rating for his playing and his sound!

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