Search found 42 matches
- 18 Jul 2019 8:18 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: Live Billy Jack Wills !! Wills Point 1954
- Replies: 22
- Views: 6412
- 18 Nov 2018 9:52 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: Non-pedal workshop for players interested in "Hot Jazz"
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2007
- 19 Jul 2018 6:20 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: Custom Reso and accessories
- Replies: 14
- Views: 3967
- 5 Jul 2018 8:36 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: Custom Reso and accessories
- Replies: 14
- Views: 3967
- 5 Jul 2018 8:34 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: New Tailpiece for Gretsch Bobtail reso??
- Replies: 16
- Views: 5199
The appearance of the fracture does suggest a casting, but typically brass tailpieces are wrought brass which was bent when manufactured. Brass hardens when worked or distorted, which in this case creates hard and brittle properties at the bend. The proper thing is to anneal the area to be bent befo...
- 22 May 2018 8:01 am
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: From lap steel to tricone...tuning recommendations?
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2715
Thanks for Sol's tuning, Mike. Strumming that combination tells the whole story, musically, with that 6th added in to the triad sound. Except you call it a C#min7, not an E6. Why is that? The sense of an E key center in that tuning is strong, but none of Sol's great jazzy pieces are in that key. In ...
- 22 May 2018 7:33 am
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: Tricone repair
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4166
Thanks Josei, I'm glad this guitar is in good hands. Guitar repair people shy away from dealing with metal, which has the advantage of having much better strength and stiffness than wood. A machinist or sheet metal guy should be able to reinforce that area with a hidden angle bracket. I would sugges...
- 21 May 2018 7:20 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: Tricone repair
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4166
That's one of mine. Can't find anything in my mail from you - try the contact form at my website, which is: http://www.jmorton.us/index.html It does look as though it suffered an impact to the endpin area. String tension did not cause this. The guitar should take any string set you care to put on it...
- 11 Apr 2018 12:35 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: cone height
- Replies: 2
- Views: 888
cone height
I have made cones for tricone lap guitars, 10+ for my own instruments and a few as replacements for Nationals with defunct cones. Having nothing to measure, I guessed to come up with reasonable specs. I think I just used the same slope as a 9 1/2" cone, which gave me .75" tall for a 6"...
- 11 Apr 2018 10:42 am
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: cone height
- Replies: 0
- Views: 486
cone height
I have made cones for tricone lap guitars, 10+ for my own instruments and a few as replacements for Nationals with defunct cones. Having nothing to measure, I guessed to come up with reasonable specs. Recently I sent out a set to replace originals in a pre-1930 squareneck, and heard back that they a...
- 14 Jul 2017 7:21 am
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: The Alcatraz Islanders
- Replies: 18
- Views: 6892
- 20 Apr 2017 5:04 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: What has happened to National squarenecks?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2302
That A/B test would be very interesting to me too. I have built metal hollownecks, in fact hollow and tapering all the way to the nut. I always thought this made sense, and I wouldn't make a solid neck just to make the test. The best test would be with early tricones, Spanish vs Hawaiian. The best m...
- 17 Apr 2017 4:40 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: What has happened to National squarenecks?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2302
- 17 Apr 2017 8:03 am
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: What has happened to National squarenecks?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2302
What has happened to National squarenecks?
A few years back I thought National had an all-metal hollow neck Hawaiian tricone on the horizon. I haven't checked in at the site in the post-Young era, but now I see no mention of such a thing, nor any photos in their vast picture gallery. Is the Hawaiian tricone dead for lack of interest? Too bad...
- 9 Jun 2016 7:06 am
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: David Lindley's chorus
- Replies: 17
- Views: 6968
- 8 Jun 2016 7:18 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: David Lindley's chorus
- Replies: 17
- Views: 6968
I have not heard recordings that sound like what I'm talking about. The last 3 times I saw DL he played alone with maybe 6 or 7 instruments including 3 Weissenborn style, one of them a baritone scale. The three were open tuned in three different keys with (I think) the root on the bottom. The bass n...
- 8 Jun 2016 8:16 am
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: David Lindley's chorus
- Replies: 17
- Views: 6968
- 23 Apr 2016 7:04 am
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: A few seconds of fun with Hoopii and Monk
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2690
That's beautiful, Mike. Epistrophy is indeed a great choice of tune for an interlude, or as a theme to open and close each set. Those chromatic shifts are so natural for steel. Epistrophy was recorded in 2005 by the Joy Buzzards, featuring Robert Armstrong (of the Cheap Suit Serenaders) on a Nationa...
- 20 Apr 2016 9:38 am
- Forum: Music
- Topic: Matt Munisteri plays his vintage L-5
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2785
Matt is heading up a vintage jazz workshop for string players next month in Port Townsend, WA. It's a trial balloon, sort of under the radar, publicitywise. Enrollment limited to 30. Don't know if it's sold out.
http://centrum.org/vintage-jazz-workshop/
http://centrum.org/vintage-jazz-workshop/
- 28 May 2013 6:51 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: Tricone Strings
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2831
- 30 Apr 2013 7:35 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: the symmetrical tricone
- Replies: 15
- Views: 5362
- 25 Apr 2013 4:52 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: the symmetrical tricone
- Replies: 15
- Views: 5362
Thanks for all the kind words. The Portland event is the Northwest Handmade Instrument Show at Marylhurst College. http://www.nwmusicalinstrumentshow.org/ I used to snip everything, but now it's a CNC milling machine for the geometrically precise bits. Here are some more shots from the process: layo...
- 25 Apr 2013 8:40 am
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: the symmetrical tricone
- Replies: 15
- Views: 5362
the symmetrical tricone
The National tricone is a beautiful thing, but the obsessive/compulsive builder with a metal shop just had to try for bilateral symmetry. But then I spoiled it with the 7 string peghead. There were the usual setbacks, I was a bit hasty trying to put it together in time for a show in Portland this we...
- 11 Apr 2013 6:59 pm
- Forum: Steel Without Pedals
- Topic: Portland music?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1911
The Midnight Serenaders are an oldtime swing band, also with some western and Hawaiian content. Longstanding, very popular. Doc Stein is their squareneck tricone man - to my mind he outshines the hot trumpet and reed guys in the lineup. It's unbelievable, the power of a National soloing over a six p...
- 21 Jan 2013 2:55 pm
- Forum: Electronics
- Topic: John Pearse Vol, V/T control
- Replies: 6
- Views: 3180
For $20 more there is this: http://www.elderly.com/accessories/items/VCABLE-250-10.htm A strong argument in favor of this cord is that the knob is rigidly attached to the guitar, therefore always close and in the same place when you reach for it. Also, it's one less item, since you don't need anothe...