Search found 42 matches

by John Morton
18 Jul 2019 8:18 pm
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: Live Billy Jack Wills !! Wills Point 1954
Replies: 22
Views: 6412

Thanks for those, Todd. I love the sound. It fires the imagination, like looking at a historic photograph.
by John Morton
18 Nov 2018 9:52 pm
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: Non-pedal workshop for players interested in "Hot Jazz"
Replies: 5
Views: 2007

Highly recommended. Matt's concept is promising in including a wide variety of stringed instruments, which provides for band combinations. This is band music after all, that's where the fun is!
by John Morton
19 Jul 2018 6:20 pm
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: Custom Reso and accessories
Replies: 14
Views: 3967

Hobo nickels, I never knew! Glad to know about this obscure practice.

I have developed a related pastime, making two-headed pennies. I prefer all-copper Lincoln pennies. I have also done an international edition using the heads of American and Canadian pennies.
by John Morton
5 Jul 2018 8:36 pm
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: Custom Reso and accessories
Replies: 14
Views: 3967

Glad to see you doing this, Ron. It's an honored traditional craft that deserves to live on into the future.
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
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 ...
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
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"...
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
14 Jul 2017 7:21 am
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: The Alcatraz Islanders
Replies: 18
Views: 6892

I'll add my compliments to Makiya Matsuda and his wonderful group. The classic guitar-less rhythm section is clean and powerful. Hapa haole done right!
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
17 Apr 2017 4:40 pm
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: What has happened to National squarenecks?
Replies: 5
Views: 2302

Thanks, I didn't pick up on that "hollow neck" term. So they are available ($5000 and up) for the time being, but then they'll go away. No photos, no demand for these historic orphans. getting off topic: I stopped at NRP a few times with Al Dodge to visit with Don on the way to NAMM. He wo...
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
9 Jun 2016 7:06 am
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: David Lindley's chorus
Replies: 17
Views: 6968

Thanks Jamie and Tim, this is fascinating to learn where these giant sounds come from. DL has managed to channel the El Rayo X material into an effective solo act, and after the first minute or two you're listening to a whole band.
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
8 Jun 2016 8:16 am
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: David Lindley's chorus
Replies: 17
Views: 6968

When I listen to Lindley these days I hear a doubled low octave in the bass lines in his Weissenborn tunes. I'm thinking there is an octave device adjusted to track just the lowest octave of the range (or less), so his thumb essentially adds a bass instrument. This is in addition to chorus.
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
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/
by John Morton
28 May 2013 6:51 pm
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: Tricone Strings
Replies: 8
Views: 2831

I have strung up tricones with scale lengths of 23" and 25.5", including 7 and 8 string models with various tunings. My method has been to refer first to a guitar in normal tuning, and then to the Daddario blurb on string tensions: http://www.daddario.com/Resources/JDCDAD/images/tension_ch...
by John Morton
30 Apr 2013 7:35 pm
Forum: Steel Without Pedals
Topic: the symmetrical tricone
Replies: 15
Views: 5362

I have made other guitars with this profile, which is a Weissenborn shape reduced by 15%, therefore a 23" scale. The largest tricone array that fit in the shape was 4.5" diam. This one is much deeper, which makes for a fuller sound. Also the reorientation of the cones allowed me to return ...
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
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...
by John Morton
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...