The Steel Guitar Forum

At the risk of upsetting the seller of the original ROADOPHONIC, I want to give my honest opinion of both the older model and the newer one. I’ve owned both. I wanted to like the original but it sounded just okay. Don’t know if it was the bisquit bridge or the pickup used in the bridge or the scale ...

I have a 1955 Stringmaster with the push buttons and had the exact same issues. DeoxIt sprayed into the buttons did the job. Works perfectly now.

Well I have that exact EH 185 with that ES 300 pickup. It sounds awesome. No, I haven’t heard the Charlie Christian pickup but mine sounds so rich and vintage it gives you goose bumps when you hear it. That price is a bit high but it depends on your finances. I stole mine, like $1150 if I remember...

On my Iseman Weissenborn I play in Open D. My Baritone Pogreba is tuned a whole step down-Open C. Except for my Pogreba, I live in Open D on all of my lap style guitars, dobro, National M1, Gibson HG2 and all of my electric lap steels and bottle neck guitars. Feels like home.

I live in Open D on all of my slides. Weissenborn, lap steels and dobro as well as bottleneck. I play a lot of Delta Blues and D is perfect for that style. I do have a Baritone Pogreba Weissenborn that gets tuned to Open C because it has a 27" scale.

In the process of having a Lap King Rodeo built for me by Jason DuMont so bad timing. I’m certain that the Asher sounds amazing.

Let me suggest some other contenders

Pre war Ric B6 (1 1/2" horseshoe pickup)
Early Supro with the string thru pickup
Gibson EH-185
Sierra
MSA Super Slide
Fender StringMaster
Asher
Lap King

Picking just 3 would be tough.

I also have a Stringmaster, a 1955. What tuning are you using on that neck?

I have 2 Weissenborns. One is an Iseman and I keep it in Open D. It has a Sunrise in the sound hole and a K&K Pure Mini on the bridge plate. Sounds awesome. My Pogreba Baritone is in Open C and has a Seymore Duncan Mag Mic. Also great sounding. I would recommend either setup. The Iseman goes thr...

I had an aluminum Weissenborn made for me by Meloduende. There’s a You Tube video of me playing it that they asked me to do so others could hear it in action. A great ax, those Frenchmen know how to make a killer machine. In this video I’m playing it with a bit of gain thru my Carr Skylark amp. ...

Absolutely beautiful playing. I’m also a Weissenborn player and play in open D as you do. Your timing and touch are really wonderful. Very poetic playing. You’ve spent a good deal of time on it. Great chops. May I ask you, who made your Weissenborn? I play an Iseman and a Baritone Pogreba. Yours...

Wow. I myself would love to see pics of them and make an offer on buying any that interest me. Pics need to be taken anyway I would think. My wife and I vacation fairly often on Florida’s East coast. We stay in St Augustine. Without divulging where the steels are, do they happen to be near the St ...

Thanks for the clip. Sounds good.

I would love for you to post a video or sound file of you playing this steel. I’ve thought about this builder making me a 6 string steel for blues playing and would really like to hear how his steels sound. Love the design.

Thanks for the kind words Fred.

Yes, I saw your collection. Amazing. Yours has to be one of the largest collections of 185's in the world. I can't imagine anyone topping yours. Really like the ones that have the natural Maple. Beautiful looking.

I love it. As I've mentioned I have some very nice steels. Sierra, 1939 Rick B6, Supro Jet Airliner and others. The 185 is my favorite. Especially in a mix. Because of it's particular tone it just cuts through the other instruments. The mids and lows have like a metallic tone, I think due to the met...

https://soundcloud.com/robert-sands-422 ... e-full-mix

Here's one more of the TV Ambient tracks - this one is Bluesy and has a groove to it. All played on the Gibson EH185 lap steel.

https://soundcloud.com/robert-sands-422067227/sets/gibson-eh185-ambient-tension-tracks See if that works. Remember, done for TV shows, so the deal is not a lot of melody or things to get in the way of the dialogue. My job is to put the viewer inside the scene. Make the music reflect the scene and th...

I have 4 tracks I can let you any others listen to. I just did a batch for some shows - ambient, tensiony slide. How to I post them as MP3's?

I will do one and get it to you.

You would love it Fred. Pure vintage greatness. Nice cut so it really makes it's presense known in a mix or band situation. Funny, even though it's a Gibson it kind of sounds like the best Tele you ever heard.

Another angle. My 1955 Stringmaster and National Pioneer in this shot. Like I said, I score lots of TV shows so I get to have lots of awesome instruments. Lucky me.

Here are a few of my lap steels, including my Gibson EH185.

CE, here's a question for you. Regarding your EH185's - do you have a preference as to the CC or ES300 models? Which one sounds better. Or are they both wonderful just different. And how are they different?