The Steel Guitar Forum

I have to say...I played all of the steels that Bill has made. Each one sounded superb. They are so rich in tone. My very favorites were the three steels he made using the Lollar String Through Pickup. The wooden bodied steel had the warmest tone. The two aluminium bodied steels, the Audionat and th...

Thank you very much my friend. I’m honored to have the last bar you made. I have one of your first, and now I have your last. That’s kind of cool. I’ll be using them for the rest of my life.
I know you’ll enjoy your well deserved retirement. May you catch all the fish you can.

I wanted to show of my friend's, Bill Groner's tone bar that he made for me.They are wonderful. I'm playing my Gibson Console Grand that I restored some years back. The tune is "I Can't Help It" in C6th tuning. I'm playing it slower than most do. I love Hank Willam's and Anita Carter's ver...

That is beautiful Mr. Bill. Glad you used the string through.

Thanks for the input! I’m confident it will get there safely.

I get why people don’t want to ship overseas. It’s a little bit of a hassle and expense.

I spoke to someone who ships Rics often. He always removes the neck from the body. If have done the same. It seems much much safer.
Thank you all

I’m seeking knowledgeable opinion on shipping a Ric B6 overseas. We all know Bakelite necks are easily broken which is a concern in shipping. My thought on this is to separate the neck and the body and wrap them individually to prevent the neck snapping at the tenon where it joins the body. With the...

That was very well done Rick. And you are getting some killer tone along with a great feel.

Now I'm intrigued, if I could get a $600.00 59 to sound like a B, well, that's definitely interesting. I don’t think a metal body can ever sound just like a Bakelite B6, but it can sustain similar to one. I know this for a fact as I have a metal body with the plaster/clay in it, and a metal body on...

I want to make clearer what I’m looking for. The wonky tones that metal body Rics put out is clearly dampened giving better tonal performance by using things like paper or terry cloth to stuff the body with. I have done this. What terry cloth and the other items we stuff these bodies with does not d...

I have a 1938 Model 59. It has either clay or plaster filling the cavity under the bridge. It works very well. Yes it is heavy. Remember though, Ric Bakelite guitars ar very heavy and sustain and sound amazing.

It has been said that metal body Rickenbachers were often filled with clay to stop the unpleasant resonances and increase sustain.
I wish to know what type of clay was used. I wish to use this technique on one of my metal body Rics.

If you follow this thread on Reverb, a buy/sell site, you can see what these instruments have sold for recently. Prices vary of course. This should help you.,
https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=la ... _sold=true

You are not out of line. This is an appropriate price in todays market.

I agree with you. I hear Jerry Byrd in his playing very clearly. Perhaps he studied with JB. Regardless, Casey is a wonderful player. Great touch and tone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pRak-7 ... o1&index=4
This is the answer. My friend and Forum member, Mike Holland provided this answer. I believe Casey Olsen is the steel player here.

Interesting choice on the pickup. Wonder how that is going to sound.

I really like the fretboard my friend. Tell us how you did that. Looks like you found a chunk of lucite.

Go Billy Go!. Looking forward to seeing and maybe hearing this when you complete it.

That's interesting. I guess it worked. So far what I've done here is working. Not leaving the rare earth magnets on permanently. They seem to be working to recharge the shoes...whether the charge will last is unknown.

I got this Ric S-100 and the mags had zero magnetic pull to them. I checked the output and it was decent at 6.7K I also thought to try a little experiment. I placed rare earth magnets on the shoes. They now have a magnetic charge. I followed some guidelines I found on the internet to do this.making ...

Thanks Rick!

Can these be re magnetized effectively?

Are the horseshoe magnets on the Ric S-100 real or faux? Reason for the question is I just received one that needs a little work. The horseshoes have zero magnetic pull on metal objects like a paperclip...but the pole pieces do, like on my Fuzzy JB which has faux horseshoe on it. I just opened the b...