Interesting guitar on Ebay!

David Higginbotham · Post by **David Higginbotham** » 23 Jul 2008 5:48 pm

They say necessity is the mother of invention! Can't say I've seen anything like this before.

ebay.com/Steel-guitar

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 23 Jul 2008 6:03 pm

Pretty interesting, but totally not practical for live use - unless you like taking a Black and Decker workbench to a gig!

Pete Woronowski · Post by **Pete Woronowski** » 23 Jul 2008 6:17 pm

Hmmnn,might make a good gift for the mother in-law......

bob Ousby · Post by **bob Ousby** » 23 Jul 2008 6:25 pm

Yabba Dabba Doo...Wilma!

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 23 Jul 2008 6:54 pm

Kind of a "Space Saver" Stringmaster?

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 23 Jul 2008 7:56 pm

it's a gatling steel!

Russ Wever · Post by **Russ Wever** » 23 Jul 2008 9:53 pm

One of Hank Williams earliest steel guitarists, Neal McCormick, played a 'rotisserie steel' like this.

I wonder whether it's coincidence that the builder of the ebay steel has the same surname.

~Russ

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 24 Jul 2008 3:19 am

"It has four different tunes."
I only know 4 tunes, so this would be great for me.
"This is item is used but in great shape."
I don't see how it could have been used frequently.
It's shape is kind of hard to characterize.

If I were a rich man, I'd buy up everyone of these old masters and display them in a barn, 'The Funky and the Defunkt.'

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 24 Jul 2008 4:38 am

Why the hydraulic hose?

Tommy Minniear · Post by **Tommy Minniear** » 24 Jul 2008 4:53 am

Russ,
To make it even more interesting, Neal was also from Florida and had a daughter. Don Helms played in his band (played guitar & substituted for him occassionaly on steel), for awhile. I'd almost bet if Mr. Don was feeling better, he could shed some light on this steel and its history/builder/owner.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 24 Jul 2008 4:50 pm

Try and fit pedals to it...

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 24 Jul 2008 6:42 pm

I'd put a chicken on the E9 neck, a whole salmon on the C6 neck, a half rack of baby backs on the A, a rock cornish hen on the E13 neck.......and invite ya'll over for a BBQ.........

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 25 Jul 2008 2:41 am

Mmmm mmmm... I'll be there.

Maybe the hydraulic hose has something to do with the rotisserie function?

Mike Cass · Post by **Mike Cass** » 25 Jul 2008 5:55 am

That would be a great piece to set up @ the ISGC for the onstage, improvised jam set. Let's see Coxface get something outta that sweetheart

if anyone could though, it'd be him......

Fred Glave · Post by **Fred Glave** » 25 Jul 2008 7:08 am

That's right Charlie, unfortunatly it's used.

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 25 Jul 2008 7:31 am

it ain't nuthin' if you can't cook

Johan Jansen · Post by **Johan Jansen** » 25 Jul 2008 7:50 am

That would be a great piece to set up @ the ISGC for the onstage, improvised jam set. Let's see Coxface get something outta that sweetheart
if anyone could though, it'd be him......

Nice if he could do that blindfolded, and for Scotty to give it a nice swing every 16 bars

Curt Langston · Post by **Curt Langston** » 27 Jul 2008 10:11 am

Whew! I think I'm gonna pass out!

Look away, it's hideous!

Kindlin!

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 27 Jul 2008 10:14 am

It's the Thunderlog. See this discussion...

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/004461.html

I suggested the same principle several years before, and planned to build one, but never got round to it.

Tony Glassman · Post by **Tony Glassman** » 27 Jul 2008 12:33 pm

It would fit in nicely with ZZ Top

Russ Wever · Post by **Russ Wever** » 12 Sep 2008 10:33 pm

admin · Post by **b0b** » 21 Dec 2008 9:04 am

Just received via email from Darrell Day:

My name is Derrell Day and I live in Panama City, FL. I am writing to you because of a website "Steel Guitar Forum", I came across while trying to find copies of a book entitled "The Man Behind the Scenes". It is a biography of a family friend, Neal "Pappy" McCormick. You may recognize the name in connection with the "Contraption".... a four sided steel guitar that Pappy built. You alluded to the fact that someone may have "collaborated" with Pappy on the design and construction. You are correct.

My father, Charlie Day, Jr. was a close friend of Pappy's and Daddy was an excellent woodworker and tinkerer. Pappy approached Daddy in the early forties about the need for a steel guitar that could easily be tuned for several keys. The crowds on the circuit around here at the time loved the sound of the electric guitar but Pappy was only able to effectively play songs/requests in the key the guitar was tuned to. He also did a lot of local radio and early TV shows that really squeezed the time for retuning his instrument.

Daddy did all the engineering and woodwork then turned it over to Pappy for electronics and stringing. Pappy played the Contraption for years and finally loaned it to Roy Acuff's Opryland Museum. Pappy was also the first musician to play an electric instrument on WSM Radio's Grand Ole' Opry. Pappy finally recalled the Contraption and played it till retirement. I believe it to be back in the Opryland Museum now.

My mother, Mildred Day was an occasional back-up singer with Pappy when he was on local radio and TV shows and an early comedic "hillbilly girl' that set the template for the "hick" girls we would see later on Hee-Haw. Blacked-out teeth and freckles.

A young Hank Williams would get his start playing in the "Hawaiian Troubadours", Pappy's band. They got the name from the "Hawaiian sound" that Pappy's steel guitar would make.

Unfortunately, we lost Daddy the day before Thanksgiving this year.

Respectfully,

Derrell Day

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 21 Dec 2008 9:16 am

Thanks for posting that b0b and thanks to Derrell for filling us in.

Chris Drew · Post by **Chris Drew** » 21 Dec 2008 9:19 am

It's stuff like this that makes the SGF one of the best places on the internet.

Chuck Snider · Post by **Chuck Snider** » 21 Dec 2008 4:39 pm

This thread was interesting to stumble over. My father lives about 45 miles northeast of Pensacola. When I was there visiting a couple of years ago, my father's very close friend Gerald McCormick took me and my father to see a cousin of his named Wilmer McCormick and until I got there all I knew was that he was a musician. As it turned out he played steel. AND, he showed us a couple of those 4 sided steel contraptions!! One he had built himself and the other one he got from someone else (I don't recall who he got it from). I had never seen one before or since, until I ran across this thread. The really interesting part is that he was also a McCormick as well. I don't know the familiy background, so not sure if he would be related or not. He was around my father's age I would guess, so he would have been around 68-73 at the time. I know Wilmer and even my father's buddy Gerald had been playing country music for many years, but not sure who all they might have been connected with. Wow, what a coincidence. Anyone happen to know if Wilmer McCormick would have been related to the "Pappy" McCormick mentioned above?

-Chuck