It Lives! ...the new triple

[John Allison]

I got the triple assembled and strung up yesterday just in time for my gig last night. It's everything I'd hoped for...very cool looking, great sounding, versatile. I had a blast playing it on its first gig and it drew lots of comments.
I had originally considered flat black for the 2-tone color, but I couldn't resist the off-white, even though it would look slicker in gloss.
The electronics layout (master volume and tone with 5-way neck selector and 4-way tone selector) is pretty perfect, though I might consider switching the selectors around. All in all, I couldn't be happier with it.

[Tom Pettingill]

Nice one John, I like the off white

[Travis Hillis]

That looks great...

[Stan Schober]

Very nice , John !

How do you have the selectors wired ?

[John Allison]

Stan, the neck selector is a 5-way wired to select 1, 1/2, 2, 2/3, 3. The tone selector is a 4-way with a simple cascade of .01mf caps. The brightest setting is straight out and the darkest is about the equivalent of having the tone knob turned maybe half down. It allows me to get a good tone setting and still have the tone knob all the way up for swells.

I had my first adventures in neck-hopping last night and oi the one instance when I felt inclined to attempt play all three necks within the same song, I had to get from the 2/3 neck setting to the 1/2 setting. I noticed that it was a little awkward with the neck selector closest to me. I'll have to see if it's just a matter or getting used to it or think about switching the tone and neck selctors around.

[Doug Beaumier]

It looks great!

[Stan Schober]

I'm working on a triple ( maybe quad, even ) myself but I think I'm going to go the route of push-button or toggles for each neck.


WHat tunings did you finally decide on ?

[Bill Creller]

That looks really nice. The white really adds some contrast to the rest of it.

[John Allison]

I've got it strung as I first envisioned it and it seems pretty comfortable so far. Closest neck is A6 (B-11, G6), middle neck is JBC13, far neck is E13 high 3 low 1. I can see the possibility of a different E13, but I really like that combination of the 3 on top and the root positions of the E neck.

[Guy Cundell]

Beautiful! Congratulations. Next, a production run.

[Don McGregor]

Beautiful instrument!
I am very envious.
My triple project is still just dry fitted on the bench with some parts still unfinished.
What are your woods?
Looks like maybe Mahogany necks?
What is the body?
Fretboard?
What scale?
Pickups?
I'm still wrasslin' with control layout. I'm sort of leaning toward a separate vol & tone for each neck with a 5-way Strat-style switch, but I'm very impressed with your layout.
Any other details will be appreciated.
Very nice work.
Hope we get to hear a sample soon.

[John Allison]

Thanks guys for your comments.

The woods are 3/4 Walnut (that I've had laying around waiting for the right project) epoxied to poplar. It kept the weight reasonable and tone is really nice. The bodies are a simpler version of my singles, cut modularly at different thickness, so it's possible for me to do several different versions from single lap-only to quad.
The pickups are some custom Vintage Vibes single coils. I thought about the 2 Pickup stringmaster style like my other steels, but these pickups sound great and I had the matching set of three.

Scale length is 22 1/2" and the fretboard/pickguard material is 3-ply plastic that's milled halfway through for the frets, dots and logo.

I won't be doing a run anytime soon, but I'll probably try to sneak in a double with stringmaster style pickups - I've got some pecan blanks that look great in a natural finish and some alder blanks that will make great solid color gloss lacquer.

And by the way, my white single - one that I've been gigging for a few months (and the only one that didn't have to donate any of it's parts temporarily to the triple) is for sale. I need to cover some of the cost of the triple. I'll post it in the for sale section here and if no action, I'll consign it with my local dealer. Here's a link http://allisonguitars.com/pages/steel_guitars.html

[Mike Harris]

Gorgeous!

Where can Centex folk see this in action?

[John Allison]

Gorgeous!

Where can Centex folk see this in action?

I've got my band booked every other Saturday night at Romeo's on Barton Springs Rd. here in Austin. We're holding down a late spot from 10 to midnight. I'm working on other bookings and hope to get some happy hour spots here and there. I post events on our myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/steadfastramblers

Thanks

[Thiel Hatt]

Here's one I built several years ago. It has been a joy to play. It's a nine string set up. C6th on the lower neck. E13th on the center neck and A6th on the outside neck. Pickups were made by Bruce Zumsteg.

[Bill Hatcher]

nice steel john!

[George Piburn]

Kudos on another Great Steel. This one is certain to enable your playing to the Full.

MR.Boards

[John Allison]

Thanks, Mr. Boards...
I do indeed feel challenged and inspired to try to take my playing to the next level!

[John Ficken]

Really beautiful! I'm inspired to give a shot at building another one for myself!