Multi - Kord" Pedal Steel?????

Marty Nemanick · Post by **Marty Nemanick** » 16 Dec 2002 9:27 pm

I RECENTLY AQUIRED A VERY OLD HARLIN BROS. 6-STRING PEDAL STEEL. IT HAS 4 FLOOR PEDALS CONNECTED TO CHANGER WITH CABLES AND FOLDING LEGS. QUITE A CONVERSATION PIECE. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YEARS THESE WERE POPULAR AND WHAT THE TUNING AND COPEDENT ARE?
THANKS, MARTY

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 16 Dec 2002 9:50 pm

Marty, production started in '46 and this was the greatest pedal steel guitar going at this time. All pull with no tuning limatations,(six or eight string) hard pedal action but this was really the first great , changable set-up steel guitar ever, without using a cutting tourch anyway! Hardly usable in this day and time but starting to be recognised as a ? collector" item. Gibson, Rickenbacker, and several other manufacturers studied this guitar very hard before jumping into the market themselves.
This mechanism is very similar to all steel guitar products built today. It's just standing up at the other end of the guitar in this day and time Marty. It was the first three finger , sissor type puller developed. This alone gives it a place in history.
Bobbe Seymour,

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 17 Dec 2002 7:26 am

Hey Bobbe,
Was that a scissor type changer? I got one of those guitars before I got out of the army in around '62 or so. Mine was a six string, 4 pedal job which was tuned to an open E chord. As I recall, the tuning pegs were under a cover on the right end of the guitar and the pedals were tuned by screws on top of the guitar on the left end. That also had a cover over them. The one I had jiggled a lot and a customer in the club called it the Galloping Goose so I had a sign made for the front of the guitar with that name. I wish I'd kept mine for a conversation piece or somthing. I only paid 25 dollars for it in '62 and sold it a couple of years later for $15.00.

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 17 Dec 2002 8:38 am

Yes Jerry, Scissor type puller. The very first "modern" style changer ever. It must have been a good idea, everything but the "push-pull" guitar is using this method today. Bought your's for $25.00 and sold it for $15.00? If you only lost $10.00, you did a lot better than most folks! Try that with a car! This guitar should not be ignored in the history and evolution of the steel guitar. (but I'd hate to have to play one on a gig all night!)

Doug Seymour · Post by **Doug Seymour** » 17 Dec 2002 10:10 am

Hey, Bobbe, you were with me when I bought my first one! Then you got my home-made Epiphone triple 8......he says it's my fault he got "hooked" on steel like all the rest of us! You either love steel or you don't!!!

Bob Strum · Post by **Bob Strum** » 17 Dec 2002 10:12 am

Hey guys, yes I still have mine! Bought it in 1955. Nobody would or could tell me what tuning or copedant to use. So, playing 78 records on 45 speed, I listened carefully to Boggs, West, Rey, Murphy to try to get something close. Amazingly, I still use some of the moves on a Pedalmaster 12!! Remember how widely spaced the strings were on the MC? You could almost drop your bar between them. Regards, Bob

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 17 Dec 2002 4:25 pm

And...they also made a double-neck model that had 6 pedals!

Roy Ayres · Post by **Roy Ayres** » 17 Dec 2002 6:10 pm

I had a non-pedal "changer" guitar so many years ago I don't even remember what make it was. Maybe one of you can tell me. It had a series of hand-operated levers at the right end -- one lever for each string. Each lever has several positions. Each progressive position raised the associated string one half tone when moved to the right and lowered that string one half tone when moved to the left. It was like having an infinite number of necks with different tunings. All you had to do was take about five minutes between songs to set up your next tuning. What was it???????

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 17 Dec 2002 8:46 pm

Marty- I had a 6 pedal 8 string Multi-Kord tuning head changer, that I bought from Jay Harlan , on of the brothers who invented it. I paid $50.00 for it.

I didn't want the guitar. I built my own with solid rods pulling the bars on top.

I used a hard maple body with a sheet steel under to eliminate any Cabinet drop. No case. Mine never bounced around like the regular Multi-Kords that my students used.

It was all set up all the time. I put 14 strings on it with the changer in the middle, so I had high notes and low notes that wasn't on the changer. And had two staggered guitar pickups as there was no pickups available for that.

I had an adult student who knew his stuff and built it for me. That was in 1960.

I was very happy with it as it played in tune better than my old Gibson Electra-Harp. One reason it had lock nuts on the tuning screws. Change pedal tunings in seconds, any pull you wanted, but it was hard to push those pedals.

I played it for about 10 years in a lot of clubs with a lot of pop and jazz bands. Those were the days.
When I got my first MSA D12, I sold it and never looked back... Happy Holidays...al

Smiley Roberts · Post by **Smiley Roberts** » 18 Dec 2002 10:11 pm

Al,
RE:Electraharp tuning screws

Just B4 I got my 1st Sho~Bud from Shot,in '67,I had an Electraharp,& confronted him w/ this problem. He told me to go out & buy a couple dozen cheap,retractable ball-point pens,take them apart,remove the springs from them,& put them on the tuning screws. VOILA!! It WORKED!! Shot was a GENIUS!! (why didn't I think of that??)

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<pre> ~ ~
©¿© It don't mean a thang,
mm if it ain't got that twang.
www.ntsga.com</pre>

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 19 Dec 2002 7:39 am

Hi Smiley, Shot WAS a Genius. I wish I had known that back in 1947 when I got that used Electra-Harp.

I'll bet you know my friend Jimmy Yates, lives in Hendersonville. He played 6 nights a week for 7 years at Harry's Capri in Phoenix .

Then he moved to Nashville, played with Little Jimmie Dickens, Jean Shepard and Stonewall Jackson. He had a Midi setup on his Emmons, I think he still has that rare bird.

I met Jimmy when I worked for Maricopa County in Phoenix 1971 and played 3 nights a week for 2 years at the Yucca club. He attends the TSGA doings, if you see him say "Hello" for me.
....Happy Holidays....al[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 19 December 2002 at 07:43 AM.]

Ed Naylor · Post by **Ed Naylor** » 19 Dec 2002 12:00 pm

I have several old Multi-Kords in my private collection.The Wobbly legs were the worst part. Several years ago I got SONNY CURTIS old guitar with his name on the front. I wish I hadn,t sold it for $75.Ed Naylor Steel Guitar Works

Smiley Roberts · Post by **Smiley Roberts** » 20 Dec 2002 12:42 pm

Al,
Jimmy Yates is a member of our club. He's got a real bad case of Parkinson's. Don't think he's playin' anymore. I'll relay your message.

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<pre> ~ ~
©¿© It don't mean a thang,
mm if it ain't got that twang.
www.ntsga.com</pre>

Marty Nemanick · Post by **Marty Nemanick** » 29 Dec 2002 4:01 pm

Thank all you guys for the replies and great stories. Have a great New Year. Marty...