I receive my Clinesmith S8 Joaquin Murphey!!!!

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · Post by **Jean-Sebastien Gauthier** » 25 Mar 2014 8:08 am

I receive it! Its an amazing steel!! Its perfect, its a beauty, it sound great and clear, the tone pot work very very well, and its very easy to play, the scale length and strings spacing is perfect for my style. The slant are easy and the longer scale help my intonation a lot.

Billy Easton · Post by **Billy Easton** » 25 Mar 2014 8:27 am

Nice!!

Billy

Jerome Hawkes · Post by **Jerome Hawkes** » 25 Mar 2014 8:28 am

nice - makes me miss mine i had to sell to fund the T-8.
did you spec only 1 knob? - a tone?
i think when i get my replacement S-8 i will go with the old style volume on bottom & tone on top knob configuration - it seems like the tone would be in the way but i've gotten use to it on my Ric B6 and can get to it easier.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 25 Mar 2014 8:31 am

Nice, man, congratulations!

I still have and love my S8, which I call Brown Sugar (it is walnut). My D-10 is called Brandy.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 25 Mar 2014 8:38 am

Congrats, Jean! That's a beautiful lap steel.

Stephen Abruzzo · Post by **Stephen Abruzzo** » 25 Mar 2014 8:56 am

Congrats......she sure is sweet. Please tell us about the just one-knob. Curious as heck.

Will you be keeping the Tremblay?

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · Post by **Jean-Sebastien Gauthier** » 25 Mar 2014 9:34 am

Jerome Hawkes wrote:nice - makes me miss mine i had to sell to fund the T-8.
did you spec only 1 knob? - a tone?
i think when i get my replacement S-8 i will go with the old style volume on bottom & tone on top knob configuration - it seems like the tone would be in the way but i've gotten use to it on my Ric B6 and can get to it easier.

Thanks Jerome, yes I asked for just one knob, its a reversed tone knob, all the tone is in the first 10%, its very easy to do fast and deep boo-wah. I dont need a volume knob because I use a volume pedal and it dont get in the way of my right hand.

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · Post by **Jean-Sebastien Gauthier** » 25 Mar 2014 9:35 am

Stephen Abruzzo wrote:Congrats......she sure is sweet. Please tell us about the just one-knob. Curious as heck.

Will you be keeping the Tremblay?

I will keep the Tremblay, its a steel I just can't sell.

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 25 Mar 2014 9:40 am

Congratulations! Have fun finding all the music that's hiding in there.

Jim Newberry · Post by **Jim Newberry** » 25 Mar 2014 10:09 am

Congratulations J-S!

J'ai besoin d'un D-8, moi. Un jour, un jour...

Rick Barnhart · Post by **Rick Barnhart** » 25 Mar 2014 10:30 am

Congratulations, Jean! The delicious wait is over. Gorgeous guitar.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 25 Mar 2014 10:32 am

Congratulations and musically speaking, Bon AppÃ©tit!

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · Post by **Jean-Sebastien Gauthier** » 25 Mar 2014 10:52 am

Merci! This steel is just perfect! Great tone and the perfect balance of scale length and spacing!

Tom Snook · Post by **Tom Snook** » 25 Mar 2014 1:27 pm

I know you are a happy man! What is the scale length?

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 25 Mar 2014 1:40 pm

Beautiful guitar!

And it takes a French Canadian to be able to spell Joaquin's last name correctly, with the "e" - seems like many around here leave that "e" out of the picture.

Scott Swenson · Post by **Scott Swenson** » 25 Mar 2014 2:19 pm

I received mine late Friday, but I was so busy this weekend I hardly got to play it. I'm still trying to sort it all out, since this is a whole new ballgame to me. I've been trying different height settings to find the sweet spot, & tweaking my Z-28 1x12 some too. In my limited time with it, I can say that it looks & sounds beautiful, as much as a rookie can get sweetness from it!!
More later...

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 25 Mar 2014 2:28 pm

Scott Swenson wrote:I've been trying different height settings to find the sweet spot

I would think these came fully tweaked for such things, with maybe the slightest adjustment for personal tastes.

Scott Swenson · Post by **Scott Swenson** » 25 Mar 2014 3:16 pm

Ron Whitfield wrote:
Scott Swenson wrote:I've been trying different height settings to find the sweet spot
I would think these came fully tweaked for such things, with maybe the slightest adjustment for personal tastes.

I should have been more specific... What I meant was the height settings on my Deluxe 34 stand. Since I'm new to this, I'm trying to get comfortable, while not starting out with bad habits. Does anyone have any tips on setting a good height for proper posture & playing technique? Also, the chair I'm using probably isn't ideal, but it's what I have to use for now.
As far as I can tell, the set-up is perfect.

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 25 Mar 2014 3:59 pm

Scott Swenson wrote:As far as I can tell, the set-up is perfect.

Sounds much more likely, enjoy that bad boy.

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · Post by **Jean-Sebastien Gauthier** » 25 Mar 2014 6:08 pm

Tom Snook wrote:I know you are a happy man! What is the scale length?

Yes Im a very happy man! The scale is 24 7/8, its a lot longer than what I would choose at first but after playing it a lot today I can tell that its a very good scale if you have the right string spacing, it give a better tone and easier intonation.

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · Post by **Jean-Sebastien Gauthier** » 25 Mar 2014 6:14 pm

Im also very happy with my choice of having no volume pot, my right hand is directly where this button would be!

Jim Rossen · Post by **Jim Rossen** » 26 Mar 2014 5:44 am

I adore my Clinesmith Joaquin S8 but occasionally bump the volume control with my right hand. Ideal for me would be to move the volume control to the tone control location and use a concentric pot for both, but I don't know of a suitable one. Anyone know of a concentric pot that would work?
I have found and use a smaller control knob. The picture shows two knobs purchased from Antique Electronic Supply (tubesandmore.com) beside the original control knob. I am using the narrow knob. The short knob would probably be best but would require shortening the pot shaft. This could probably be done with pot in place using a Dremel with cutoff wheel but you'd hate to bugger up the paint or drop metal shavings into the pot. Also, I am not sure that the shortened pot shaft would be long enough for use with the original knob. What is involved in removing the fretboard/control panel from the guitar body to pull the pot?

Jim

Jerome Hawkes · Post by **Jerome Hawkes** » 26 Mar 2014 7:22 am

i had a little struggle with the 2 knob placement too - wasn't a big deal, just an adjustment. i did find myself hitting the front knob often when picking. i had come from pedal steel and had the "pedal right hand" mentality of picking near the pick-up, i've since adjusted to a more lap steel hand mentality where you are up on the neck more.
i injured my hand as a kid and my pinky healed bent, so getting to it was sometimes hit or miss. of course, this really only applies to using the tone / volume use as special effects in tunes where you need to grab em quick.

like i mentioned before, on my next one i'm going top & bottom to solve that.

Lonnie Bennett · Post by **Lonnie Bennett** » 27 Mar 2014 1:43 pm

Congrats! I know you will enjoy it.