Mullen Tone

Morton Kellas · Post by **Morton Kellas** » 9 Aug 2004 10:39 am

How would you describe the tone of the newer Mullen Royal Precision? I know Del makes a good instrument. I am curious what the tone difference is compared to other brands. Wood vs. formica.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 9 Aug 2004 11:32 am

Hey Mort. I love the Mullen sound. I was just in Branson for a steel show and it seemed like 8 of 10 players there had a Mullen. Great sound. Jimmy Day made it sound like a good sho-bud. They seem to have their own voice though. One of my favorite of the new brands. I had a Mullen U12 for a while and only got rid of it because I decided not to be a U12 player. Great guitar. Great mechanics. Great people too!

Brad Sarno

Skip Cole · Post by **Skip Cole** » 9 Aug 2004 6:14 pm

Morton, I was at the Branson Jam last year when i decided to get a Mullen. After listening Roger Blevins, Buck Grantham, and the young fellow that works with Moe Bandy, play their Mullen,i decided to join the Mullen crowd. I ordered mine in 8/03 and recieved it in 10/03 and Del, Mike, and Dixie did a great job getting it to me as promised.
Imho, the tone is very close to a Sho-Bud but has a bit of Legrande mixed in. The parts i am very impressed with is the lever/pedal action and the sustain. After i recieved it and played it a while, i didn't like the tone the stock p/u's gave me and called Del and asked for the same p/u's that Mr Grantham has on his Mullen. No problem,Del came through for me and it definately made a positive difference in the depth and clarity of the tone. I believe the Mullen is one of the best out there. Best wishes.--------Skip Cole

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"I Can Only Imagine" Mercy Me

Terry Sneed · Post by **Terry Sneed** » 10 Aug 2004 5:55 am

Ok mr Buck, what pickups do you use on your mullen? no secrets allowed.

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84 SKH Emmons Legrand D10
session 400'rd Steelin for my Lord.

John Bresler · Post by **John Bresler** » 10 Aug 2004 7:14 am

I played an Emmons D-10 for over 25 years and loved the tone. Great steel! Heavy as it was.

But then I attended Dick Meis' Steel Jam in Denver and 15 out of 16 pickers were playing Mullen steels. What a tone. It didn't take me long to get my Mullen and I've been enjoying that great Mullen sound for about 4 years now.

Rick Collins · Post by **Rick Collins** » 10 Aug 2004 8:04 am

Does anyone use the True Tone pickups in the Mullen?

And, can you order them with the pedals polished?

Rick Collins

Joseph V. Sapp · Post by **Joseph V. Sapp** » 10 Aug 2004 9:02 am

Rick:
I have a Mullen D-10 HWP 9x7 and the polished package is just down right purdy!!!! not just the tops of the pedals, but sides and bottoms of the pedals as well.

joe

Del Mullen · Post by **Del Mullen** » 10 Aug 2004 12:06 pm

With all the different pickups available today, you can get several different tones.

The pickups that Skip got, were our "Buck Grantham Model" They are a single coil pickup that we wound different to get the tone Buck wanted, and others liked it too.

You can read a little more about our guitars in the other post.

To answer your question Rick, you can order our guitars with all polished Pedals and knee levers, and it can be ordered with different pickups. There are many that use the true tone, I am sure they will let you know what they think.
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/008291.html

Mike Mantey

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 10 Aug 2004 2:04 pm

I had a couple of Mullen guitars and I found the mecahanics underneath , were very good and so easy to change pulls, which some of you know, I am guilty of always changing tunings.
I didn't have a new Royal Precision though so can't really compare the two.
The construction was of the best and they did have a good tone. Del and Dixie are fine people and always willing to please.

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 10 Aug 2004 3:55 pm

To repeat an oft' repeated phrase, I have always felt that the Mullen pedals and knee levers had the best "feel" of any PSG I have ever sat down to.

In fact, IF I was in the market for a D-10, I would look long and hard at the Mullen. I would only ask Dell to do one favor for me. And that is to ship the guitar with aluminum nut rollers instead of brass (I assume they are still made of brass). And then include a set of his standard rollers, so I could make a comparison test.

NO disrespect whatsoever to Dell, but I just feel that aluminum gives a better sound than brass. And the above would put that theory to the test real quick.

Finally, the prettiest and most esthetically appealing Mullen I ever saw is the one he made for Tom Brumley; and if I am not mistaken, brought it to him years ago at the ISGC. Man was that a beautiful pedal steel guitar.

As I recall it had 4 and 7 which included 3 right knee levers and 4 left knee levers all on a single 10 neck.

But, as I am thinking about it as I write this, maybe it is his Anapeg that has 4 and 7, and not his Mullen. Or both. Not sure now.

Course as always, the tone Tom gets is to die for. No matter what he plays.

carl

William Peters · Post by **William Peters** » 10 Aug 2004 4:24 pm

Carl,

Why would you think aluminum nut rollers would make any sort of discernable difference, since the strings on the left side of the bar are essentially dead (unless you are playing open strings)??

On my Mullen or my Cougar, I can't hear any difference in tone between the open string, and the same string barred. I also can't feel any vibration in the barred string with my left hand fingers which are dampening the strings. Any vibration present to the left of the bar would simply be stealing energy anyway, and thus decreasing sustain from the active portion of the string. I think thats why a heavier bar sounds better to me than a lighter one.

What is your reasoning on this?

Bill
[This message was edited by William Peters on 10 August 2004 at 05:25 PM.]

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 10 Aug 2004 6:01 pm

Oh Bill,

Very good question. I would like to answer it in an around about way to explain why I feel that strings and things to the left of the bar even with muted fingers, do make a difference in the sound of a steel guitar.

BEFORE I felt this way, I was in Saluda, SC and Carter Guitars had several of their PSG's on display. John Fabian and I got to talking and finally the subject got around to keyless guitars. And I will never forget what he told me.

"carl, since you have always played keyed, I do not believe you are going to like the sound of a keyless". Well, I did not think much about that until I bought my first keyless PSG from Sierra.

The second I sat down to it I noticed some peculiarities about it. And the one that jumped right out at me was it did NOT have the sustain after the 12th fret that all of my previous guitars had.

Secondly, I play a lot of long sustained runs like Buddy and Jerry Byrd do. IE, you pick strings 5 and 8 and then slide up stopping at given frets maybe using pedals and/or knee levers. Ending up even higher than an octave from where ya started. One song in particular comes to mind is "Blue Jade".

Well immediately I noticed the sound just was practically dead when I got to the octave fret. But more, it was dying fast before I got up there. After playing this tune for 30 yrs, my brain was programmed to know there was something amiss.

To make a long story short, I have done a ton of research on this, and I can state without hesitation, John was dead on the money. Now I also wish to state that it may not even be sustain that I am missing. It may be overtones or something yet to be discovered. All I know is, on EVERY single keyless guitar I sit down to, I am aware of it immediately and seldom if ever do I notice it on keyed guitars.

Note, the keyless end is to the LEFT of the bar! And I mute the string to the left of the bar solidly.

So based on this, I believe that nut rollers OR anything else to the left of one's bar does have a definite affect on the sound of a steel guitar.

Why? I do not wish to speculate. Because I simply do not know. I only know it is so. John pointed it out to me. And my experience proved him correct.

thanks for asking dear friend,

carl

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 10 Aug 2004 6:07 pm

One additional tidbit.

I bought and Excel keyless. Why? Well in life there are always trade offs. I do NOT have the sustain or overtones on the Excels I hear on my keyed guitars. But the Excel solves what to me are some major frustrations.

So, I am taking the old proverbial "least of all evils"

Only here are NO tradeoffs necessary

carl

William Peters · Post by **William Peters** » 10 Aug 2004 6:27 pm

Carl,

That is very interesting, and I will have to ponder that for a while. PSGs have to obey the laws of physics though, so there must be an expanation for the phenomenon you described.

As a first pass initial guess, I would say that string energy which passed from the changer into the body, and then back into the left side of the string would drain energy from the string and decrease sustain. Perhaps the keyless, which contains no nut rollers at all, provides too much coupling from the body to the left hand side of the strings which is then dissipated into your dampening fingers. Whatcha think?

Anyway, I understand now your reasoning, and surmise that aluminum rollers may provide a different amount of coupling. The question is then, is the difference enough to worry about. Like you say, an experiment is in order.

Bill
Edited to correct spelling.

[This message was edited by William Peters on 10 August 2004 at 07:29 PM.]

Del Mullen · Post by **Del Mullen** » 11 Aug 2004 6:36 am

Here is a sample recording for you to listen to. You can hear a little of what our guitar sounds like. The pickup is our stock single coil. Click the link to get recording. This was recorded by Del.

http://www.mullenguitars.com/media/DelMullen.ram

Mike Mantey

Morton Kellas · Post by **Morton Kellas** » 11 Aug 2004 6:59 am

Thank You Mike for your response. The sound clip sure does sound sweet. No one has yet answered my question about formica vs laquer guitars. How would you describe the tone difference, or is there any?

Leon Roberts · Post by **Leon Roberts** » 11 Aug 2004 2:45 pm

At the Texas Steel Guitar Show this year, Buck Grantham was playing what looked like a new Mullen. I didn’t get close enough to tell exactly what model it was. I did get close enough to hear that he sounded as good as anybody there. I’m not a Mullen owner so this is my honest opinion. If I hear a steel player playing something sweet with the tone we all want, I give the player much more credit than the guitar. You must remember that the Indian is much more important than the arrow.

Del Mullen · Post by **Del Mullen** » 12 Aug 2004 12:15 pm

IMHO- I would have to say that there is not that much difference between the wood or formica guitars. I honestly think that there is not enough tonal difference between the two that you could base your decision on, I think the difference in the tone can be compensated on your amp. I think that the lacuqer bodies basically comes down to the looks. The lacquer guitar is very nice looking, but more expensive also. I have heard some say that the lacquer bodies tend to sound a little more like an old Sho-Bud, and the Mica body tends to sound more like an old push Pull. This is my opinion on the matter, but others may disagree.

Mike Mantey

Skip Cole · Post by **Skip Cole** » 12 Aug 2004 6:23 pm

Mike, some time ago, i happened to see Del on a TV program, at the shop doing a sort of history of Mullen steel guitar and testing a few new steels. Do you have any info as to when and what program this was? I can't remember. Thanks

Skip

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"I Can Only Imagine" Mercy Me

Dave Horch · Post by **Dave Horch** » 12 Aug 2004 7:49 pm

I use a G/L's E66 pickup on my E9 neck - mainly for humbucking reasons. My C6 neck is stock Mullen single coil, and it really sounds great. It's sounds really detailed, balanced, not harsh or brittle - just right.

Now... How to get that great Mullen single coil pickup sound in a humbucker?? The age old question...

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Mullen D-10 - It's still one smooooth puppy!
<a href=http://www.davidhorch.com/music>Photo page</a>

Harry C Clark · Post by **Harry C Clark** » 14 Aug 2004 5:54 am

My Mullen HWP D10 is 8 years old, and I like it more every year. I really believe that its tone improves with age.

Harry Clark
Kingston Springs, TN

Jerry Hendrix · Post by **Jerry Hendrix** » 14 Aug 2004 6:12 am

You just can`t beat a Mullen, just ask the man that owns TWO, I Do, There is a difference in tone, but I love em both. Old Jer. D-10 & S-10 r.p.

Mike Bowles · Post by **Mike Bowles** » 14 Aug 2004 1:35 pm

mr del i just bought one of your rp mullen sd10 guitars it has great sound and the guys did a great job building her she looks great thanks steeler from Mullen

Morton Kellas · Post by **Morton Kellas** » 16 Aug 2004 10:40 am

I bought a new SD-10 mica, blue plank maple with a polished package. It sure looks good. I find it to be very well built. It plays smooth, sustains and has a nice tone. I appreciate all the replies. Thank's