New Stereo Hollow Body Electric

Lap steels, resonators, multi-neck consoles and acoustic steel guitars

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Scott Walker
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New Stereo Hollow Body Electric

Post by Scott Walker »

Hey guys, I just finished up the first of the new hollow body electric 6 stringers. Heres a picture and basic information. I hope to get a basic demo video up soon.

24 3/8" scale
Lollar P-90 and String through pickup.


This one is in stereo -
Volume and tone for each pickup, 3 way pickup selector. Stere/Mono switch, and amp selector switch. In stereo mode (using a stereo cable), the amp selector switch swaps neck and bridge pickups form left to right or right to left. In Mono mode,the amp selector switch, sends both pickups to one amp or the other. And of course the stutter switch.

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Last edited by Scott Walker on 4 Feb 2016 8:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Joe Elk
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Post by Joe Elk »

Oh My!!!! Fantastically beautiful!
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John D. Carter
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Post by John D. Carter »

Impressive. What will they go for?
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Scott Walker
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Post by Scott Walker »

Thanks Guys! I'm not sure exactly the pricing and such yet. When i get all that together ill put it in the New Product section. Thanks again!
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Todd Clinesmith
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Post by Todd Clinesmith »

Just beautiful Scott.
Stephen Abruzzo
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Post by Stephen Abruzzo »

WOW......impressive indeed. The entire body is hollowed out, right? Pics of that would be cool to see too.
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Scott Walker
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Post by Scott Walker »

Thank you guys!!! Yeah here are a few gut shots of the alder version.

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Erv Niehaus
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Post by Erv Niehaus »

Most impressive!
Can you educate us on the various knobs and switches?
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Scott Walker
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Post by Scott Walker »

Thanks Erv, yeah heres a copy and paste from above. I hope it makes sense.

Volume and tone for each pickup, 3 way pickup selector. Stere/Mono switch, and amp selector switch. In stereo mode (using a stereo cable), the amp selector switch swaps neck and bridge pickups form left to right or right to left. In Mono mode,the amp selector switch, sends both pickups to one amp or the other. And of course the stutter switch.
Stephen Abruzzo
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Post by Stephen Abruzzo »

Just curious, but how do the Lollar String-thru and P90 sound together? Do you have them in series or parallel?
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Post by Stephen Abruzzo »

delete
Last edited by Stephen Abruzzo on 1 Feb 2016 11:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Scott Walker
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Post by Scott Walker »

So when in stereo mode, they are each just going out to its own channel, in Mono mode they are parallel. They sound good, the P-90 is a Vintage 50's neck, and has quit a bit lower output that the string through, and id like a close match so ill swap that out and see if i can get a closer output. Ill report back on that.
Thanks!!
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Mark Eaton
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Post by Mark Eaton »

Scott, all of your lap steels have been very impressive - but this one in particular sure takes it above and beyond the old, "it's just a slab of wood with strings and pickup" bit.
Mark
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Steve Branscom
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Post by Steve Branscom »

"I took a block of wood and carved away everything that wasn't a lap steel". I think someone else said that about sculpture but that's what I thought when I saw the interior of the steel. Nicely done.
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Scott Walker
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Post by Scott Walker »

Right on! Thank you guys!

Here is a quick demo video showing the pickups being switched from left to right and a few possibilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKNC-4kUYJg
Michael Devito
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Post by Michael Devito »

Very intriguing instrument, and pretty!
MD
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Mike Neer
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Post by Mike Neer »

I've always been a fan of a blended clean signal with a distorted. That is so cool that your guitar features the ability to do that with separate outputs. That could be a game changer.
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Scott Walker
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Post by Scott Walker »

Right on! Thank you guys!

Yeah Mike it is certainly fun! I did a batch of guitars like this with the stereo wiring, and thought i should try this with a lap. Something about the "neck" pickup overdrive and the bridge pickup clean, and the ability to swap them around with a switch on the guitar. Super fun!
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Rick Barnhart
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Post by Rick Barnhart »

That's some seriously impressive work, Scott.
Clinesmith consoles D-8/6 5 pedal, D-8 3 pedal & A25 Frypan, Pettingill Teardrop, & P8 Deluxe.
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Tom Pettingill
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Post by Tom Pettingill »

Nicely done Scott! Its a neat take on the viola / violin shape. What program do you use to create the 3D model?
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Scott Walker
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Post by Scott Walker »

Thanks! Rhino.
Doug Clark
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Post by Doug Clark »

Sounds as good as it looks. Your playing also left me saying "I wish I could do that." 8)
Jim Pitman
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Post by Jim Pitman »

Very impressive Scott. That's a great job of selecting wood with grain orientation to match the shape.
I assume the body top is comprised of two thick pieces with a seam down the middle, bookmatched?
The back definately looks bookmatched.
I've often dreamed about embedding a knee lever or two in a lap steel and that build approach looks like it could be done quite easiy (screw rather than glue on the back).
With the talk about Rhino etc, am I correct to conclude this was carved on a CNC machine?
The now defunct Rigel Mandolin company carved their instruments on a CNC machine with great results. This allowed them to mass produce some high quality arched top instruments, and thus offer them at a somewhat reasonable price (maybe everyone does this now). They went out of business when the partners couldn't agree on money issues, not necessarily due to profitability.
I realize this is an electric instrument but I've always wanted to make an acoustic lap steel using the violin shape/build approach.
Jamie Mitchell
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Post by Jamie Mitchell »

Scott Walker wrote:So when in stereo mode, they are each just going out to its own channel, in Mono mode they are parallel. They sound good, the P-90 is a Vintage 50's neck, and has quit a bit lower output that the string through, and id like a close match so ill swap that out and see if i can get a closer output. Ill report back on that.
Thanks!!
half the strings are out of phase when used together, yeah? or did you get around that somehow?

j
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Scott Walker
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Post by Scott Walker »

The Lollar String-Through pickup IS 1/2 out of phase when used with another pickup, in MONO mode. But in stereo mode, each one is routed through its own channel into separate amps and all in phase. Thats the only way I've found around it.
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