The Steel Guitar Forum

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 16 Mar 2005 10:56 am

Here's "The MSA Story" from one of the MSA's founders, Reece Anderson:
http://www.msapedalsteels.com/reece/story1.html

These old threads will tell you what players today say about the old MSA's:

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/004875.html

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/006460.html

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/006461.html

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/006794.html

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 16 March 2005 at 10:59 AM.]

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 16 Mar 2005 11:05 am

John.. they are among the finest pedal steel guitars ever made. The mechanism is BULLETPROOF and easy to set up.

They do not have the "mystique" that other steels have which I believe keeps the price down.. Some claim they are "dark" sounding, but I strongly disagree. I had 4 of them and they sounded great to me. Another bad rap on these guitars stems from the fact that SOME of the Mica covered models were made of plywood.. I had a plywood body MSA and it DID lack the sustain that the maple bodies had.. I think if you buy any MSA made after the early 70's you will not get a plywood guitar,but Maurice Anderson is the man to ask.He'll know for certain.

The Maple/lacquer MSA guitars are pretty highly regarded and are not as cheap as Mica MSA guitars... For the price ALL MSA guitars are a STEEL!! get it?/ a steel!!. pretty funny right?...anyway, I love them.. always have always will. I just sold one with a faded finish for peanuts... bought it for peanuts too.
I did not want to take the guitar apart for refinishing. I may even buy another if I can find one with a good shiny lacquer finish on it... I and many others on this forum love the MSA Classic.. I would be proud to play one anywhere! bob[This message was edited by Bob Carlucci on 16 March 2005 at 11:07 AM.]

John Schjolberg · Post by **John Schjolberg** » 16 Mar 2005 12:02 pm

Brian Henry · Post by **Brian Henry** » 16 Mar 2005 12:10 pm

There is no guitar that even comes close to the MSA in sound appearance and mechanics. Its pedals are quiet and very positive. I have tried the rest and have found MSA to be the best wheter it is a 1975 model or a 2005 model.

Jeff A. Smith · Post by **Jeff A. Smith** » 19 Mar 2005 6:10 am

Thanks for the info. Were there any mechanical changes throughout the years?

Yes. One of the significant ones, besides the Finnish plywood and mica to solid maple and lacquer change, is the aluminum pickup pocket that was later added to spice up the tone a little. I have one of these on an S-10 maple lacquer '76 Classic, and it does change the tone. However, I would be very curious to try one of the older ones, because I've heard recordings on here that I thought sounded pretty good, albeit more "traditional," and I'm therefore not sure the pocket is necessarily better; it may just be a matter of personal preference. I guess a factor to consider, though, is that the non-pocket guitars seem to always be the plywood-mica models. But again, I've heard some nice recordings of those on here. I also once got a close-up view of a later model Classic that had a nice lacquer finish, but appeared to be a plywood of maybe three plys or so. One had to look carefully to see that.

Sometime in the late 70's or maybe the early 80's, MSA went to a triple-raise, triple-lower changer, from the old double. That's significant.

Also, there is the difference between the old single-coil pickups on the non-pocket models, that gave way to the humbucking Supersustains on the pocket models, that in turn gave way to the single-coil Supersustain II on the last of the Classics.

I'm sure there are other significant things that changed, like the fretboards and graphics, but those mentioned are a few of the more striking.

The most sought after Classics, by far, are the SS "Super Small" models, which are a totally different, more modern design.

I still have my Classic, but I usually play my Emmons Le Grande D-10 now. Plugging the Classic, which now has a Wallace True Tone single-coil on it, into my Pro Fex gets a decent tone, but the Emmons just has more of the sound I personally need, a couple more changes on E9, and the C6 neck to boot.

Mechanically, like has been said, the MSA is really impressive. I think it actually stays in tune better than the Emmons, for some reason. It has nice Grover machine heads

Jeff [This message was edited by Jeff A. Smith on 19 March 2005 at 06:16 AM.]

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 19 Mar 2005 1:44 pm

The soundclips at my website were all done with my '74 MSA Classic, it's the dieboard (plywood) and mica with no aluminum pocket type, stock single-coil pickup, if you'd like to hear what one sounds like. Of course, they can sound different than the sound I got too. The songs in the clips were mainly experiments to hear the steel in a pop instrumental, sorry, no traditional country shuffles recorded at the moment.

By the way, Reece has said that this "plywood" is actually of extremely high quality and cost even more than maple, it was NOT used to be cheap. It's said that the aluminum pocket on the later models adds a bit of treble and sustain. I also had a later model with solid maple cabinet, laquer finish and the aluminum pocket, and I think it did in fact have a bit more sustain, mainly as you go higher up the neck.

www.jimphelps.com [This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 19 March 2005 at 01:46 PM.]

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