Cromwell / Gibson lap steel

[Tom Pettingill]

Good job Joe!

[Joe Kaufman]

Thanks Tom! Coming from someone who does great work, I really take that as a compliment.

[chris ivey]

yeah, nice! brass is good to work with. i made my dobro nut out of it. pretty easy to file and sounds good.

[Jamie Mitchell]

15 cents for that seventh string!

string were expensive back then!

[Jim Pitman]

That's a great lap steel. I think we now know the routes of the Gibson Lespal styling.
Looks to me like the body sides are laminated strips. I've toyed with hollowing a lap steel body. It's interesting how you can change the overtones by removing material.

[Bob Foster]

I have the same guitar, as a legacy from my uncle, Donald Foster, who died in WWII. The amp still works well, but I don't push it because it may be difficult to repair.

There are no drill marks on the headstock to indicate that it was ever meant to be anything other than 7-string model, and the slot on the 7 string saddle for the lowest string is definitely meant for a lighter gauge string than the ones near it.

I tune to open D, then use the 7th string as a B, which enables 6th chords and makes it easier to produce minor chords as well.

Even though this is a Cromwell, there is no white stripe down the center of the fretboard.

[Jack Hanson]

Here's another factory 7-string produced by the Gibson Company circa 1941 (F1011-85) -- set up with a bridge sporting a narrower slot for the 7th string that was obviously intended for use with a reentrant tuning -- a Kalamazoo KEH-7 "Oriole." The bridge appears similar -- if not identical -- to the two Cromwell instruments pictured above.





It came as a set in a fiberboard case with this matching KEH-C amplifier:



Produced for export (to Canada), the set still works great after more than 80 years.

[Bill Groner]

Nothing today is made like it once was. Had a washer for 25 years till it quit. Next one didn't even make it 5 years!

PROGRESS!!!!