It's challenge time for those of you that enjoy one.
I really would like to try and find out a little bit more about my steel and if there is anywhere I might be able to find folks to help it's here!
The guy I bought it from (Wayne Golden) said he thought it dated from the 70's and that it was "ZB inspired" design. From the darkening of the laquer I could accept that date.
Here's a few photos:
Now then. Distinguishing features.
This ident in the cast endplate reads "Country Steels .......... England". Presumably "SER OS *something* 157S" is a serial number.
The changer is an interesting design that I haven't seen anywhere befor.
The rods don't extend through to the other side where the nuts attach as with most I've seen.
Here, the rods attach to the fingers that have their own threaded section which extend through the endplate. The nuts attach to these and provide an endstop when they contact the endplate. By adjusting the nuts, the fingers are moved to tune the changes.
The mechanics were replaced at some point by a guy called Ronnie Bennett.
It's all a little bit confusing under there with some changes tuned on the endplate and the rest tuned with barrell tuners.
Apparently this was done to keep the costs of the refit down.
The interaction between all this makes it a real swine to get the hang of tweaking!
I would rather like to replace the mechanics with something a little more logical at some point. Perhaphs something more original but that depends on the usabilty of the original design.
Here you can clearly see where springs were once attached to the lower fingers but have been abandoned at some time (presumably during the refit). There's one left floating in the middle!
I have no idea of the purpose of this ill fitting "rivet" which fills a 5/8" hole in the endplate, central below the pad on the same side as the changer??
Now, the final and most intriguing question I have....
At some time there was some script lettering applied to the front right hand side of the apron. Someone made a bad job of removing it and the finish is scuffed where it was rubbed off.
I was unable to get a photo of this.
Fortunatly I can make out most of the letters as they stand out as shiny areas in the scuff.
Two names, one above the other: "Jerry Gordon" and below "*something* Hancock".
It appears to be something like "Deace Hancock" but it's hard to tell. The script used makes unknown letter identification hard. I'm 90% convinced that the "e" are correct. Not certain about the "D".
I don't know if this was original lettering or was added by someone at a later date.
The guy I bought it from hadn't even noticed it was there.
Are these names familier to anyone?
If anyone is able to shed any light on this mystery steel I'll be their friend for life!
And if not then hopefully you'll have enjoyed seeing an interesting example of British pedal steel guitars.
Thank you all!
