Magnatone's "Multimatic" Lap Steel Guitar

Al Gershen · Post by **Al Gershen** » 2 Apr 2000 10:25 am

Hi Group:

I pulled out an old Magnatone brochure (Catalogue No 51A) from the early 1950s and the lap steel guitar featured on the front is their "Multimatic" Model No. MG-100-6.

This is a squarish looking lap steel guitar with 6 strings, a keyless design and 8 small round buttons next to the volume and tone controls that allow you to obtain 8 additional tunings from the basic tuning.

The brochure mentions that this steel guitar is "the product of 10 years of research and engineering."

The list price of this instrument is "only" $289.50. To put this in prospective, most of thier lap steel guitars are listed well under $100 each. Their triple neck steel guitar has a list price of $245.00. All the above prices do not include cases which range from $18.00 to $59.50.

Magnatone's comments about this special lap steel guitar include the following:

"Smooth, instantaneous cut-over from one tuning to another at your finger tip. Feather button push button action cut-over on the faster numbers [songs]. No gadgets to operate, no foot pedal contrivances. No heavy multi-neck Guitar to carry around."

My first electric steel guitar, that my parents bought for me around 1952, was a Magnatone student set that included a lap steel guitar (6 strings) and a small amplifier.

Over the years, someone stole (or long-termed borrowed?) the amplifier but I still have the lap steel guitar. It's very similar to the ones you see on the eBay auctions daily.

I've never seen the Magnatone Multimatic in person but I sure would like to know more about it. For example, how do the 8 buttons work? Is their tunings user modifiable or are they factory set?

If you have any experiences with the Magnatone Multimatic lap steel guitar, please post them here.

I look forward to being educated about what appears to be a very interesting lap steel guitar.

Come one, be truthful: All of us who play a pedal steel guitar have "foot pedal contrivances" regardless of the make or model we play.

Finally, should I have posted this on the Bar Chatter page because the Magnatone Multimatic appears to be a form of pedal steel guitar, sans pedals.

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Regards,
Al Gershen
Grants Pass, Oregon. USA
Fender 1000 and Fender PS 210
[This message was edited by Al Gershen on 02 April 2000 at 11:32 AM.]

Doug Smith · Post by **Doug Smith** » 2 Apr 2000 3:21 pm

I saw someone play one of these a few years ago at Joliet. It's an interesting idea-I think there are solenoids that are activated by the buttons. It is a fairly touchy affair to keep tuned, and the real problem is that the solenoids(or relays, or whatever) are too noisy to be practical.

I don't think I'd call it a pedal guitar. Where are the pedals?

Al Gershen · Post by **Al Gershen** » 10 Apr 2000 10:54 am

Move to top in an attempt to get more replies.

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Regards,
Al Gershen
Grants Pass, Oregon. USA
Fender 1000 and Fender PS 210

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 11 Apr 2000 7:40 am

I saw one of these guitars many years ago in Santa Ana, California, in a pawn shop. When you pressed a button, the entire guitar would shake and the changing motors would whine. I'm sure this was a good idea at the time, but the passage of time pointed out the inherent flaw in having a motorized pitch changing mechanism - if the motor goes bad, so does your pitch!
It was not a good enough sounding guitar, even without the pitch changing mechanism, to be worth whatever they wanted for it (probably $100 if my memory serves).
You can see a picture of this guitar in "The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and Its Great Hawaiian Musicians" edited by Lorene Ruymar and published by Centerstream Press.

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Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars
[This message was edited by Brad Bechtel on 11 April 2000 at 08:48 AM.]

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 16 Apr 2000 9:32 pm

Doug, I think the guitar you saw being played at Joliet was the MULTICHORD which was made by MAGNATONE, if I am not wrong. It was played by Margie Mays of GA., and I might add, played exceedingly well. She is an excellent steel guitarist. The switches are indeed solinoid...and can be noisy. The idea had merit, but very few were produced. I'll bet, with today's electronic technology, if someone were to try it again, it just might be a winner...just think, all those chords and no pedals !

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 13 May 2006 6:18 pm

Was this the first keyless steel guitar?

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Doug Smith · Post by **Doug Smith** » 14 May 2006 4:04 am

I recently bought an eight button Multimatic. It is a little shopworn, but NOS. This is the same model that Margie Mays played at Joliet, and that her husband tinkers with to keep running. She has two of them-one for parts. It jumps around a bit when you change tunings. Dickerson made just a handful of these complicated instruments.
It came with a list of the tunings. I believe that they can be changed, but I haven't tried to adjust anything-there are some issues, like replacing the foam cushions that dampen the changing mechanism, that ought to be done first...
I'll try to post some photos if this interests anyone.
[This message was edited by Doug Smith on 14 May 2006 at 05:05 AM.]

Ed Altrichter · Post by **Ed Altrichter** » 14 May 2006 6:37 am

What would you call the effect that pedals have on a guitar if you did not mention the pedals ? (If instead of saying "pedal" steel guitar you might say:
"_____ steel guitar" ?).

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 14 May 2006 7:16 am

Post some pics Doug!

C. Brattain · Post by **C. Brattain** » 14 May 2006 4:59 pm

Magnatone worked on that automatic changing unit for about a year and never could get it to work right and change in tune. I thank Paul Barth was working on it. We had Magnatone make us some lap steels in the late 1940's called the Stay Tune that was tuned with a allen ranch so the students could not turn the machine heads and get it out of tune. Probley the first keyless guitar.
Chuck

Doug Smith · Post by **Doug Smith** » 14 May 2006 5:07 pm

Here are some links for Multimatic pictures:
http://www.hsga.org/membersrecordings/DougSmith/Mm1.jpg http://www.hsga.org/membersrecordings/DougSmith/Mm2.jpg http://www.hsga.org/membersrecordings/DougSmith/Mm3.jpg http://www.hsga.org/membersrecordings/DougSmith/Mm4.jpg http://www.hsga.org/membersrecordings/DougSmith/Mm5.jpg http://www.hsga.org/membersrecordings/DougSmith/Mm6.jpg

Thanks to Gerald Ross for getting these photos where you can see them, and for bringing HSGA into the ditagal age.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 15 May 2006 8:03 pm

Al Gershen- Thanks for your post, brought back mamories of long ago.
I saw and played a Magnatone at the NAMM show at the Palmer House in Chicago, about 1953. The solonoids made so much noise when you punched them that I immediately lost all interest in it.
Besides the tuning problems, it was still so easy to play a regular guitar, I used to switch tunings from A6 to E6 or c# minor, c6,etc, just a couple of pegs to turn. It was easier to me than the old lever guitar too. I already had my 6 pedal Gibson Pre-War Electra-Harp though too....al

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

[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 15 May 2006 at 09:07 PM.]