The Steel Guitar Forum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZqIa12s ... -fresh+div

I just found this on Youtube. (Strange choice of music)

how bout this fellow Nikodém Norbert ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEXZUlKa ... re=related

Going back some 20 years or so, while attending the conventions in Winchester, IN., I'm sure many of you will recall (the late) NORMAN ENGLISH who was associated with O'AHU PUBLISHING COMPANY for many years. Norman, besides being an accomplished steel guitarist/teacher was also a comedian of sorts on the steel. (A 'Victor Borge' on the steel). He would appear on stage with his "latrine-itar (Toilet seat guitar) also other wild instruments like a 2 x 4 x 8 plank of lumber and produce some of the sweetest sounds.

Rick Aiello wrote:Danny James' steel ... as played by Bobby Ingano






Danny and his lovely wife watch as Bobby takes his changer thru its paces ...

I built this guitar out of 50 yr. old Wild Cherry that came out of an old barn loft. Then I designed and built the changer. It has 4 tunings that can be changed with the flip of a single lever. It is completely tuneable within the limits of string stretch. The tunings I have on it now are A, C6th, E, & A6th. It has an earlier Rick Aiello MRI pickup in it. Rick made the housing, and installed the Neodymium magnets, and I made my own pickup winding machine and wound my own coil. Rick & I put our heads together on that first one to get it sounding just right.

Yes, Danny is quite the innovator. It occurs to me that if he were to put springs into his changer returning the strings to their original pitch when you take your hand off the changer, then he would have the ultimate palm levers, where each lever could really replicate the foot pedals of a PSG. The current palm levers available will only work one string per lever, which makes a direct use of a PSG copedant impossible. I've seriously considered attaching palm levers to the mechanism of a Harlin MultiKord, which would do the same thing.

Bobby Lee: a lot of images have disappeared from this thread over the last five years, which is a pity because I was hoping that this thread would turn into a sort of reference library.

Alan,
Actually my re-starting this post was an accident. (long story)

I would need to give away my design in order to explain why what you suggest wouldn't work with the changer I built. However the idea is thought provoking.

I designed and built this changer because of a degenerative spine and neuropathy in both feet & legs preventing me from adequately using the pedals on my old early 60's model Multi-Kord Hawaiian Ppedal Steel Guitar.

That and I had not yet found where anyone had built a completely tunable tuning changer for a lap steel guitar, that had 4 tunings available, that would stay in tune, and could change the pitch of any or all strings with each flip of the single lever.

So it was just a challenge to see if I could accomplish it in my own shop. It took me a couple of years to develop, but it works. I have never yet broken a string changing tunings which is another plus.

Handles in both ends:

Jim Pitman, your stain work looks great. is it oil based or nitro?

My new guit-steel I completed this summer.

here are a few I created:

I made this in 1999. Headstock isn't pretty but it worked. This thing also had amazing tone, sadly disassembled with plans on making it an 8 string. But it never happened. I laid the fret board out with a sharpy I think I had a total of about 50 bucks in it. Crude but very functional.

Dave, that guit-steel is real sweet!
Are those genuine Fender parts or reproduction items? The steel fret board and tuning pan look great.

All hand built from the body to the pickup. Gotta love that Formica

Michael Maddex wrote:Dave, that guit-steel is real sweet!
Are those genuine Fender parts or reproduction items? The steel fret board and tuning pan look great.

Thanks Michael. I got lucky on eBay one day and got the bridge plate and tuner pan in the same auction. The fretboard is a reproduction from steel guitar Nashville. It's slightly wider than a stringmaster board but fit just right on the steel top I made. I made the control cover and pickguard from a street sign and had to make the pickup cover too. They're a pretty rare find.

Lynn Wheelwright wrote:All hand built from the body to the pickup. Gotta love that Formica

I love that. Did you build it?

This crazy dbl nk seems to be a remnant of the wood pile. The bridge, nut and even the inlays are antler, deer I assume. The Pickup is hand built and the volume knobs appear to be from the dash of a chevy.

Dave, Got it off the interweb years ago, built by Ken Johnson out of Iowa. Seems he had a small instrument building business for a number of years.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pete-Towers-C ... 51b83213a7

Here is one lurking on UK ebay, it pays homage to the cast Nationals of the 1930,s.

Lee

Some great guitar builders on here.

I can build a fire if you spot me a book of matches and some gasoline.

Here's a family picture of my homemade instruments over the last 8 years:

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Here's a couple of Melbert Steels

Here's a few pics of my Palm Pedal Steel Guitar I just finished:









I tune it to open E, raise the 3rd string 1/2 step (G# to A), and 2nd string (B to C#).

Basically, a pedal steel guitar mechanism sitting on top. Any string can be raised, by changing or adding levers. I'm thinking about added optional removable cables to hook up a couple of pedals. Or, maybe a foot pedal to a string blocker, as with the palm pedals it's not possible to palm block, or at least, really hard to do so.

Has roller nut, rollers on bridge.

Wayne

Well, here's my home built lap steel. I just finished it this afternoon. I have been a hobbyist guitar player for decades, and have thought about getting a lap steel for a few years. I don't know how to play it, but I did buy the Mel Bay Presents Basic C6th Nonpedal Lap Steel Method, and Doug Beaumier's 25 songs, and 25 more songs for C6.

It has a 23 and 13/16" scale length. I built it as a ten string capable instrument, but I have only strung it with six strings while learning. The pickup is a Wallace True Tone, and the tuning gears are Schallers. It has no tone or volume control, so the pickup is wired direct to the output jack. The body material is the finest tone wood known to mankind: 1/2" MDF (medium density fiberboard)! The body is hollow approximately under most of the fretboard from the nut to about 3/4" from the pickup. The fretboard itself is about 2mm thick clear plexiglass with the fret lines and marker dots machined into the back surface. The nut and bridge are made from thick aluminum right angle stock.

Thanks go out to b0b for the Steel Guitar Forum, and to the knowledgeable Steel Guitar Forumites.

Eric

guit steel I had built for me. doesn't look this pretty anymore.