The Steel Guitar Forum

Jon,

Thanks for the explanation. I would love to hear how that guitar sounds!

That is a great looking Steel. Congrats, Jon!
The pickup looks cool with those two big rails.
Do you have a Tone knob?

Thanks Pete.
Not a tone control. I considered one but with the Freeloader at my fingertips, I've got that covered -- and covered better than a simple treble cut tone control.

This is a volume control, post-fx pedalboard. The signal returns from the pedalboard, is tweakable by the pot and is sent to the amplifier.

From the first day I used a dirt pedal when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I have struggled to set the stompbox output volume so that I could hit it with full volume pedal but not blow the house down. No matter how carefully I set the stompbox (at home or sound check), in the heat of battle I would end up having to back off the volume pedal onstage and ruin the OD tone. Now all I need to do, rather than dive for the fx volume control or the amp, is tweak the pot. While of course I could put the whole fx board pre-VP, then I would have to have a more complex setup with the delay coming post VP (because I detest pre-VP delay & reverb).

I have been using this system onstage for the last year with an outboard leg-mounted box. It has worked brilliantly and I swear by it. "If you could have one control by your fingertips....?" For me, this is it.

I had Williams machine me two holes in the endplate and I installed this on the new guitar. It can be totally ignored and run thru the single output cord if I wish. It is not dissimilar to the OBEL on Jerry Garcia guitars, but I believe it is at a different point in the signal flow.

That is great idea, Jon!
I know exactly what you are talking about. I have a Phred-Instruments JG Guitar with the OBEL (OBEL = On Board Effects Loop).

This is the one I bought last summer. I chose this colour from the website because I wanted a vintage look and I knew I'd be happy with it, but when I opened the box I was stunned by the quality of the finish. When I'm too old to play it it'll still be a fine piece of furniture.



I was also impressed by the underneath - nothing fancy, just very solid and beautifully presented. This is essentially the same instrument as Jon's but in its most compact realisation.

Yep--that's a beauty, Ian. Keyless would have been perfectly consistent with my program of reducing the size and weight of my gig haulage but....I lacked the courage. It has always been a leap I just can't quite make.

It didn't take courage for me - it was necessity. I wanted a uni 12 long before I could afford to buy one so I built my own. I couldn't figure out how to make a roller nut so I came up with my keyless nutless tuner design and it worked perfectly. I've never looked back.

Hey Jon, nice guitar(an understatement). Any chance of some underneath pics? I was thinking of adding an additional LKR to my Williams. Thanks regardless, Mike.

Yeah, I'll be glad to, Mike. I'll get at it in the morning.

Beautiful guitar Jon you must have had some training on the 747 to fly that girl upright Jon with that set up wow.

Thanks Wayne. I figure I could walk into the heliport and fly whatever is idling on the tarmac at the moment out of there.

Mike -- I just shot a general series. Let me know and I'll be glad to do a more detailed shoot of whatever you need to see.

Those shots are perfect. Thanks Jon.