The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello Folks,

Mike here... From Germany... (a new face here in the forum)

And here's another one

I've only had this one since the end of last year (Dec 2020). In the 80s, I had exactly the same model that I was on many stages with. Unfortunately, I had to sell them in the 90s. Stupid way: - ((
For many years I have been looking for "my old" Steel in order to be able to buy it back if possible. Unfortunately in vain. I couldn't find her anywhere
By chance I found this exact model, in exactly the same color, on a website in the UK where it was for sale! Yipiiieeh! I bought it straight away and got a really well-preserved instrument. Only had to rebuild the knee lever as it had a completely different setup from my old one.

Two things are still not so good:
1st: I had the "Sound Control Unit" on my old MSA (control of tone and volume and the bypass switch) on the right side. The complete unit is missing from the "new" one. It only has the bank switch.
(Does anyone happen to know where I might get the Sound Control Unit ???)

2nd: I have a tuning problem with pedal 3, 4th string E->F# (E gets out of tune when I want to tune the pedal to F#). I have published a post on this topic here in the forum under the topic "technicals". Maybe someone can help me there ?!

Picture 1: Me, "back then" on my old MSA, pictures 2 and 3: my "new" one.

Beautiful Steel ... congrats!

Thx 4 it! Yes, it is... And I LOVE it!

Here's my new baby. S10 Legend 5X6. It's so incredibly beautiful and plays SO great. Fall in love all over again every time I sit down. Here's a new pic at the shop and then one of me soaking up as much knowledge as my brain would hold from the great Mitchell Smithey. Lifetime guitar for me. Love it!

Very, very nice!!! Wish u a LOT of fun with it and many great inspirations!

Chris, how would you compare the Legend with the G2? If you could only have one, which would you choose?

Chris Willingham wrote:Here's my new baby. S10 Legend 5X6. It's so incredibly beautiful and plays SO great. Fall in love all over again every time I sit down. Here's a new pic at the shop and then one of me soaking up as much knowledge as my brain would hold from the great Mitchell Smithey. Lifetime guitar for me. Love it!

Congratulations Chris... that's beautiful guitar you've got there... I had this one for about a year... Sadly I couldn't adjust to a Single Neck after 40+ years on Double Necks... This was number 3 of this Model with Mitchell getting #1 and Mickey Adams #2

Right now Mitchell has mine on the bench... that REALLY Pretty One

BTW, I also have Mitchells 2016 Red n Black D10 ... The prettiest guitars on the Planet=MSA

This don’t belong too me wish it did!

MSA must have sold A TON of STEELS through the years an still building beautiful top notch steels’!!!!!

Johnie King wrote:This don’t belong too me wish it did!

MSA must have sold A TON of STEELS through the years an still building beautiful top notch steels’!!!!!

Heh, it DOES belong to me, and I'm really glad it does! Slight change since this picture was taken, I've changed RKR to a flagged knee lever. It gave me just the change I wanted in seating position.

--Al Evans

Thanks guys!! It's a dream guitar for sure. Plays just as great as it looks.

Mike, the G2 is a great guitar, but there's no comparison, it's the MSA hands down for me. The G2 may be for sale at some point down the road to go toward a MSA D10 or an S12

Beyond its beauty, it's incredibly easy and comfortable to play and SO even and balanced up and down the neck, never gets thin, even in Hugheyland. And the 2nd string half-stop is the most solid I've ever felt. Never have to worry if I'm going to nail it in tune or not.

I love that purple S10 Dale, but the new one is gonna be spectacular! I was poking around the shop when I picked mine up, hoping to catch a glimpse I got a chrome wrapped 705 and a 206. You were so right about the 206, it's got just the right amount of growl to it.

And thanks Michael, it is certainly inspiring!

It's like I always said. Magnificent, Superior, Awesome

After a long awaited period, mine shipped today!

Finest guitar I've EVER had. 10x9 D10 Legend. "Jolly Rancher"

Darwin, on your universal that was Reece Anderson’s, it has different mounts for the changer than I’ve seen on any other MSA. I’ve seen picture of Maurice with what appears to be the same guitar, but with normal changer mounts. Do you know the story there?

Here's my MSA. It's my first steel that isn't a Sho-Bud Maverick, and I think it might be my dream guitar, even though I'm really mostly a bassist.

I think it's probably a very late 70s to early 80s model. It's got some wear and dings on it, but I don't think I'd ever get it resprayed. Car folks would call it a patina. I just think it looks well broken in.




Plus, I mean, it's black. That's my preferred color for most objects. I appreciate the gorgeous guitars seen before in this thread, but this guitar being black is just too much. It has such an awesome fuzz built into it, I might have bought it even if it wasn't the S12 Uni I thought I needed and it was painted school bus yellow. Black, and the Uni 12 I wanted to play, with a Jordan Boss Tone built in? Yes, I want that.

The Boss Tone looks like it might have been installed at the factory. It's not a bad job, and the knobs and switch on the panel match the tone/off knobs and switches. Does anyone know if this was a factory option?




But it kind of looks like the job was done by just removing the board from the Jordan unit, screwing it into the bottom, and remote mounting the potentiometers and switch on the body.




The fuzz is really devastatingly good. It was a bit glitchy the first few times I used it, but it seems the more I use it, the better it seems to work. On top of all that, it appears that this guitar might be wired for stereo. I haven't traced everything yet, but this second jack on the bottom seems to carry the same signal as the one from the panel on the back of the cabinet. This seems to make the Boss Tone seem less likely to be added at the factory, but all of these modifications seem pretty well done.




And as that image shows, it's 1C 6106. Even though I can't play a minor chord on it yet - it's got a kind of an odd copedent, pedal seven does nothing at the moment. I'll figure it out - I'm in love with it and its sound. Growl doesn't even begin to describe it when the fuzz is on. I bought it from Jim Palenscar on consignment (thank you again, Jim). But if anyone can provide more information about it from this info, I'd appreciate any of it.

The pickup is a little bit microphonic, but no worse than the pickups from my mid-80s MIJ Fender precision basses, and I run them with a large amount of gain. Plus, I find the pickups being a bit microphonic to give a guitar a lot of character. This guitar is sweet on many different levels.

Hehe, I did a bit of reading on the forum and elsewhere, and now I realize that it's really likely that fuzz is original to the guitar.

Bobby Burns wrote:Darwin, on your universal that was Reece Anderson’s, it has different mounts for the changer than I’ve seen on any other MSA. I’ve seen picture of Maurice with what appears to be the same guitar, but with normal changer mounts. Do you know the story there?

That was one of their original changer designs they used early on in several (pre-"Classic" model) guitars back in the 1970s and up to about 1982. Here's the same changer featured in a Sidekick "Pro-Am", which was one of their lower-end, plastic-covered models (probably designed to compete Sho~Bud's "Maverick" guitar):

Here is my lovely new to me 1982 MSA The Universal on stage in Muskegon, MI during a solo guitar/steel gig.

Damir that is the prettiest guitar that I have EVER seen! Let me know when you want to sell it!

Ron Shalita wrote:Damir that is the prettiest guitar that I have EVER seen! Let me know when you want to sell it!

thank you my friend , there was only two of those made , I waited for a year and a half to get it … I seriously doubt I’ll ever sell it , my sunburst Show Pro and this MSA , are going to be with me for a very long time … and probably my ‘66 bolt on as well …

I picked this thing up in Northern California about ten years ago. I haven’t been able to identify the model, or year of manufacture. It’s plays nicely, the pedals are laid out CBA, no mechanical issues.
I was thinking I’d like to upgrade at some point so I’m curious what it’s value might be. Any information would be greatly appreciated. [/list]

I'm guessing homemade?

Lennon Battistelli wrote:I picked this thing up in Northern California about ten years ago. I haven’t been able to identify the model, or year of manufacture. It’s plays nicely, the pedals are laid out CBA, no mechanical issues.
I was thinking I’d like to upgrade at some point so I’m curious what it’s value might be. Any information would be greatly appreciated. [/list]

I'm guessing MSA Sidekick.