The Steel Guitar Forum

Awesome! How does life get any better?!

Just letting ya'll know, I had my website updated, and now shows the Clinesmith Steel Guitars. It's just a quick write up with a few photos .
clinesmithinstruments.com

This winter we will build a new website for Clinesmith Instruments. It will focus on my Resonator Guitars and the Steels. Maybe in a year or so I can begin to take orders for the Weissenborn Style Guitars again as well, but for now it's just Steel and Reso.



Thanks again for all the great comments and boost.
Todd

Those really are beautiful! I'm unfamiliar with Bigsbys (other than just seeing pix of famous players with the multinecks). Do the single neck laps just look like 1/2 of the doubles?

It'd be up to Todd how he makes them, but Bigsby himself built very few lap steels. The two singlenecks I've seen and Billy Robinson's guitar were not console constructed like these multinecks, just a neck on a simple blank. The two doublenecks built for Joaquin Murphy were fancier with carved bodies and necks. Either way would make a great lap steel.
And Todd, I've already said it; but simply gorgeous!!!

Jussi is correct. The original singles were pretty much a neck on a platform.... a rectangle 3/4 inch slab of Birdseye Maple. I have only seen a few of these and they were not too exciting.... pretty basic compared to PAB's other wortk.
The singles I am building are a body design I came up with, with a somewhat traditional feel. I will also start working on a D-8 lap next year sometime.
Todd

I always thought it would be awesome if someone made a traditional PAB inspired looking steel...with modern mechanics underneath.

You would have the beautiful look & sound of an original...with the flexibility, precision and reliability of a modern steel.

They could be made with a basic 3X4 E9th setup or a 4X5 E9th setup and they would be all that you ever needed. Maybe make some 8X4 doubles or single C6's as well.

I'm sure they would sell fast. I've always loved the look & tone of the ol'PAB steels & I've always wished someone would remake them.

YOU ROCK!!!

Casey

Man ... I never get tired of looking at these gorgeous steels

Casey... The thought has crossed my mind to have modern mechanics installed. Maybe down the line sometime.

Tom, I have admired your steels a number of times myself.

Todd

MAN---Todd Clinesmith building beautiful steels, Gregg McKenna talking about fitting cones---If Ivan Guernsey were around, we'd just about have it knocked! Thanks, guys!
And Todd, those PA's are knockouts.

Without getting too commercial amidst all those comments on the excellent workmanship, could I ask how much you will be selling these instruments for when you get into production ?

Alan- I just put pricing and some other photos up on my website:

www.clinesmithinstruments.com

Click on the "steel" link

Production has started, as I am filling a few orders I recieved several months ago. As time goes on, I will keep adding new instruments to my web site, and eventually this winter the website will get a complete overhaul.

Check it out, and feel free to call or email
toddclinesmith@yahoo.com
707 496 2682

Now back from the commercial break

The photography for the steels looks professional. That adds a lot to a web site.

That's a good website. Can I suggest that on the Resonator guitars you add photos of the headstock. I'm interested in how you configure the various 6, 7 and 8-string guitars.

I'm going to second the request for modern mechanics on these puppies. As a player's guitar the non-pedal is really intriguing, but the steel with the 'authentic' pedal setup isn't all that interesting. A modern setup on one of these guitars is really interesting. Of course for collectors who aren't players, the authentic thing is probably worth more.


I'd be interested in a single 8 with a couple of pickups (the standard in the bridge position and a Lollar humbucker or P-90 in the neck position).

Dan, have you heard a real Bigsby PU?.
Lee

You know Lee, I have played one (thanks to Herb Steiner) but I never gave much thought to the PA pickup being a big part of that sound. Maybe I should thing about just adding a pickup to the main one.

Several players have suggested that perhaps "modern mechanics" ie: cross shafts,bell cranks,tuning rods,updated changer bridge,roller nuts,knee levers,and so forth would be great to have on a Bigsby type steel-I thought about this when I was in the production of the first PA-ReIssue's-and now again in conversation with Todd-I have come to the conclusion that "If you want modern mechanics-then buy a guitar of modern design" Having owned eight original Bigsbys and having (in part) built an equal number (of re-issues) I have numerous reasons why I do not feel that using the original Bigsby design as a platform would be condusive to "modernization" of the pedal mechanics-There are of course several Bigsby owners like Bobbe Seymour and Chas Smith who have tinkered with the concept-and I welcome their input in response to my comment-and I am sure that Todd will also as I believe he is now concurring in my opinion and not likely to be making design changes in his production-NO FRANKENBIGSBY!

I was going to let the topic fade as I did not want to "overstay my welcome", but I should reply to a few posts as well as add to my freind Paul W's comments.

Alan thanks for the comments on my web site. We will be redoing it this winter and many new photos will be added. I am currently finishing an 8 string , and will have a 7 string in the finish stage soon, as well as a few other 7 strings on order. I will get a few photos of the headstocks added to the "links" page.

The sound of these steels I love are due to the pickup design, and just as important......... is the way these guitars are constructed. Struming one of these guitars unplugged shows this . The natural acoustics of these instruments has alot to do with the overall sound of the guitar.

To put it simply:
The pickup is mounted in a way that it is part of the body of the guitar. Also It is a "string through the body " design, whether non-pedal or pedal steel. On top of this the way the guitar is pieced together is huge. PAB was way ahead of his time and in my opinion, he still is. To add modern mechanics would take away from this design.
Tone is the key ingredient in these instruments .
Alot of modern guitars IMO have got away from this thought. I belive "what comes around goes around" and there is a quest for vintage tone out there among steel players. The ever increasing prices of vintage steel guitars I belive is do to the tone of these instruments first and for collectability second. The tone of these guitars is what I love most, but the 50's craftsmanship and marriage of aluminum and highly figured maple sure completes the package.

Todd,

The reason I brought up the idea was because I really love the design & look of the originals. They are timeless classics and look fabulous!!!

With that said, due to todays requirements, they can be a bit outdated. Having a classic looking pedal steel with modern mechanics sounds pretty darn appealing. Especially if you're into vintage country and swing stuff.

I've always thought it would be neat to have a PBA looking pedal steel that is modernized. Nobody else wants to or has the ability to make'em apparently.

Casey

After owning 26 Bigsbys over 45 years and doing mods to about three of them to make them more modern, I have decided that leaving them original is a much better thing to do. I can put any pedal setup on the Bigsby guitars exactly the way Paul did originally and feel this is the only way to go.
The original system doesn't rattle, can have excellent light pedal pressure, and the overall feel is as great as it gets. Sure, it's not for everyone to change easly like a new GFI, but it works and worked VERY well if done correctly,
On one of mine I triple raise one string and double lower the same, stays in tune and feels great, sure it took a while to do comparatively speaking, but it can work and work well, why reinvent the wheel just for sombody that can't make up their mind what pedal setup they want every week?
Love these guitars, I'll always have at least one,

Bobbe

P.S., can you imagine what a sunburst or colored finish and inlay would do to the look of these classics guitars? Yep, Totally ruin everything this classic stands for. Like taking a Stradavarious violin and painting it pink. Painting a saxaphone green etc., Save these tricks for other brands of steel guitars. If you want a modern steel guitar, go buy one, but these great paul Bigsby classics, even the continued manufacturing by wonderful builders like Todd Clinesmith should be like the originals.
This is my opinion (this week) and I'm sticking to it, (for a while).

I'm with Paul, Todd and Bobbe. No Kawasaki engine on my Crocker please!!

Nobody else wants to or has the ability to make'em apparently.

Well, a long time ago, I picked up Maurice Anderson's '59 Bigsby S-10 that had 6 pedals. There had been an unsuccessful attempt to install a Sho-bud "birdcage" changer along with a rack and barrel mechanism in May of 1982. Somebody had spent a lot of time on that one. The changer fingers had been hack-sawed in half and bent-over nails were used to connect them to the changer mechanism. I tried to take a picture, but my camera burst into tears and no matter how much I tried to console it, it just couldn't do it.

So, while I have total respect for the purists and I share their views, I felt that I had carte blanche to do what I could to "save" this guitar. I also intended to play it on a regular basis and it had to have the Bigsby sound.

I personally think the birdcage changer is one of the better sounding changers. I didn't want to cut the guitar to "marry" the fingers to the changer so I welded tabs on each to "pick up" the geometry differences:


Then I made the mechanism underneath and added a few knees:




It sounds like a Bigsby and it plays very well.

Well Chas, I agree with most of your post, your "Anderson" guitar was originally Re-pedaled" by Bill Dennison for Maurice in 1960. and then butchered by me again many years later. Now it seems like you DO have it fixed to a very high standard of quality. It looks great to me. However, after Maurice had it changed by Bill Dennison, it was working great for him for several years, when I adapted the Sho-Bud style changer to pull the Bigsby changer, it workled well for me and was my main guitar for two years in a club in Nashville called "Reel Country", this along with making me much money in several other venues in Nashville.
This "Maurice" guitar was sold to you at a very good price as I remember, regardless of what set-up it had on it, and as I said, it worked well for both Maurice and myself. As a matter of fact, I'd love to double your money back for any of the Bigsbys I've sold you over the years. Triple or four times money back?
It does look like you now have this wonderful guitar "taylor fitted" to your own specs, this is great, it looks good, just remember that it's first two owners also had it set up to their own spects, and loved the guitar and I feel we both still do.
Congratts on this guitar and what you have done to enhance its use as a great user. It will always be a very special guitar to me, even if you own it!

Your buddy,
Bobbe

I'm just curious as to how the non-pedal Bigsby's, with their radical new console bodies and aluminum necks, sound compared to the other contenders of the same period, say the Fender Stringmasters and the Gibson consoles?