The Steel Guitar Forum

Dave,
That is a very nice looking guitar, I wish you well with the enterprise.

I read through your previous posts to see if there were any other detailed views, could you post some more please.

In one of your other posts you were having trouble with a Peavey Session 500 blowing the 4 amp fuse, did you get to the bottom of that?

I have a Session 500 which started to do the same thing, and also blew the output transistors. I'm no electronics man, but I know someone who is, his take on it was the fault is usually caused by what you plug into it, faulty cable or effects unit etc. But if the fuse blows with nothing plugged in, then the fault can be caused by a spike coming down the line from one of the components such as a faulty rotary control knob.

I found that if you leave your Amp with you favourite settings untouched for a long time, this can be detremental to the track in the Rotary switches, give them all a few turns from off to full on regularly, I did this and have had no blown fuses since.

A word of caution though, do this with the Amp switched off or the scratches, squeals and sonic booms will blow your eardrums (and probably the fuse)

James.

Double post, sorry.

James - take it from me, the underneath is even more impressive than the top. It is superbly engineered, bearings everywhere with absolutely minimal cabinet drop. It sustains really well too. Dave has done a great job, and I hope that he can get some detailed shots of the underneath.

Ken

Hi James, I can't seem to upload the shot of the underside, sorry.
Dave.

Who's this ?:-



And this ?-

Shara Jury & Slim Pickings

Some people have a very old photo collection
and some people have a very good memory, thank guys.

Hi Jim, managed to upload a photo of my "SHEFFIELD" D10, 9+8
Best wishes,
Dave.

Dave - I have told you this many times. Your guitar is one of the finest ever built. The attention to detail is incredible and it doesn't sound half bad either.

Hi James,hope you read this and can give me some info on this steel,it says Springfield on the Front ,but is nothing like the Springfield's I have seen and played.




Cheers for any help.

Jimmy,
Its good to hear from you, even though you caused some brain overload with these photos. The markings on the Fret Board tell me this Guitar came from a man in Glasgow quite recently.

As for the Guitar itself, strange things can happen when many hands have access to a Factory, it looks to me like something that has been cobbled together using parts still around after I closed the business, it certainly never came from me. Thoughts will remain for some time as to who might have done this, I doubt very much if it was my former partner the late Willie McEwan.

First the front and rear panels do not belong with the Lacquer finish top, it should not have an Alloy Neck, the end plates look Steel not Aluminium, the Changer I think is not a triple raise and lower, the front Logo has been applied with Letraset, I had my own custom made Logos which you can clearly see on the Guitar in this Video. --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAE76yLxEA4

When I left the Factory, I removed these Logos to prevent this sort of thing happening, but as we all know, there is always one out there who will take advantage of others. Your Guitar should look like this.



If it is the man from Glasgow I am thinking of, I can ask him where he got this from.

Keep in touch.
James Kerr.

Hi James,thanks for your quick reply,this steel is certainly a mystery,the changer can pull up to 4 raises and 2 lowers,the turnbuckles are very well made and work very well,the changer does not have an axel,the stainless fingers have a V that pivots on a plate screwed to the top of the
changer casting.The headstock and neck are made from one piece of ally,it all seems very well thought out,I just wondered about it being one of yours,I had my doughts and now I know.
Different headstock.

Thanks James.

That Changer finger is indeed of my making, a very early example, later changers had an axle. Only a few Ali necks were ever made. You can see this changer has an Axel



Curiouser and curiouser.

James.

Thanks James,and if you could maybe ask the guy from Glasgow if he can give some info as to the history of this steel,I will say before I decided to strip this guitar down to give it a good clean and fit extra knee levers I played it and it actually played pretty good,but was in a very dirty and needed to be taken apart to give the changer and undercarrarageidge a complete overhaul.I am sure it will be a very nice playing and sounding steel when it is done.Do you still have any parts that I could maybe buy from you ie: knee levers ect?Thanks once again James for your help.

Sorry Jimmy I have nothing left after all these years but there is a man who can help, he has worked on my Guitars and can make parts. Here he is on You Tube with one of my Instruments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usydRb6CUDs

He is a member of the UK Steel Guitar Forum.

James.

Jimmy, James is referring to Bob Adams in Scotland, another very talented player and steel mechanic.

Thanks Roy,I have had items made by Bob,so if I need anything he is the man...Cheers..

Here is a pic James of the headstock and neck,made from one piece of top grade alloy and very heavy.And very well machined.

James Kerr wrote:Here is a top view of the Guitar

This is one I have.

Hello Derrick, good to hear from you again.
These days I play mostly Lap Steel & Dobro but here is my Springfield Guitar from about 9 years ago, the Guitar itself is 35 years old now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV5h2WboieQ

James Kerr.

Hello Jimmy its good to hear from you and see my Guitar again.

Dating this is easy, this Instrument was built in 1979 and was made specifically for an Exhibit on our Stand at the 1979 Wembley Festival of Country Music. If you scroll back a bit on this thread to the two Photos taken at that time, one of a 9 year old Sarah Jory starting out in her Career on Pedal Steel, right behind her stands your Twin Neck. and if you look at the one showing Slim Pickens, behind him hanging on the wall is your Twin Neck.

The Guitar had an exciting time at the Festival, as did we, a Canadian Band turned up with a Steel player with no Steel, says he was led to believe an Instrument would be supplied, I loaned him this Guitar for his Spot on the Show. Then Basil Hendriques turned up in a panic, his beautiful Emmons had been stolen from the boot of his Car overnight, could I help him out, he was Band Leader for an Irish Lady called Philomena Begley, I spent most of the following day converting your Guitar to his peculiar Tuning & Set-up on both necks, he needed both Tunings.

When we returned to Scotland Dave Smith from Inverkeithing in Fife expressed an interest in a Twin Neck Guitar, I let him have this one at a discount because it had been used in Public. Dave loved the Guitar and played it continually up till last year when he died of Cancer, he was a fine player of many Instruments and as you can see, took the best care of them.

James Kerr.

Hi James,thank you so much for your reply,the steel is a beautiful looking guitar,the I don’t know why but chap that had it before I got it,changed the undercarriage,as shown in the pictures,it played ok but is a bit difficult to tune,luckily when I received I got all the original parts and I am in the process of putting it back to as near original as possible .


Hope you are keeping well and keeping safe.

Jimmy.

Hello again Jimmy, from the photos you sent it looks like a lot of surgery has gone on there, the person who carried that out must have been looking to change the Pedal - Knee Lever adjustment from directly underneath to coming out the Backplate behind the Pickups as per every other Steel Guitar from the States, that would have meant machining a big hole in the back plate to allow the Pull Rods to come out there.

The All-Pull Changer was never designed to operate that way so I can't imagine what was done with that, I have attached two photos to let you see what the original All-Pull changer looked like, each String had 3 raises and 2 lowers.
Another Photo shows the other end of the Pull Rods where the Pedal - Knee Lever attachments with adjustments were installed.

James Kerr.

Hi James again,there is no window cut in the end plates,and the changer is still original,The chap tuned the high strings with a stop fitted to the cross shaft,and the lower strings with a turnbuckle,tuning the high strings was not too much of a problem,but trying to turn the turnbuckles was very awkward.I have put the original bellcranks on the E9th neck and it is so much better at staying in tune and easy to tune .C6th neck is ready for the undercarriage,another couple of days and it should be up and running.For a steel the age it is is remarkable.Did you notice that it has aluminium necks and George L pickups,should sound and play great.

Jimmy..