The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey Bary,
Hows it going,thanks, yeah Ron does build a fine guitar,The D10 in the picture is 25 years old and is now going back to Ron for a refurb update the mechanics, legs ect.
On the new one no probs with buzz the sixth goes down as good as gold and sounds great when you drop it in and out on a slow song where it sort of stands alone if you find the players on U Tube(Brent Mason and PF)on a track called Ballorina on the steel part you hear this drop.
I also have that same drop on the tenth string with an 038" on the E9 but again no tuning problems,Ron really seems to have sorted that side of it out.
It's a bit of a nightmare really as I have 23 different pulls on the new guitar with 4x6. still trying to find things to do with them all but it keeps me busy.

Cheers Ray

Nice axe Ray. You can see some influences in Ron's work, but also some original stuff too. He is a master craftsman.

Hi Ken,
Thanks, it's a complete change from the D10,in looks and feel, the changes that Ron has made to his guitars in the 25 years are so different, the new guitar has such a light pedal action and so positve in comparison.
The PF1 is on trial at the momment but I have Truetone as a spare if I need to change it.



All the best
Ray

Ray - I use True Tones. I liked the George L's until I tried the TT's. OK, being single coils they are more inclined to pick up extraneous noise from light's etc, but they are sooooo responsive especially on the bottom strings.

What is the lead time on Ron's guitars these days? I heard it is a fair while.

Here are my girls. Take Care, Pete

It took around five months to get this one,certainly worth the wait,but like all of us Ron is slowing down in his work rate these days.
He takes on a lot of repairs and refurbs of guitars rather that building, so he was doing lots of small jobs while working on mine.The guitar is starting to ease up a little now as it's being played more had a few rough edges that were catching and affecting the tuning.
Finding a few places to use the two tone drop on the G# it works well on Let It Be Me the old Everlys thing on the solo.
Are you still doing the Ridgeway Country gig if you are I must come down to the H bar C next time your there and we can catch up.

Cheers Ray

Hallo Ray
I was going to e-mail you to see if you had got the
new steel but you beat me to it ! As the guys have
said, Ronnie builds some nice machines and does some
wonderful referbs,I know, as he put a Bennett undercarridge on a ZB D-11/10 I had.
All the best
Frank. Corfu

Ray - the secret with any 'lick pedal' is not to over-use it. I had the pleasure of seeing Frankin playing at very close range in March. I don't think he even has that change any more on his guitar.

Yes I am still with Ridgeway. We played at Roly's place last Thursday. I am hearing some good reports about your band, especially your lad's playing.

Sorry to hijack Jamie's post.

Nice Bennett Ray, remember you telling me you were waiting for it when we last met, your right, Ron makes a good steel, as you can see, my old girl plays brill and never mooves,see you soon, Slim.

Here is my Zum family, although the oldest girl on the right is off to live in North Queensland in Aussie next weekend.

quite a nice family there , Paddy
leave em be at night w: the lights off, & you'll have twins before you know it

Thanks Crowbear, as you know these Zums are hard to leave alone at night ha !! I think a nice Burgundy lacquer Hybrid would finish off the family nicely ...I might have a fairly long wait ahead of me if I want a new one though

I finally stepped into the new millenium and got a digital camera this weekend! So its a thrill to share pics of my Sierra that I bought from Ed Packard several months ago. This is my live rig I just put together today. The steel goes into the Hughes & Kettner Rotospher (Leslie Speaker simulator) and Blue Collar Overdrive and the Les Paul goes into the pedal board, they both meet in the Stereo In's of the Roland RE-20 SpaceEcho and go out mono into the Matchless DC30. Its a work in progress. Fun.

Here is my newest addition.

I got to say it`s great to have the old


boy back,now my little girl has company.

Excel Superb S-12 Universal with 7 and 7. 5 raise and 5 lower changer. Raise helper srping and lower return spring adjusters accessible from the right end plate.

It is keyless, but the guitar is the same length as an Emmons' LeGrande. I don't care for the "chopped off look" of a keyless, sooo.....


















Vertical knee lever does not pivot from side to side. Thus it requires the same amount of knee pressure regardless of where the knee contacts it. Also it is long enough that it can be used with any of the other Left knee levers easily without pinching the top of the knee.

Here's a shot or two


of my old ShoBud S-12. I sure wish I had it back. I installed an Emmons pickup in it and one of the metal raised logos on the front over the usual logo. I got if off of a ShoBud pack seat. When I got it, it had 4 knee levers and 3 floor pedals but at one point I had it up to 8 on the floor and 7 KL's.....JH in Va.

C Dixon,
That's quite an interesting guitar you have there.
I especially like the stick shift. How many gears does it have? Just kidding with ya, nice ax.

Mike

TY Mike.

Some of the Universals such as Sierra's and Excel's do have levers to hold the E's to Eb when desired.

This one does that, but it does something in addition to that. Since it has its own crossbar and bellcranks (instead of just locking LKR engaged), I put an extra bellcrank on it, and made it lower the 2nd string to C# as well. So every note is one fret lower.

This emulates what Buddy Emmons does when he removed the hight G on his C neck (D-10) and made it a D note instead.

Remember on a Universal C6 becomes B6.

The late Jeff Newman did it another way. He added this change to the the lever that lowered the E's to Eb. I found this to make that lever much too stiff. So I compromised and did it the above way.

I sold this guitar last week to a fellow forumite. I am picking up my new Excel in Stlouis at the ISGC show.

On this one I had Mitsuo Fujii do the same thing. I then am going to something even better. I am going to be using a mechanical switchover on the lever that lowers the E's.

What it will do is this. When I engage the gear shift lever, It will of course lower the E's and lower the 2nd string to C# using its own crossbar, bellcranks and pullrods.

But it is also going to switch the knee lever so it can be used rather than just be in a "locked" postion. So what am I going to do with that lever then?

I am simply going to pull the E's right back UP to E. Yep. This will allow me to use E9th sounds while in the "LOK" mode. I have been thinking about this for a very long time.

The second thing the gear lever is going to do is to switch the knee lever that raises the E's to F. This change does NOT work right when the E's are lowered to Eb. In other words, the notes are way OUT of tune.

So the switchover will make that knee lower 3, 6 and 10 to a G note. Which fits in with a "6th" mode perfectly.

I can't wait.

If all of this jibberish confuses ya, not to worry mate Only a nuts and bolts nut like me would use it.

Thanks again,

c.

Mr. Dixon

Quote
"Only a nuts and bolts nut like me would use it."


I like the idea myself ! I'm more Non-Ped player but I love playing
PSG as well . when I go brain dead , I always go back to lowering the E's
and find my way again . Maybe I'm a
"Only a nuts and bolts nut like me would use it." Type

Did you ever figure out that one page intro to "Harbor Lights" ?

Hick

Yes I did Bob,

And thanks and Jesus bless you dear friend,

c.

Fun stuff!

Here's my ZumSteels

Here they comes