The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello all.

It's challenge time for those of you that enjoy one.
I really would like to try and find out a little bit more about my steel and if there is anywhere I might be able to find folks to help it's here!

The guy I bought it from (Wayne Golden) said he thought it dated from the 70's and that it was "ZB inspired" design. From the darkening of the laquer I could accept that date.

Here's a few photos:







Now then. Distinguishing features.



This ident in the cast endplate reads "Country Steels .......... England". Presumably "SER OS *something* 157S" is a serial number.

The changer is an interesting design that I haven't seen anywhere befor.




The rods don't extend through to the other side where the nuts attach as with most I've seen.
Here, the rods attach to the fingers that have their own threaded section which extend through the endplate. The nuts attach to these and provide an endstop when they contact the endplate. By adjusting the nuts, the fingers are moved to tune the changes.



The mechanics were replaced at some point by a guy called Ronnie Bennett.
It's all a little bit confusing under there with some changes tuned on the endplate and the rest tuned with barrell tuners.
Apparently this was done to keep the costs of the refit down.
The interaction between all this makes it a real swine to get the hang of tweaking!

I would rather like to replace the mechanics with something a little more logical at some point. Perhaphs something more original but that depends on the usabilty of the original design.



Here you can clearly see where springs were once attached to the lower fingers but have been abandoned at some time (presumably during the refit). There's one left floating in the middle!




I have no idea of the purpose of this ill fitting "rivet" which fills a 5/8" hole in the endplate, central below the pad on the same side as the changer??

Now, the final and most intriguing question I have....

At some time there was some script lettering applied to the front right hand side of the apron. Someone made a bad job of removing it and the finish is scuffed where it was rubbed off.
I was unable to get a photo of this.
Fortunatly I can make out most of the letters as they stand out as shiny areas in the scuff.
Two names, one above the other: "Jerry Gordon" and below "*something* Hancock".
It appears to be something like "Deace Hancock" but it's hard to tell. The script used makes unknown letter identification hard. I'm 90% convinced that the "e" are correct. Not certain about the "D".

I don't know if this was original lettering or was added by someone at a later date.
The guy I bought it from hadn't even noticed it was there.

Are these names familier to anyone?

If anyone is able to shed any light on this mystery steel I'll be their friend for life!
And if not then hopefully you'll have enjoyed seeing an interesting example of British pedal steel guitars.

Thank you all!

The changer is obviously based on the ZB.

I think the builder is Clifford White

I can't see why the addition of barrel tuners makes tuning so complex, it's a very basic mechanism.

It's a good steel.

A green guitar that says WHITE on it is bound to cause some confusion. Try explaining that to your kids!

Thank you!
Knowing that the changer is based on a ZB will help!

I'll do some research on Clifford White.

~edit~ OK. I'm finding a distinct lack of information regarding Clifford White. Can anyone enlighten me please?

It's not really tuning that is tricky, but making any changes to pedal/knee lever action etc.
It's just that it's a bit "inventive" under there with a host of tuners, fixed collars, moving collars and nuts. That require tweaking in a particular order and have a habbit of adjusting themselves out of sync now and then.
For example, after moving it the other day the 5th string raise on the c pedal just stopped working all together and this threw off the a pedal too. Took me about half hour to remember what was going on and get them both back correctly.
Once they're set up together properly it's pretty simple.

Gareth, Cliff White built his steels back in the 70s and possibly into the 80s (and beyond ?).
He was based in Little Driffield, East Yorks ~

~ But that's about all I know about him.

Aren't the end plates and keyhead based on the ZB design as well?

The keyhead, very much so.
The end plates, yes to a certain extent. They are certainly "ZBesque".

Thank you Jim for the info on Cliff, I'll keep digging.

I'm not really sure what I'd like to find out. I guess to see if there are any old photographs of this steel, any old owners still around etc.
I think the two things I'm most interested in are finding out what the original mechanics were like (there are a host of old screw holes) and what is going on with the old script lettering.
When was it added? Why was it removed? And who are "Jerry Gordon" and "*?* Hancock".

I guess I'm just inquisitive.

Gareth ~ check your e-mail inbox . . .

Thank you Jim! You're a true gent!
That might prove usefull!

Gareth check your private mail -Dave Hepworth

...and Thank you Dave!!

Only a few days and already I have been given so much information!

I now know that this guitar was built by Clifford White somewhere between 1979 and 1984 for Gordon Hancock (who apparently remembers it well) - The names on the front were written vertically rather than horizontally thus "Jerry Gordon" and "*something* Hancock", were actually "Gordon Hancock" and "Jerry *something*"

I've been given possible contact information for both Cliff White and Ronnie Benett who did the refit, from these leads I feel confident that I should be able to source a new pedal to add a 4th "Franklin Pedal" and hopefully I'll be able to find some photo's of this steel in it's heyday.

The best thing about this group is the wealth of resources we are able to provide between us!

Thank you all!

Gareth, don't know if you have Ronnie Bennet's details but if not let me know and I can give you his address and telephone number.Ron builds great guitars and has done a lot of repairs for me,as well as dozens of other UK steelers.He is a real gent to deal with and I'm sure will be only to happy to help.Regards Malcolm