The Steel Guitar Forum

Besides myself and Bernie Gonyea there must be a few players who played Harlin Bros Multi Kord PSG's or still play one from time to time for nostalgia sake.

I would be interested to hear from anyone that has (had) one.

My first steel was a Harlan 6 string. I've only been playing about 3 years, but now I play a Sierra Crown U12. I still have the Multi-Kord and take it out once in a blue moon. I tuned it to C6 at first, but the strings were pretty tight. Then dropped it down to A6. I had my own copedent that sort of mimicked a 9th tuning with a touch of 6th. Kind of a beginners thing to do.

In 1951 I was in the Army stationed in Camp Atterbury 25 miles south of Indianapolis and while in the city came across the Harlen music store and a red Multi Chord was in the window. I went in and tried the guitar and was very impressed with all the chord changers on the strings. I had an 8 string Rckenbacher then and was into Byrds tuning and didn't have any money any way but I liked the guitar !! I wish I had bought one !!

I have a 6 string, 6 pedal Multi Kord that I played around with a while ago, a lot of fun, easy to change around, nice, nice sound, I haven't played it in a few years.
Jay Y.

Jim - Do you mean old players that play Multi Kords, or just any player that plays old Multi Kords?

I got a 6 string 4 pedal MultiKord in 1954 after hearing "Slowly" & passed my homemade triple 8 (from Epiphone parts) on to my nephew, Bobbe Seymour. I had given him an 8 string Keisel (sp?) lap steel & he was already gettin' into that! The last & third time those parts found a new body, I did it myself at the highschool shop where I graduated in '47. I think Bobbe told me it later de-laminated, I had made it from plywood & bound off the edges with veneer from a plywood company here in Jamestown NY. I had made it smaller & lighter that re-build.....maybe I cut it down too much? The MultiKord I had I tuned to C6th from the top E, C, A,
G, E & C. P1 raised the Cs to C#, P2 lowered the G to F#, P3 raised 1 to F & lowered 5 to Eb, P4 raised 2 & 3 to D & B. Not too different from the Nashville C6th on the strings I had to work with.
I traded for a 6 pedal MK, took one off & added washers for spacers & tuned P5 to raise 2 & 3 to D & Bb. At the time I had no ideas for P6 & so took it off!?

Lee, in my case it refers to an old player. For the rest of you it refers to old Multi Kords.

My MK is a double neck, 8 string, 6 pedal. Over the years I have cut back to 4 pedals resulting from cable breakage.

Doug, I envy your guitar building/converting talents.

I got an Mullti-Kord chnger head from Jay Harlan in Indianapolis . It was a 8 string 6 pedal and I built a 14 string guitar using the changer in the middle. Built strong, played it for 10 years. A picture of it is on my Website, black of course.

It played real well and , Uncle Doug, I did figure out to use all 6 pedals, Tunings had no restrictions. Mine was E6 but still lots like C6, like yours.

Then I got my first D12 MSA from Reece around 1968.

I got a 6-string, 4-pedal a few months ago and it's great fun. I used the stock Multi-Kord A tuning with the recommended copedent, and while it's not recommended to try to play one like a pedal steel (being intended as a replacement for multi-neck lap steels) I find it actually works great for slower and medium-speed things in a unique way. It forces you into a totally different style and approach, and is a nice contrast. Plus, although I've read negative things about the pickup in the past, I ended up with a screamer - very strong, huge midrange, and loves being played through a cranked-up tweed Fender for David Lindley-style slide things with odd pulls here and there. The built-in "boowah" switch is also a kick to fool with.

For something that looks like it was made out of a card table, it's surprisingly well-built; the changer is well-engineered and everything hits the right notes and stays in tune.

I was looking for copies of original music, but the only person I found who had some wants to sell photocopies at $5 a pop - I'd hoped a Harlin group was kind of like the Fender players, where stuff is shared...guess not. So I'm just playing my own stuff on it.

FWIW Jim Palenscar at Steel Guitars of North County had the guitar; it belonged to a friend of his, and we traded some stuff. Jim did a superb job of servicing and cleaning up the guitar, from replacing pedal cables and changer screws to polishing the metal parts. If you have one that needs work, Jim is your guy - he can fabricate parts as well.

I have a D-6 Harlin with 4 pedal,s.I am working on it and just fixing it up. Glad Doug showed us his copedant,s on the C6th neck. The changer just work,s one neck. Got pic,s coming soon i hope==Jim Harper

I had an old MultiKord S-6 with 4 pedal in the early sixties. I remember I had it tuned to open E just like strumming an open E chord on a guitar. Pedal 1 lowered the G# to G, Pedal 2 raised both B strings to C#, pedal 3 raised the G# to A, and pedal 4 lowered the top E only to D#. It was set up like that when I got it. The thing wobbled so much that a customer called it the "Galloping Goose" so I had that painted on the front by a sign painter I knew. A friend and I rigged up a contraption using wooden table legs to stabilize the changer end as it "wobbled" so much. I eventually sold it to a left handed guitar player named "Lefty" Mayo who changed the pickup to the other end and the fretboard so he could play it left handed. He also painted it candy apple red..........JH in Va.

In Belleville Mi (about half way between Detroit and Ann Arbor
lives a Gentleman named Bobby Anderson who plays a Multi Kord
steel. He plays great licks and knows a zillion tunes also writes songs. I fill in for him once in a while and also have had the pleasure of playing lead guitar along side of him. Its always a treat to hear him play.

Jim Sliff, Thanks for the info about Steel Guitars of North County. Looked them up on the web and Oceanside is not that far to go to get parts and cleaning so that the MK is back in top shape again.

Jerry, I never had that much trouble with the D8 wobling, maybe because the wider stance on the legs made it more stable. I played the devil out of that guitar for about eight years worth of gigs around San Diego County in the 60s. It held really well and sounded great through both the Fender Bandmaster and the Carvin twin 12.

I have one in storage: single, 6 pedals. I have not played it in a long time. HJ

I had a multi kord for years. great sound, great string spacing,
(S6)akward pedal location, most versatel changer.Biggest
problem:the changer didn't always comback to the origenal pitch.
So I used it mainly for recording or non pedal playing.
I still have some of the recordings and they sound great.
Lane
Fender 400, 5 pedals open tuning D6 (Don top)

I got a Multi-Chord about 1957 with 6 pedals and had a new body made for it with rods instead of cables. The Santa Ana House of Music gave me a new Fender 1000 in 1960 so I sold that dud, it was sure hard to press the pedals.