I have very little experience with other brands of pedal steel but I have a wide range of tone that I set with it through the Peavey 300 Musician Head and Peavey 4-12 speaker cabinet. E9 neck has a nice crisp Nashville Sound, while C6 neck has a mellow sound like that on an album by Curly Chalker. This is definitely the last steel I will buy. No complaints about it at all. I do need to replace the rods once I get a set of oxy-acetylene tanks. I will do new rods and braze on the closed hook on the rod that attaches to the hooks on the changer. Got the rod stock in the back of my pickup.
The changers are all pull. The action has always been smooth and I adjusted the springs so I barely have to push the pedals to get a great transition. Half steps are smooth. Same with knees. Getting the Nashville sound on the E neck has never been a problem. Sometimes I get lucky and can even do some of the licks the big-time Nashville pickers do. Big Smile. Songs like “Together Again” “Farewell Party” “Walking After Midnight” work out fairly decent, most of the time, with my usual screw-ups on the E neck.
Now and then an .010 string might break. Very rarely. Steel stays in perfect tune while I finish the song I am picking and replace the .010. During warm or hot weather it never detunes but cold winter evenings here, it will need to be tweaked a bit. When it is real cold with wind, I don't even set it up to play.
I posted some pictures of it on my Yahoo photo page under Domland folder:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rwoods4108/my_photos
The steel has ZB fret boards on it and it appears there was a switch of some kind along the bottom of the C neck. It has a Jimmy Day set up on the E pedals. Over the years a couple of rods have broken. I moved the G# third string on the E neck to my left knee lever on my left knee when a rod broke. My apologies if I am not clear about what the term is for the left knee lever on my right leg and the right knee lever on the right leg. All three knees work on the E9 neck. I haven't looked closely but I think at least one knee lever works on the C neck. Could be more. I have always played E9. Learned only a couple of songs on the C neck. One was the kickoff to “Walking After Midnight.”
Got a lap steel when I was 8 years old. Come 1955, I started playing lead and bass with rock and country bands. Got back on steel in 1980 with a Maverick. Then, the Domland came along. I have an MSA I got from the person who had it built. It is sitting in the case in the back of my pickup. Needs modern changers, cranks, bells, whistles and probably a lot more to restore than it would be worth. But, I probably never would sell it if I ever restore it. Next time I get to Nashville I will stop by Seymour's shop and see what upgrade parts would cost, assuming something is available that can be made to work. I played it for a few months before I got the Domland. Great looking MSA steel and super good sound. It was built with 6 floors and no knee levers. Three pedals E9, three C6.
If anyone would like closer or clearer photos of the Domland, email me and I will try to get them.
I am camped with my RV rig in the SE California desert for the winter. We play at an open air stage called the Range, at the Slabs. I have a page about it linked on my web page. URL in sig line. Saturday night and Sunday afternoons we get together. Just a picking session. A few old burned out road dudes like me, getting together singing and picking the songs from our club and fairground days. Some younger dudes, what are right talented, come around, too.
Sean Penn directed a movie recently, part of which was filmed here with a year-round resident picker-singer named Insane Wayne. He was doing a two month stretch in the county jail when Sean Penn went to the jail to visit Wayne and let him know he would be in the movie singing his original song about Slab City. The sheriff permitted Wayne to return to the Slabs and do the performance at the Range. Penn even got Wayne a SAG card. Wish it had been me. Alas, I was in Chloride, AZ escaping the heat of the Slabs.
Roger Woods
Niland , CA
About 35 miles north of El Centro
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My Non-Commercial Webpage: http://rogerwoods.bravehost.com/
My Photos: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rwoods4108/my_photos
Yahoo Instant Messenger: rwoods4108
Currently at Slab City, CA
