The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi everyone

I've just become a new owner of a Gibson Century 10 which, on the face of it, is in reasonably good condition. However, I was wondering if anyone knows anymore about the setup of the instrument.

It has 3 controls, 1 volume and 2 tone controls. These are non-original and I'll be looking to replace these with ones that match. The pots are scratchy so I'm taking the guitar to my guitar tech to clean them up, but does anyone know what the 2 tone controls do? Is one a roll off and the other a traditional tone control? There's definitely some sort of boost going on when using the first of the two tone?? controls.

Also the nut appears to have been scored many times over, as if someone was finding an optimal position for the strings. Does anyone know if the original nut was similarly scored or is this another example of instrument molestation?

Now to the good bit. What an awesome pickup. I've tuned it to a hybrid A6/E6 tuning and it's such a great sounding blues machine!! I'll certainly be taking this along to a blues jam when it's been sorted out.

For a picture of the instrument:
Picture


Thanks for looking and helping

Hussein

I have a schematic of an old Carvin console steel that had a two tone controls. I think they were crude treble and bass controls. Maybe the Gibson is the same?
The schematic was on the Carvin Museum web site.

I have several Century/Ultratone 6 string steels.
All of them have 3 controls. Volume, treble, bass.

My Gibson Console Grande has three controls too, maybe they're the same? Volume,bass, and treble.

Hi Guys
thanks to you all for your responses.

The 2nd tone control certainly turns the treble off and makes it very bassy but the 1st tone control really increases the treble almost like a booster which in turn 'seems' to increase the distortion. I must admit that I'm not too worried but just curious.

Anyway, thanks once again.

Hussein

Hi Richard
I'd like to ask you question about the nut on your Century 6.

The nut on my Century 10 appears to have a lot of grooves as if someone was trying to find the best position/width for the strings. I'm assuming that this was one of the previous owners and not Gibson's doing. Is this assumption correct?

Regards
Hussein