The Steel Guitar Forum

Does anyone know what happened to the Duane Marrs Cat Can Lap Steel that sounded sooooooo cool?

It's now being produced by Fluger Guitars as the Fluger/Marrs Resophonic Guitar Simulator.

When Gary Morse toured with Dierks Bentley, he used a Cat Can on "What Was I Thinkin', I guess when he didn't bring the dobro out.

Brett

The Cat-Can is a great guitar for blues playing,Used one in a blues and southern rock band one time,Used a 60's fuzz tone stomp box with it,it sounded great.DYKBC.

I recently dismantled my Cat Can lap steel to see what makes it tick. You might want to see what they look like with the back panel removed...



The weight of the strings pushes the can against the back plate, which takes the weight. It also transfers vibration to the body, so the instrument sounds better with the back raised above the table with bumpers. It also sounds better on a table or stand than across the knees, which baffles some of the sound.
I'm thinking of using some sort of arrangement as this in a future all-metal lap steel.

For the sake of posterity, here are some shots of the instrument put back together.

Very interesting! Would it work to have some sort of acoustic Dobro mic inside the can, through a separate jack? In addition to the pick up, of course. This could be recorded on a separate channel then, and mixed with the electric/amp signal/track.

Tried the mic thing...and the transducer thing...not enough volume generated in that tiny chamber to drive a mic successfully. By the time I put enough desk volume on it to be audible, it would be overcome by feedback and extraneous noises.

Sounded like a good idea at the time, but no, not in my experience. YMMV.

This was 10+ years ago however. The state of preamps, power supplies and other electronic gear might be much more sophisticated now.

They have a great reso sound through a dobro simulator though, ala the Match Bro, BoBro etc. Plenty of volume and no feedback that way with authentic tone.

The newer Fluger model has the sim electronics built in.

I'm thinking of taking this idea to the next level on my next lap steel: four cat cans, with the bridge resting on a spider connected to all four cans. Like the Tricone concept, it should make the instrument louder. I've thought of using soup cans, which are much longer, but it would make the instrument a lot deeper and less manageable, without any advantage over the cat cans.

My cats don't eat wet cat food out of cans, so I shall be using tuna cans. Maybe I should call it the "Quad Tuna", but, then, people might just think that I'm spelling "tuner" wrong.

Alan Brookes wrote:I'm thinking of taking this idea to the next level on my next lap steel: four cat cans, with the bridge resting on a spider connected to all four cans. Like the Tricone concept, it should make the instrument louder. I've thought of using soup cans, which are much longer, but it would make the instrument a lot deeper and less manageable, without any advantage over the cat cans.

My cats don't eat wet cat food out of cans, so I shall be using tuna cans. Maybe I should call it the "Quad Tuna", but, then, people might just think that I'm spelling "tuner" wrong.

Does the bridge set directly on top of the can? Is the bridge completely round? I'm talking about the original like in your pics.
I like your tricone idea. Does the "reso" sound transfer through the regular pickup and through the amp?

Terje Brattsveen wrote:Very interesting! Would it work to have some sort of acoustic Dobro mic inside the can, through a separate jack? In addition to the pick up, of course. This could be recorded on a separate channel then, and mixed with the electric/amp signal/track.

I've heard of that concept. The regular electric pickup going to an amp set up for steel guitar, then a separate jack & cable going to another acoustic guitar amp set up for Dobro.

Hello Wayne.

I bought one of those a few years ago and it arrived with the bridge dismantled for some reason.

I emailed the late Mr. Duane Marrs with a picture of what I had and he very kindly responded to me with advice as to how to rebuild it. What a gent!

The bridge has a flat on one side and actually rests on a strip of aluminium about 1/2 an inch wide, 1/16 thick and long enough to rest on the edges of the can.

The can in mine was crushed but I use a John West salmon can. I believe that it is a universal size.

Tuned GBDGBD lo-hi it sounds just great. I regularly jam along to the Eagles Greatest Hits. I do hope that they don't mind.

Hope that this helps.

Wayne Carver wrote:...Does the bridge set directly on top of the can? Is the bridge completely round? I'm talking about the original like in your pics.
I like your tricone idea. Does the "reso" sound transfer through the regular pickup and through the amp?

I'm glad Robert jumped in here. It's a shame that Duane is no longer around to answer the question himself, but I remember seeing Robert's post about Duane's response a few years ago. I was going to quote Robert's old post, but he's made that unnecessary.
The can, of course, has to be emptied of its contents, beit can food, tuna or whatever, and that leaves a can with an open side, which has to point downwards. The opening is closed when the back plate is screwed on. The bridge rests on the can itself, and makes no contact with the top of the instrument, which would deaden the sound. I've often wondered what effect punching some holes in the sides of the can would make. Cans are so cheap that it costs nothing to experiment with various sorts. As Robert says, they're a standard size, so switching them around is very easy. You could even experiment with an unemptied can, although that would deaden the sound, I'm sure.
Unamplified, the sound is a lot louder than you would imagine, and that's why I'm thinking of using four cans. Of course, I could build a twin-necked instrument with four cans per set of strings. I've even thought of putting palm levers on one of the necks.
The Duane Marrs instrument, as it comes, has a regular magnetic pick up. As everyone knows, once you put a magnetic pick-up on any instrument, whether it be a guitar, banjo or mandoline, most of the tone then comes from the amplifier. For the cat can lap steel to sound like a resonator it has to have some sort of microphone or piazzo pickup, or both. That's why later models came with electronic circuitry inside. In fact, with the electronic circuitry the can serves no purpose. The only purpose of the can is for the sound it makes acoustically.

Those last two posts answered my questions.
Thanks for the info.

so why not just play a lap or pedal steel through the bradshaw dobro simulator pedal. easier and probably better and louder.

Because the the design of the instrument contributes to the dobro tone effect. I was there watching when the new design was being invented by Duane Marrs and Marvin Fluger. Two geniuses. Marvin lives 20 minutes from me. The acoustic properties of the new design lend themselves greatly to a dobro sound even before the simulator is switched on. Also, the instrument has a felt padded bottom and is designed to conveniently and safely sit on top of the strings of a pedal steel. A lot of thought went into that instrument.

Kevin Hatton wrote:...A lot of thought went into that instrument.

Yes, it's a beautiful design with a great sound. It's one of the lap steels I have permanently hanging on my wall as a usable ornament, and I take it down and polish it regularly. In retrospect I wish I had looked round for a 7 or 8 string version, but they're difficult to come by. Those who have them hold on to them, and who can blame them?
I wish I could have met Duane, but I never did.

i've got to admit i loved the idea when they first came out. ..using a catfood tin or whatever. that's creative in a neat way.

i still think if i needed a loud stage dobro sound now i'd play my dobro with it's cheap lace sensor pickup through the bradshaw dobro pedal. cheap and effective.

I have an 8 string Marrs/Fluger Catcan with the built in processor and it's awesome.... the felt back makes it perfect to perch up on the C6th neck when I need it.... handy when I don't have room for my Beard MA6 on stage :-}
Oh and it's a black one (the Catcan and the MA6)

Just picked one of these up, super excited!... how can I tell if I have one of the newer ones or an older one? Any visible signs? Serial #? I know the cat can says expiration 2006...

If you have one like the last one pictured, it is a later one.
Erv

Haha just looked at the pics after I posted this ... no knobs so I’m thinking no! Was there any other changes other than the simulator ? What is a dobro sim anyway? A comb filter? I couldn’t imagine the older ones being dsp based

Jerry Overstreet wrote:No reso sound. It's just a neck and board with a pickup. The RGS stands for Resonator Guitar Simulator. Has a cat food can for a resonator chamber. Acoustically, it does have a little reso twang but it's too weak to have any real volume.

Plugged in through the pickup, it's really just a lap steel.

I owned one for a few years. It sounded good. I thought it made a really good blues machine tuned down to open D. So yeah, I think you will like it as a steel on your lap or a stand.

With a dobro pedal of some kind and tuned to dobro G, it's pretty good at mimicking a reso, but just about any 6 string lap could do that.

It's a fun and neat little axe though developed by Duane Marrs who built some of his own pedal steels and worked for Sho-Bud at one time.

The later ones with the built in sims etc. were done by Fluger, I believe...

No dobro sim on the original one. You'd need something like a BoBro, Match Bro, Bradshaw reso pedal etc. to get any reso sound out of it.

FWIW, mine was an 88 yr. model with a serial number in the mid 140's.

I ended up selling mine. I was never happy with its sound. I plan on building one of my own design sometime in the future.