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Interesting guitar on Ebay!

Posted: 23 Jul 2008 5:48 pm
by David Higginbotham
They say necessity is the mother of invention! Can't say I've seen anything like this before.

ebay.com/Steel-guitar

Posted: 23 Jul 2008 6:03 pm
by Chris LeDrew
Pretty interesting, but totally not practical for live use - unless you like taking a Black and Decker workbench to a gig!

Posted: 23 Jul 2008 6:17 pm
by Pete Woronowski
Hmmnn,might make a good gift for the mother in-law......

Posted: 23 Jul 2008 6:25 pm
by bob Ousby
Yabba Dabba Doo...Wilma!

Posted: 23 Jul 2008 6:54 pm
by Jim Sliff
Kind of a "Space Saver" Stringmaster?

Posted: 23 Jul 2008 7:56 pm
by chris ivey
it's a gatling steel!

Posted: 23 Jul 2008 9:53 pm
by Russ Wever
One of Hank Williams earliest steel guitarists, Neal McCormick, played a 'rotisserie steel' like this.

I wonder whether it's coincidence that the builder of the ebay steel has the same surname.

~Russ

Posted: 24 Jul 2008 3:19 am
by Charlie McDonald
"It has four different tunes."
I only know 4 tunes, so this would be great for me.
"This is item is used but in great shape."
I don't see how it could have been used frequently.
It's shape is kind of hard to characterize.

If I were a rich man, I'd buy up everyone of these old masters and display them in a barn, 'The Funky and the Defunkt.'

Posted: 24 Jul 2008 4:38 am
by Ray Minich
Why the hydraulic hose?

Posted: 24 Jul 2008 4:53 am
by Tommy Minniear
Russ,
To make it even more interesting, Neal was also from Florida and had a daughter. Don Helms played in his band (played guitar & substituted for him occassionaly on steel), for awhile. I'd almost bet if Mr. Don was feeling better, he could shed some light on this steel and its history/builder/owner.

Posted: 24 Jul 2008 4:50 pm
by Alan Brookes
Try and fit pedals to it... :whoa: :whoa: :whoa:
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Posted: 24 Jul 2008 6:42 pm
by HowardR
I'd put a chicken on the E9 neck, a whole salmon on the C6 neck, a half rack of baby backs on the A, a rock cornish hen on the E13 neck.......and invite ya'll over for a BBQ.........

Posted: 25 Jul 2008 2:41 am
by Charlie McDonald
Mmmm mmmm... I'll be there.

Maybe the hydraulic hose has something to do with the rotisserie function? :eek:

Posted: 25 Jul 2008 5:55 am
by Mike Cass
That would be a great piece to set up @ the ISGC for the onstage, improvised jam set. Let's see Coxface get something outta that sweetheart :lol:
if anyone could though, it'd be him......

Posted: 25 Jul 2008 7:08 am
by Fred Glave
That's right Charlie, unfortunatly it's used.

Posted: 25 Jul 2008 7:31 am
by CrowBear Schmitt
it ain't nuthin' if you can't cook :whoa:

Posted: 25 Jul 2008 7:50 am
by Johan Jansen
That would be a great piece to set up @ the ISGC for the onstage, improvised jam set. Let's see Coxface get something outta that sweetheart
if anyone could though, it'd be him......
Nice if he could do that blindfolded, and for Scotty to give it a nice swing every 16 bars :)

Posted: 27 Jul 2008 10:11 am
by Curt Langston
Whew! I think I'm gonna pass out!

Look away, it's hideous!



Kindlin!

>:-)

Posted: 27 Jul 2008 10:14 am
by Alan Brookes
It's the Thunderlog. See this discussion...

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/004461.html


Image
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I suggested the same principle several years before, and planned to build one, but never got round to it. :(

Posted: 27 Jul 2008 12:33 pm
by Tony Glassman
It would fit in nicely with ZZ Top

Posted: 12 Sep 2008 10:33 pm
by Russ Wever
Image

Posted: 21 Dec 2008 9:04 am
by b0b
Just received via email from Darrell Day:
My name is Derrell Day and I live in Panama City, FL. I am writing to you because of a website "Steel Guitar Forum", I came across while trying to find copies of a book entitled "The Man Behind the Scenes". It is a biography of a family friend, Neal "Pappy" McCormick. You may recognize the name in connection with the "Contraption".... a four sided steel guitar that Pappy built. You alluded to the fact that someone may have "collaborated" with Pappy on the design and construction. You are correct.

My father, Charlie Day, Jr. was a close friend of Pappy's and Daddy was an excellent woodworker and tinkerer. Pappy approached Daddy in the early forties about the need for a steel guitar that could easily be tuned for several keys. The crowds on the circuit around here at the time loved the sound of the electric guitar but Pappy was only able to effectively play songs/requests in the key the guitar was tuned to. He also did a lot of local radio and early TV shows that really squeezed the time for retuning his instrument.

Daddy did all the engineering and woodwork then turned it over to Pappy for electronics and stringing. Pappy played the Contraption for years and finally loaned it to Roy Acuff's Opryland Museum. Pappy was also the first musician to play an electric instrument on WSM Radio's Grand Ole' Opry. Pappy finally recalled the Contraption and played it till retirement. I believe it to be back in the Opryland Museum now.

My mother, Mildred Day was an occasional back-up singer with Pappy when he was on local radio and TV shows and an early comedic "hillbilly girl' that set the template for the "hick" girls we would see later on Hee-Haw. Blacked-out teeth and freckles.

A young Hank Williams would get his start playing in the "Hawaiian Troubadours", Pappy's band. They got the name from the "Hawaiian sound" that Pappy's steel guitar would make.

Unfortunately, we lost Daddy the day before Thanksgiving this year.

Respectfully,

Derrell Day

Posted: 21 Dec 2008 9:16 am
by Tom Pettingill
Thanks for posting that b0b and thanks to Derrell for filling us in.

Posted: 21 Dec 2008 9:19 am
by Chris Drew
It's stuff like this that makes the SGF one of the best places on the internet.

Posted: 21 Dec 2008 4:39 pm
by Chuck Snider
This thread was interesting to stumble over. My father lives about 45 miles northeast of Pensacola. When I was there visiting a couple of years ago, my father's very close friend Gerald McCormick took me and my father to see a cousin of his named Wilmer McCormick and until I got there all I knew was that he was a musician. As it turned out he played steel. AND, he showed us a couple of those 4 sided steel contraptions!! One he had built himself and the other one he got from someone else (I don't recall who he got it from). I had never seen one before or since, until I ran across this thread. The really interesting part is that he was also a McCormick as well. I don't know the familiy background, so not sure if he would be related or not. He was around my father's age I would guess, so he would have been around 68-73 at the time. I know Wilmer and even my father's buddy Gerald had been playing country music for many years, but not sure who all they might have been connected with. Wow, what a coincidence. Anyone happen to know if Wilmer McCormick would have been related to the "Pappy" McCormick mentioned above?

-Chuck