The Steel Guitar Forum

This steel was built by my father and I last spring, but I just got around to taking it into work for a proper photo shoot.

The milled keyhead (no CNC) was the toughest part. I could've bought one I suppose, but I really wanted to put the Fender locking tuners in. They wouldn't fit in anything prefab.

There's also a pickup blend knob for infinite tone variations between the two pickups. The 50/50 position gives it an ES-335 like chime and woodiness. I made the nut and bridge saddles easily removeable if I ever want to change the number of strings or the string spacing. The fretboard was purchased from Tom Bradshaw.

The hollow brass rod inserts were from an experiment I tried with a bender system. I have since decided I like playing it without pedals better, so I removed all of that extra hardware.

Nice job Greg. That blend pot is a nice touch for in-between tones. Did you use any caps to tune your pickups, or is it just the pickups to the pot?

Thanks Joseph. They are straight up right to the knob and then the output jack. What values of caps would/could you use, and how would they affect the tone?

While not a fan of the basic 'plank' body styles, this one has a lot going for it in the asthetics dept.
Plus, it's black! So you know it sounds good.
The machined parts look terrific, clean and substantial. How did you affix them to the body w/out obvious securements?
I also like the fact that you went with the parallel strings set up.
Did you ever consider a stud/wrap around bridge tailpiece?
I've always preffered strings thru the body, but would think wraps would be just as good for tone, if the bridge is planted well.

What's next?

Thanks Ron. If I build another guitar it will have a softer/rounder shape. For the first time out though the plank style was definitely easier to produce.

The keyhead is countersunk half way into the body and then tapped. Four screws secure it to the body.
Same goes for the nut, bridge and tailpiece, all are countersunk, tapped, and screwed in.

Oh yeah...

What's next?

I'll post some pictures of the McKenna 10 string electric resonator I just finished tweaking.

beautiful job...young man....
curious about the string spacing and the scale length....if building these aint your first job...it oughta be... show some more of your work...from deep in the heart of east tex...
ch

Great job Greg. What tuning are you using on it. I recently built a single neck 10 string non pedal. I hope to build a double 10 when I get the time and $.

Thanks Carroll.

Its a 24" scale. The string spacing is 11/32"

I wanted to make it a full 3/8" but the outer two strings were getting weak from the string spread being wider than the pickups.


Someone is bound to ask, "How's it sound?" So here's a little diddy I recorded with this guitar.

All bridge pickup up this one.



http://www.filedropper.com/drunk128k



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In the machine head area are what appear to be 6 brass ferrules.
Behind the bridge are 5 more of these items.
What are these, and what is their purpose?

Nice work Greg, it looks great!

Thanks for sharing.

Nice One Greg

Bryan Bradfield wrote:In the machine head area are what appear to be 6 brass ferrules.
Behind the bridge are 5 more of these items.
What are these, and what is their purpose?

That's covered in the first post, he said "The hollow brass rod inserts were from an experiment I tried with a bender system. I have since decided I like playing it without pedals better, so I removed all of that extra hardware"

Love the intro!!!

Love the ride!!

You play that thing like you like it.

Thanks for all the positive comments guys!

The brass ferrules up by the keyhead used to have rods going through them that could pull on the string. (like a behind the nut bend with your finger)

The rear ones worked in reverse creating a lower.

Sometimes you have to go down a path to realize it ain't for you.

Larry asked about the tuning. It is standard E9.

That song I posted is a direct result of noodling around and figuring out how to play in E9 without the pedals available. It was fun to stretch out the brain from the usual pedal habits I have formed. I learned some grips and slants that I never even considered when playing on pedal steel.

This guitar was conceived and built to be an easy way to practice without having to go downstairs and sit at the pedal steel. Its nice because I can often get spurts of practice in without being away from the family. When someone needs my attention I just lean it in the corner and resume when I have a chance. With 2 young children you have to create practice time however you can.

Very nice work Greg

Looks great, sounds great, less filling!

Nice job, Greg. I see you chose the best sounding color, too!

Nice job Greg

Greg; You said you used an 11/32” spacing, because you were running out of P/U, but; you would have preferred a full 3/8” spacing. I assume the next time you will consider using Geo.L. 12–1 P/U's. Just a thought, but; that's what I would have used! It l©©ks like a very nice piece of work! Congratulations on you accomplishment!

It looks dark blue (?) in a few of those pictures, I like the playing card motif for the fret markers.

Craig Stenseth wrote:...I like the playing card motif for the fret markers.

They're standard on Sho-Bud fingerboards.

Brad - believe it or not its actually deep deep red. It's clear coat mixed with a deep burgandy stain. 10 coats, and buffed to a shine.

If you look carefully you can see the reddish color of the raised fretboard. That's 3 coats. When you keep piling it on it turns almost black.

Its a process the drummer in my band uses when he finishes his drums shells. I liked the look and said, "make it so." http://www.nelsondrumcraft.com/

John B, - woulda, coulda, shoulda, eh?

Craig - the blue you're seeing is a reflection of a chroma key blue wall I have at my work video/photo studio. Unintended side effect, but I liked the way it looked.

Greg Gefell wrote:Thanks Joseph. They are straight up right to the knob and then the output jack. What values of caps would/could you use, and how would they affect the tone?

That depends on the value of the pots and the capacitance used. It's a simple R/C network. Most average 6 string guitars with a 500K pot use a .05uf to the best of my recollection or a 250K pot with a .1uf capacitor.

Greg; If you want to use the E9 tuning on a non-pedal tuning and would like to eliminate the odd-ball strings on #1 & #2, you could try the tuning I use on one of my 10-str. necks! Lo-to-Hi
E~B~D~E~F#~G#~B~C#~E~G# = E9/13 Very playable!