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Topic: Something about the Harlan Brothers Multichord .... |
Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 8 Jul 2009 12:53 pm |
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... vaguely reminds me of the Creature From the Black Lagoon.
And this ultra cool unique National was custom ordered to match the color of an old red barn. It's for sale at Schoenberg Guitars. 'make a nice squareneck conversion don't you think? 
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Scott Thomas
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Posted 8 Jul 2009 1:13 pm Re: Something about the Harlan Brothers Multichord ....
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| Andy Volk wrote: |
... vaguely reminds me of the Creature From the Black Lagoon.
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I can actually see that!  |
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Richard Shatz
From:
St. Louis
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Posted 8 Jul 2009 3:56 pm
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| The movie ca. 1955 was done in black and white, but that's the color I imagined the creature was. |
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Danny James
From:
Summerfield Florida USA
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Posted 8 Jul 2009 4:08 pm
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Yes, Harlin Bros. made a lot of variatians of their Multi-Kords and that's for sure. I haven't seen one before with this color scheme.  The body style, yes I have seen that.
They didn't have the craftsmanship of the modern pedal steel guitars of today. However----
This one looks to be a six string six pedal. If people would look at Multi-Kords like they were a lapsteel with 7 necks, It would be more realistic, I think, instead of comparing them to a modern country pedal steel guitar, which they were never intended to be. Harlins advertised them as Hawaiian pedal steel guitars.
As I have said before in other posts, Jay Harlin was the inventor of the Multi-Kord, and first to patent a pedal steel guitar. I have always thought he should have been included in the steel guitar hall of fame for that reason. Just MHO.  |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 8 Jul 2009 4:21 pm
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I had the Aurora model of the creature in my room as a kid in the early 60s. It was exactly that color unpainted.
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Scott Thomas
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Posted 8 Jul 2009 5:13 pm
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| Danny, just wanted to add that I enjoy your music on the HSGA members audio page. Your tone is similar to a Hawaiian steel guitar hero of mine, Walter Wailehua (whom you might know also is credited with playing a Multi-Kord). He is probably best know for his work with Bill Ali'iloa Lincoln. From my listening, as you indicate, he seems to use the pedals to change tunings for a passage within a song, but not as a moving tone or pitch shift as is common in modern pedal steel playing. |
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Danny James
From:
Summerfield Florida USA
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Posted 8 Jul 2009 5:52 pm
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Thanks Scott, Yes I do change tunings several times while playing a song. The same as you might do if you had a 7 neck lap steel guitar.
Those recordings were done by taping my Multi-Kord and an Alesis drum machine on an old Karaoke recorder. Then I played it back and added a rythm guitar, and then played it back again and added a bass guitar. When you do it that way you lose a lot of sound and in tune quality, but it's the only equipment I had to do it with. Thanks to Gerald Ross & Rick Aiello on the HSGA who cleaned it up as much as they could to MP3 to get it to sound as good as it does before putting it on the audio page of the HSGA.  |
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