The Steel Guitar Forum

my '83 s-12, and I don't understand why. Ever since I first got it, it seemed a bit lackluster sounding. Plus the pedal action seemed stiff and clunky.

I swapped out the George L's 5-way pickup for a Lawrence 712, but still.. Things improved when I started using a Matchbox - it definitely brightened things up. But still...

So I went through a Fessenden s-12 and then got a Carter s-12 which I love. I used the Carter almost exclusively for a year or so. It plays great and sounds great - very nice and bright.

Well I recently re-rodded the 'Bud to try some different pedal changes, used it a bit, and then re-rodded it to go back to most of the previous set of pedal changes. In the process I tightened up some of the pedal travel etc.

Now it plays way better, and for some reason I am really liking the sound now, although I didn't change anything about the pickup or electronics.
I understand why it is playing better, but my response to the sound of the guitar must be entirely psychological because I haven't done anything to the pickup.

Not really a question in here, but I look forward to any comments any of you might have.

Entirely psychological. Don't worry, you'll get tired of it.

I believe most of the tone will come from your hands, you can adjust your amp settings to get the general tone you're looking for, but it's your hands that have the final touch..in my opinion.

to Brian - thanks, I'll look forward to that.

to Curtis - so this implies that I might be playing better now? Hmmmm...

John,
The Mullen S-12 that I played at Perl-Jam this year was changed to my set-up as part of the purchase and I was happy with how it sounded and felt to play. The only thing I was not 100% happy with was that it was a little over standard height. Yesterday I took it down to Jim Palenscar in Oceanside to have him fix that issue. After he had taken care of the height thing, he started looking at the timing of pulls for all the pedals and KL's and adjusted and tweeked just about everything under the hood and boy oh boy does it play like a dream now! So maybe your re-rod job was all your Sho-Bud needed to play and sound better, and yea, I guess your playing better too!
JE:-)>

I'm sorry John, I just couldn't resist.

Seriously, I love the instances when I'm truly enjoying my tone. I think it creates kind of a feedback loop that inspires you to play better, too.

What Curtis said. And you ARE playing better