The Steel Guitar Forum

Cool guitar. Is that a pull-release?

Dave, I picked one up in a yard sale in Dallas over 10 years ago. It had 4 knees and 7 pedals and was tuned UNI but it wasn't as pretty as this one. I sent it to Ricky Davis and I think he sold it to someone in Cal. It was a pull release and well put together.

phred

This one is all pull and has the knee lever lock for the E-Eb's on LKR which is perfect for me because I sometimes like to play my old Emmons D-10 P/P. Phred ...you must have some pretty good yard sales down there!

The great Joe Turner from South Carolina plays a Marlen SD-12 with a pad. Joe's guitar has 5 FP and 5 KL and has about the best tone I've ever heard anywhere..... Also, a guy in Smithfield, Virginia (Al Gwaltney) who operates a recording studio has a Marlen S-12 which is "keyless". It was the first and only keyless Marlen I'd ever seen.....JH in Va.

Dave it wasn't in that good shape. I read the Dallas paper and saw it for sale and had to drive out to Irving to see it. Didn't pay much and I was more surprised to see it tuned UNI. Mr. Stadler made some good axes and I was in hope it was an all pull, but you know wish in one hand and, aw you know the rest.

phred

Dave, I think the Marlen steel guitars are still being made. you can get in touch with them at:
Marlen Steel Guitars
924 scales St
Reidsville, NC 27320

Leonard Stadler is deceased but someone else may be still building them. Marlen was the first factory made steel guitar that I stocked at Scotty's Music here in St. Louis. I remember that the 3rd string on the E9th tuning had an exceptional good sound to it. I did visit the factory once and Leonard immediatel put me to work polishing the pedal bars. Scotty

Thanks Scotty - BTW I enjoyed your performance at Lakeland! Glad you were there. Dave

Scotty,

With all due respect, the Reidsville location is now a Pharmacy. I drove past it today.

The phone is disconnected, mail will be returned to sender. There is a small storage building in Reidsville that has some parts. A limited amount to be sure. It's possible that there are more in another location, I'm not sure.

Lenoard's son, Lenny, had at one time discussed the possibility of selling the parts that remain, but that never came to fruition as far as I know. I'm sure that there are no Marlen guitars being built as of now.

All of this is true to the best of my knowledge. Clyde Mattox could possibly have more info.

The future? We can only hope! They were very good guitars indeed!

Best of luck to all.

David

David,
I recently joined the forum and I have a Marlen S-12. Looks like it's a little older than yours. It's a 1973 pull/release in maple and rosewood. The maple's nice but not as nice as that one.

Does anyone have a photo of theirs?

Old thread woken up...

Just in case someone finds this while looking for Marlen parts, that's being discussed in another topic:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=222243

Nutshell: Lenny Stadler (Len's son) is retired now and is selling Marlen parts from the remaining stock.

And that's one gorgeous S12, Dave!