The Steel Guitar Forum

I posted a couple of weeks ago about a Marlen keyless steel I was close to finishing the deal on and I'm happy to say that I picked 'er up today! This is one nice looking and playing guitar. It's a single 12 with 4 floor pedals and 4 knee levers. It has a triple raise and double lower changer. The ABC floor pedals are set up Emmons style with a 4th pedal that has two bellcranks on the crossrod but it's only raising the 6th string to an A#.

The E lowers are on RKL and the raises are on LKL.

The RKR just lowers the 2nd string and the LKR lowers the 5th string a half.

Does anyone know where I might find a couple of bellcranks and the piece which goes into them that the rod runs through?

Here's some more shots of the guitar. I think I'll make an appointment with Billy Cooper to get it set up in a usable copedant for me.

What I'm looking to do is eliminate the C pedal and have the third pedal raising both the 5th and 6th strings a whole tone each. Then having the 4th pedal lower the 7th string F# to F and lower the 12th string E to C#.

Then I want to have the E lowers moved to RKR and the raises to RKL. Then since I tune my 2nd and 9th strings to C# I'll have the LKR raise both of them to D. Finally, my LKL will raise the 2nd string C# to D# and lower the 10th string B to Bb.

With that setup I can get by on a gig and cover most of the bases......Here's some



shots of the guitar....JH in Va.

A couple of more pix. Anyone know what the W.C. on the end of the fretboard stands for?.....JH in Va.

She is a looker... I am sure she'd be nicer if'n she gets cleaned up and shiny-like. I think you dun reel guud!

Sorry.. don't know anything about W.C. other than "water closet" which is totally irrelevent.

The keyless tuner is a KLINE. Some of the best around.
The changer... I don't know Marlen's very well, but I thought they made pull-release changer - mostly.

Neat axe!

... J-D.

Beautiful guitar, Jerry. Great sound too - Just listen to Tony Arrowood's Marlen on youtube.

JD, that changer there looks like an all-pull for sure.
Jerry, is the changer new?

Beautiful axe Jerry. I'm sure it plays well, too.

As far as "WC" goes, I don't know either.

Maybe it was put there to make people wonder what it means.

Then, after awhile, many shrugged, and said "Who Cares?

Looking at the setback on the lower pulls and comparing to the underside to mine, it's a safe bet that I would call it a Marlin changer, the finger axle mount is different from mine, this may be an earlier/later version of the changer. Looks like the changer axle is about the same size.

Bent,and JD, you need to see one of the changer finger assemblies, the way Mr. Lenard put it together, I may have a drawing of it somewhere, if I find it I will post a pic of it.

Chip, His son worked with him, it may be his initials???

Bill

The best of my remember, this is it. I found this drawing in my "stuff"...Bill

Hey Bill, do you have any idea where I could get another bell crank and about 3 or 4 or those round inserts with the Allen screws in which slip in the side of the bellcranks and the pull rod goes through? I only have one bell crank on the RKR and I'm missing some of the round inserts from a couple of other bellcranks. I have some pull rods I can use so I don't need them.....JH in Va.

Hey JD, it is a Marlen changer and all the underside parts are definately Marlen. I thought it might be a conversion to a Keyless but the woodwork and all has been closely inspected by me and I pretty much thnk that the guitar was built as a keyless from day one, it might have been a special order or an experimetal guitar by Marlen. When I got it, it was set up for a very short person or a child as the pedal rods were very short. If I sat down behind it in a chair my knees would touch the back apron and I couldn't even get my legs underneath. I have Mullen pedal rods on it which are standard length.....JH in Va.

Jerry,
Sorry, I don't have any extra parts, if I did you would be welcome to them. You may want to put a post in the "wanted to buy" section. Do a search for David Christmas in SC, he may have what you need.

Bill

Looks like they're cousins Jerry!

Looks like they're close to "first" cousins... I wish I had a few more pedals on mine though. You wouldn't happen to have an extra bellcrank would you? I'm still missing one to get my setup going on this guitar, also I need about three of those round inserts which slip in the side of the bellcrank and the pull rod goes through them.......Thanks, JH in Va.

Not being a good mechanic on steel guitars, I've decided to take the guitar up to Billy Cooper's Steel Shop in Orange, Va. on the 11th to get it set up like it should be. That way it'll be like a new guitar and I won't have done any experimenting with it. This is the way I'm having it set up.....

Basic tuning will be from high to low: G# F# E C# B G# F# E C# B G# E....

1st pedal will raise strings 5 & 10 B to C#

2nd pedal will raise strings 1, 6, and 11 G# To A

3rd Pedal.....Will raise string five B to C# and string six G# to A# (B6 style change)

4th pedal....will lower string seven F# to F and string twelve E down to C#

RKR will lower strings 3 & 8 E to D#

RKL will raise strings 3 & 8 E to F

LKR will raise strings 4 and 9, C# to D

LKL will lower strings 5 and 10 B to Bb (A#)

This will be a form of the Zane Beck tuning but I'll be keeping strings 5 through 12 the same as on my BMI, I'll keep the BMI as my "gigging" guitar, I'm just becoming facinated with some of the things that Zane King is doing and I'd like to try them out!.......JH in Va

Bill Ford wrote:The best of my remember, this is it. I found this drawing in my "stuff"...Bill

Yes, that's pretty much what Sierra uses on their Crown and Sierra, ain't it?
Thanks for the dig up of the drawing. Always great to see what has been done.


Yes Bent, I saw it was an AP changer... hence my remark or question, is it the original Marlen changer(?)... since the KL-tuner is Kline I wonder if the other side may be something else too (which would have created the need for custom made end plates too). I did not know that Marlen also made AP... I thought they were all pull release and some even PP(?).

Thanks! ... J-D.

J D,
I think this is a Sierra drawing. The best of my remembering, Marlin also uses this design. What cought my eye was the setback on the lower pulls on the changer.

Jerry, FWIW, the changer on my guitar lowers have a short length of tubing under the nylon tuner to make it even with the raise tuners.

Bill

Sorry if this is off topic but the sketch that Bill Ford posted of what appears to be like a Sierra changer really reminds me of Winnie Winston's drawing style. Any chance that this was one of Winnie's hand sketches?

Gary,
You are right, from a WW article in The Pedal Steel Newsletter vol,18 #9. I could not find a date on it, there is a writeup on Scotty's 18th ISC convention with BE playing an EMCI.

Bill

Jerry, Did Leonard build that guitar.I never knew he built a keyless

Jimmy, it definately is a Marlen, some say the keyless unit is from a Kline. I've inspected it very closely and I don't think it was a standard peghead converted to a keyless by the wood working. It's all too precise.......JH in Va.