The Steel Guitar Forum

David W-Hello
I was wondering if you have any recollection or estimation of how many Wright Custom four-necked steel guitars were built? I'm thinking your father produced at least two or three times as many as Bigsby. (Ray Montee has written that P.A. told him he had made three quads-only two known left to exist in tact-Ray's and mine).

I know of five Wright Custom quads listed below:

1) Barbara Mandrell's
2) Chas Smith's-looks like the earliest one (has no dog-ears on end plates)
3) Chubby Howard's
4) Jimmy Day's
5) Non-pedal quad (that I formerly owned-name removed)


Thanks,
P.W.

Paul, I used to have one too, identical to Jimmy Day's. Someone had cut it down to a triple long time ago.

I have one, Paul.
It has two changers and five pedals. It has 015 stamped on the edge of the keyhead endplate. Plain looking maple that looks like it has been sitting on the bottom of a lake for decades. Painted "Wright Custom" with the Wright over the Custom. Three necks are cast aluminum and the fourth is mahogany. Very odd. Likely a replacement neck because the wood neck has two pickups.

Pickups have the phenolic impregnated canvas flatwork and rod magnets and are epoxied into cutouts in the necks.

Chris, mine was like yours, originally six pedals, at least three or four key head plungers and two of the necks had been with bridge changers. When I got it it only had one neck with a bridge changer. Mine had a low # stamped like yours, but I can't recall what it was.


This is after a long restoring process; pedal board, legs, tuners are new. Key head and PU covers were long gone, as was the original pedal board.

Paul Warnik wrote:David W-Hello
I was wondering if you have any recollection or estimation of how many Wright Custom four-necked steel guitars were built? I'm thinking your father produced at least two or three times as many as Bigsby. (Ray Montee has written that P.A. told him he had made three quads-only two known left to exist in tact-Ray's and mine).

I know of five Wright Custom quads listed below:

1) Barbara Mandrell's
2) Chas Smith's-looks like the earliest one (has no dog-ears on end plates)
3) Chubby Howard's
4) Jimmy Day's
5) Non-pedal quad (that I formerly owned-name removed)


Thanks,
P.W.

I thought the one Chas has "was" Jimmy Day's...? Does he have two?

Dave, I thought so too, until I saw this:



That guitar had "ears". This one is the 1 that I have:



Well, it's not like I haven't been disappointed before, Santa, the Easter Bunny, ex-wives 1,2, and 3...

I had a Wright Custom 4 neck with 7 pedals back around 1959-1960 in the San Francisco bay area. I can't remember where I bought it but when I went to Los Angeles for a couple of years I sold it to a scottish steel player in about 1961 who had a double neck gibson consul. He loved the steel (as did I but didn't like the weight) so I sold it to him for cash and trade for his non-pedal. I wish I still had both steels. Sometimes we make foolish decisions in life.

Well, it's not like I haven't been disappointed before, Santa, the Easter Bunny, ex-wives 1,2, and 3...

Geez Chaz, you've been divorced so many times, U-Haul sends you Christmas cards!

I bought a Quad with nine pedals around 1958. About a year later it burned up with the Jubilee Ballroom in Baldwin Park, Ca. when I was working with Johnny and Joanie Mosby. Bill Carson, of Fender Fame, was playing lead guitar Bill then got me a Fender 1000 out of the Factory, with Leo's blessing, and I played it for another 10 years.

Paul, at one point I think I had tallied nine of em.
The non pedal one was made for Gene Selser, I believe David mentioned one being at the bottom of the Pacific ?.

Geez Chaz, you've been divorced so many times, U-Haul sends you Christmas cards!

Herb, for a moment there, I was beginning to think the problem was me.

Here is my quad. It looks like it was the one that sank to the bottom of the ocean.

Not sure how many were built, I wil call my dad and see if he remembers...nice to see a few of them out there..))) will get back to ya!...I do know Day recored Crazy arms with a Wright...he and I played a show in Ca , and we had a great talk about it....

I have a quad as well, this one has been around. Think Chas owned it for a while, i got it from Marty Smith in LA. Lee Jefferies had it for a long time. I'm told it originally belonged to Gene Selzer (sp?) who used it in the mid late 50s with Bob Wills. (unconfirmed).

Here are some pics.





Here is a link to all the detailed pics
http://mckennasgarage.com/newgallery/st ... ics?page=4
Thanks
Bill

IMHO, I think Qqads lost favor when, with the addition of Knee Levers, Steel player found out with just one, and at the most two necks, just about any type of style and chord combinations could be acheived. However, some non-pedal Steel Players Playing Western Swing still use the old Fender Quads and other 3-neck consules.

I NEVER get tired of admiring these vintage blond and aluminum steels by Bigsby and Wright. The aesthetics and designs resonate deeply with me. Thanks for sharing y'all.

O for got all about this one, he mailed me these pictures, he got is NEW..and still playing it.. notice the wood end plates..

Why does everyone else's quad look better than mine?

Chris Lucker wrote:Why does everyone else's quad look better than mine?

From what very little I've seen of your guitars, Chris, I'd say you've got plenty that would elicit envy, jealousy and/or desire by most folks on the Forum.

That said, for a guitar that went to the bottom of the ocean, your quad looks quite good! Bet it sounds wicked cool doing surf music.!

Tongue firmly planted in cheek. lol

Why does everyone else's quad look better than mine?

There are so many replies to go with this 'set up', and I'm not going to say any of them....

Who knows a bit of the history around Wright quads and others.
When did Wood Endplates come and go? When was the move from the aluminum to wood necks? Seems like early 60s Wrights, have different pickups more like the Wright Sierras. Perhaps I should go dig around in the Archives. But would be nice to see a history of these as we seem to have very few details on them.

My Quad is from around 55 with no pedals and Aluminum Necks, with pickup covers, Alum end plates, Maple body. It appears this same model was the basis for most of the cable models with pedals. But this latest one has wood ends appears to have later necks and pedals vs the earlier ones that were more like Bigsby.
Let the Debating begin.
Bill

I just got off the phone with my dad, He can't remember all that well, i did ask about the wood and alum neck difference, he said, when a guy ordered one, a lot of time they wanted a wood neck , and the rest alum... tone difference he said, he thought he did wood end plates first, then moved to a alum leg socket on the out side, then a full alum endplate..

Bill, My dad built both the Wright & Sierra, ther is a tread on all this, will try to find it and put a link to it,

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... highlight=

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... c&start=25

Thanks David,
Certainly an interesting topic as we don't really seem to have much info on the Wrights or Wright Sierra's Lee Jefferies knows a good bit and has owned a few.
Here in Northern CA we have at least three Wright/Wright Sierra's being used actively. My Quad,
Lee is using a D8 Wright Sierra and recently Mikiya Matsuda got a double 8 of similar layout as the Wright Sierra's with Cable pedals Wood Necks and Metal end plates. His was groud up restored, and has the controls behind the changer like the D10 in your previous post. There is so much variation Just curious about it all. My Quad appears not have a serial number. At least I haven't found one and the pots aren't dated.
Thanks
Bill

Hope you don't mind David, but I had to post this, it's off of your website: