Older Marlen on Craigslist

Tim Victor · From: North Carolina, USA

Happened to see this listing in "NEARBY" results on Craigslist:

http://nashville.craigslist.org/msg/2605664309.html

"Marlen double neck all wood steel guitar with leopard lined hard case and leg/pedal bag

circa 1970

Exotic woods

2000.00 or best offer"

I'm somewhat curious, but it's in Gallatin, TN, which isn't exactly next door for me, and the lack of detail in the listing doesn't quite fill me with confidence. I haven't tried contacting the seller.

Just interested in whether anyone here is familiar with the instrument, or perhaps if the seller is a forum member--or any other comments that might be offered about it.

Zachary Moulton · From: Austin, Tx

I've got a '66 Marlen. Looks like it has the same changer. Same fretboard, for sure. There are a few forum members who are familiar with the older Marlens. Ricky Davis might be able to help you. Richard Burton also has a guitar like mine. See if you can get better pictures.

Gary Dunn · From: near Camel City, NC

pretty pricey for a pull/release...

Dave Hopping · From: Aurora, Colorado

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

It's worth around $800.00. The seller is dreaming he'll snag an unsuspecting newbee. Pull-release changer. Set up limited. No telling if it will even play in tune until a complete go over. These were crude guitars in 66. Parts would have to be made. If you want a good first guitar buy it from a reputable dealer.

richard burton · From: Britain

It seems a bit expensive at $2000.

It is more likely to need adjusting to your copedent than not, and that is where a few photos of the underside would be useful, to see how much work would be involved.

If you have a complicated copedent, this steel is not for you, as it has a very simple pull-release changer, and can't handle splits.

My Marlen required a lot of parts to be made, and a few modifications to make it play better.

If I had sent the guitar away for this work to be done, it would have been prohibitively expensive, so I did it myself.

Tim Victor · From: North Carolina, USA

Thanks to all for the candid replies. It seemed like it was probably out of playing condition and way overpriced, but I wondered if I might be missing something and didn't want to prejudice things by saying too much at the start.

I'll keep looking, no rush.

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

I have been working on a similar one for about a month and it has been my greatest challenge to date. Basically all the parts were hand made and the pull- release concept was still young hence the results were inconsistent. I'm so upside down on this project (it was the owner's grandfather's guitar) but for the last 2 weeks it has been "Jim vs. the mountain" including having to rewind one of the pickups, making new bellcranks, levers, etc. I would suggest that it might be a nice guitar to tinker with however I personally would gulp hard before taking on another one.

Tim Greene · From: Athens Tennessee USA

I have a pic of the underside the seller sent if I can get it to load.Cant see a plate with serial number so Im guessing its a 68 to 70 model pull release.Its also a day setup on E9th. He had lowered the price from 2000 but was still high for me.I've read that(on the forum)pull release Marlens have a wonderful tone between an Emmons and a Shobud.I owned a all pull model that wasnt bad.Ive also read (here on the forum)that a pull release is a simple changer but may be hard to tune for the new player or those not mechanically inclined.He stated in a email that they were going to post it here in the for sale.Tim

Bobby Bowman · From: Cypress, Texas, USA, R.I.P.

Hey Jim P,
I just finished working on a S-10 Marlen, 3X4 that I've had in the shop for several months. I've put in more hours on this little guitar than most any other project I've incountered with a few exceptions.
Actually, it's an amazing guitar in some ways. It has a sound that's to die for and as long as you are only raising or lowering a string or combination of strings, I could get it to work absolutely perfect with good to execellent action and feel. BUT,,,,,on strings 4 and 8 (E's on the E-9 tuning) that both raise and lower, I could get the raises and lowers working perfectely and could never get the return pitch "E" to be consistantly true. I tried every "trick" I could think of with the "open/nuetral pitch return spring". All to no avail.
So, I decided to modify the changer. I fabricated two sets of "all pull fingers" to fit the changer base and other demensions of the changer end plate.
Even though it is now a "mixed breed" guitar, it is working perfectly,,,or as close to perfect as you can get a pedal steel to work,,,haha.
I'll have to tutor the owner on how to tune and adjust it, but, I feel that after a time or two it shouldn't be a problem for him.
I've had a lot of challenges working on steels over the years. Most with success and a few with somewhat lesser results. This one ranks right up there among to top.
Very Happy

BB
_________________
If you play 'em, play 'em good!
If you build 'em, build 'em good!
http://www.bobbybowman.com

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

I had the exact same problem Bobby and pulled my hair out trying to solve the problem. Finally I discovered that in putting the lowering rod at the hole closest to the cabinet I had to bend it and, as you know,that is the rod used for the open E note as well and it did not hold the bend in a consistent fashion- at least not consistently enough to give exactly the same pitch each time so I moved it to the hole in the finger furthest away from the cabinet and had a straight shot to the bellcrank for the lower and that made all the difference- whew! While I dislike bending rods in general, there are times that it becomes necessary and guitars like these require it.

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