Gig report - Dusenberg Ponoma

Kevin Shiflett · Post by **Kevin Shiflett** » 15 Jan 2012 6:18 am

After only having the Pomona for a week I took it to last nights gig.

The band loved it and made me play it on songs I had not even worked out yet!

I even had people in the bar come up and tell me how much they liked the "slide" playing.

I have found the Pomona more confertable to play standing up vs sitting down. I sat mine on an adjustable keybord stand which sat right over my pedalboard. The band gave me funny looks and one guy snikered when I was setting up but after the first song I used it on everybody was like, do more of that!

I only used the pomona on slow songs. Where in the past I had used all my faux PSG licks on my Telecaster with ok results, those same licks sounded fantastic on Pomona.

I have the feeling that a real PSG player would not like this instrument. When working the palm pedals you its pretty hard to pick with anything other than your thumb. However for players who don't play PSG and want to add PSG like sounds to the mix its a fun toy.

I tell you what though. All this has started me thinking about how to build a bender setup for lap steel that uses pedals. Something easy to assemble and will fit in a gig bag. I'm chatting with a buddy of mine who plays PSG and builds benders for Telecasters.

But for now that Dusenberg will be coming to every gig.

Jim Pitman · Post by **Jim Pitman** » 15 Jan 2012 1:54 pm

Coincidentally, I was looking at one on ebay earlier today. It looked very high quality and I was intrigued with the palm pedal adaptation.
If you could summarize the tone how would you describe it?
Who makes it and where are they producing it?
What is your copedent?
Your intuition about pedalists not liking the palm pedal is likely on the money.
I thought of adding a pair of knee levers to my home made lap steel. I would put them straddling the left knee. The right knee would have either dummy levers or a strap to attach to the right leg, the point being you need to anchor the lap steel somehow if you are going to be actuating knee levers.
The area under the neck of my guitar is hollow for this reason, and a couple of others (resonates acoustically and lightens it up). I can route an access through the back to accomplish adding levers.
I might just do this when I have some time in February.

Hal Braun · Post by **Hal Braun** » 15 Jan 2012 7:50 pm

Isn't this how the PSG got started in the first place?

Jim Pitman · Post by **Jim Pitman** » 16 Jan 2012 3:56 am

Good point.
I'm drawn to the instrument probably for the sound of the transition through a bunch of notes that don't fall within the scale on the way to a note that does fall within the scale. ....s.l..i..d..e.
That's the wonderful thing about playing with a piece of steel, ie moveable fret.
The not so wonderful thing is, one is stuck with intervals between adjacent strings that can be achieved with a straight piece of steel.
I've tried to be as good as Jerry Byrd was at a bar slant but have never really been able to pull it off with the pitch accuracy he had. The man was amazing!
You might ask why not just play a pedal steel.
I do play one. However, I'd also like to have a steel guitar with the some of the same interval flexibility that a pedaled instrument has yet weighs a quarter less and doesn't require set up or tear down.

Hal Braun · Post by **Hal Braun** » 16 Jan 2012 4:58 am

My comment was really somewhat "tongue in cheek" but with further thought, there are a lot of steels that might fit in that middle ground, not "full" pedals but "just enough". John Ely plays an old Fender Cable (light weight, does what he needs) and some of the "starter" PSG's are also pretty basic (meaning light and easy to set up)

Good luck either way!

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 16 Jan 2012 2:24 pm

I was reading here that when the first records featuring pedal steel came out, console steel players were drilling holes in the headstocks and running coat hangers through them to raise the pitch with makeshift pedals.

Steve Ahola

P.S. So how do you like the sliding capo feature?

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 16 Jan 2012 2:30 pm

Jim Pitman wrote:You might ask why not just play a pedal steel. I do play one. However, I'd also like to have a steel guitar with the some of the same interval flexibility that a pedaled instrument has yet weighs a quarter less and doesn't require set up or tear down.

Check out the Fessenden Six Shooter. Limited production but well worth the wait. 6 strings with 2 pedals that will handle 4 pulls. Very easy to reconfigure with different tunings and copedants (I've gone through about 6 tunings until finding one that hopefully works best for me).
Once you remove the rods and crossbar the legs fold up into the body- the whole thing weighs about 16 pounds.

Steve Ahola

Fred · Post by **Fred** » 17 Jan 2012 5:35 am

Steve Ahola wrote:I was reading here that when the first records featuring pedal steel came out, console steel players were drilling holes in the headstocks and running coat hangers through them to raise the pitch with makeshift pedals.

I have an early Gibson Consolette with P90 style pickups. When I got it, it had the holes drilled in the tuner pan. It was later modified with changers on the top four strings of the outside neck and three pedals. I didn't know what to do with them so I took off all the hardware and made a new bridge.

Fred

Tom Slater · Post by **Tom Slater** » 18 Jan 2012 2:06 pm

That is interesting Kevin as I took my Pomona out to play in a public jam for the first time this past Friday night. It sure got the attention. I really like the sliding capo feature. Really makes it a snap to adapt to diffrent keys. How do you have yours tuned? I am using G (Dobro) tuning with 2 palm pedals. I have one pedal droping my 2nd (B) string a half step to give me the minor tuning and the other pedal raising my 5th (B). How is yours set up? Love the tone and sustain. I am playing mine through a Dr. Z 112 maz 38 and it is killer.

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 18 Jan 2012 4:07 pm

Tom Slater wrote:I am using G (Dobro) tuning with 2 palm pedals. I have one pedal dropping my 2nd (B) string a half step to give me the minor tuning and the other pedal raising my 5th (B).

So the Dusenberg can lower pitches as well as raise them? That's good to hear.

Steve

James Mayer · Post by **James Mayer** » 18 Jan 2012 4:12 pm

I've always wondered how the sliding capo works with the multibender. The capo clamps down, so it looks like it would be problematic when using the bender.

Tom Slater · Post by **Tom Slater** » 18 Jan 2012 4:56 pm

The sliding capo does not seem to have a problem when using the palm pedals and is really easy to use. It is a very nice touch. And yes Steve the pedal can be set up to lower or raise a string up to a whole note. The adjustments are precise and on a whole the design is very good. I just wish I would have known about getting one from Germany before buying mine. Of course I did help support the US economy!

Kevin Shiflett · Post by **Kevin Shiflett** » 20 Jan 2012 6:03 am

If you could summarize the tone how would you describe it?
Big and resonant.

Who makes it and where are they producing it?
Dusenberg is out of Germany.

What is your copedent?
Im working in E tunings atm I havent nailed down exactly the best one yet.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 19 Mar 2013 11:02 am

It might be a good idea to include a picture so that those who haven't seen one will know what we're talking about, so here goes:-

I fitted a Multibender to a lap steel several years ago when they first came out. Unfortunately, the Pomona is very expensive. It's much cheaper to just fit the Multibender to an existing lap steel. The only thing you don't have then is the sliding capo, which you could build into any existing lap steel. I myself rarely play open strings, so the capo would be more of a hindrance to me than an asset.
If anyone wants to try it out, fitting the Multibender is just a matter of removing the existing bridge and screwing the Multibender to the body. It takes about five minutes or less. In fact, it takes longer to change the strings than to fit the Multibender.

I wish they made an 8-string version of the Multibender. I play most of my lap work in C6, and you need more than six strings to take advantage of the C6 tuning. But since in practice it's difficult to use more than three levers (I have four on mine) it should be possible to build an 8-string lap steel with only six strings passing over the palm lever bridge. Peter den Hartogh has already done this.

Check out the following postings:-
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... duesenberg
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ight=wrist
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... duesenberg