Noel brought his personal 11-string Anapeg with him, and Graham Griffith also bought his 12-string Anapeg. The other steels were a Mullen G2 S10 (Nick O'Neill), Emmons Lashley Le Grande II (Tomi Graso), Williams 700-series D10 (Ned McIntosh), Emmons cut-tail push-pull D10(set up by Mike Cass and played by Geoff Barnes) and a vintage Sho-Bud S10 (Mike Tyne). Gary Brown also came along with his magnificent Gilet resophonic and an 8-string Dobro formerly owned by Kenny Kitching.
Pictures are worth ten thousand words, so here they are!
Noel Anstead with his very own Anapeg.
At the rear of Noel's Anapeg is a very important label:-
The label says it all. Nice piece of wood, too!
Listening to Noel talking about building Tom's Anapeg we quickly realised just how close these two guys were and how much Tom Brumley is respected and missed.
Some more photos of Noel's Anapeg:-
The "playing-surface". Just look at the figure in that cabinet and neck!
The famous Anapeg changer, a unique design (although the string-attachment is not that dis-similar to the Williams 7000-series)
The keyless "peg-head" is especially neat.
and now, the all-important undercarriage...
Here's the beauty of machined aluminium, steel and brass with polished Australian hardwood underneath...
and a closer look at the changer-end.
Graham Griffith's blue 12-string Anapeg was a thing of beauty as well:-
Noel clearly remembers building Graham's blue 12-string steel, below is a photo of the topside,
OK, enough Anapegs! The remaining photos are of the various participants hard at work having fun (and having fun is deadly serious business!)
Here's Nick O'Neill with his Mullen G2,
Geoff Barnes not only bought his Emmons p/p D10 (with a Mike Cass setup) but also laid down a solid rhythm for us on the Gretsch White Falcon,
Gary Brown bought along two resophonics, (A Gilet and an 8-string Dobro) but he also bought the neatest pick and bar-holder I have ever seen. I honestly expected Gary to take out a tiny fiddle and play "Orange Blossom Special" until he opened it up! Here it is, complete with "Dobro In A Box"!
Here's a "larger" view!
Here's the whole group (minus Ned) at play:- Clockwise from left: Nick O'Neill, Graham Griffith, Kerry Donlan (Bass guitar) Mike Tyne, Noel Anstead, Tomi Graso, Shirley Anstead, Gary Brown (in the baseball-cap) and Geoff Barnes.
Nick O'Neill snapped this shot of Ned getting seriously absorbed with his Williams:-
and finally, Mike Tyne was using a very interesting setup on his Sho-Bud with two cascaded delay pedals..."delay the delay" sort of thing. Here's how it looked:-
We all had a great day of talking, wood-shedding, reminiscing and being "little boys with expensive toys"! Once again Nick's wife Anne supplied lunch which was delicious. I heard a comment that the reason it was so good was the love she put into preparing it, and I wholeheartedly second that. Anne, you are a champion!
Thanks again to Nick for organising it all, it's great to meet the fellow-Aussies who have succumbed to the addiction that is pedal steel-guitar.
