The Steel Guitar Forum

My question is pretty simple: Do the old Ric Model B's tend to be stable or do they go out of tune easily?

For those interested, I'll relate my experience. I bought a Model B from a player on this forum a few years back. For some reason, I never played out with it. It occurred to me recently, "duh..why not?" I play in the blues band, just a weekend warrior, mostly in open E. The young guys in the band let me (the old guy) play Sleepwalk on a C6 neck at the end of most shows. Last weekend, I took the Ric in C6, tuned before we started, and let it sit....sort of forgot about it. You see what's coming, right? At the end of the night, they called out Sleepwalk, but I had to hurry, sit down, change guitars (I play on a home-made console)...and, no time for turning. What happened next was a pretty bad train wreck. I have never played a guitar as out-of-tune as that Ric. I was about a half step flat, but of course, not all the strings were an even half step. It rattled me pretty bad (think weekend warrior), which compounded my dilemma. I tried to compensate, but....well, let's say it didn't go very well. I was hoping that those in the audience with perfect pitch had gone home and that everyone else was drunk. The bass player took a solo through second the verse and chorus (he's good), and I had a chance to tune....kinda. To say the least, it was not a good way to end a very fun gig. Anyway, I wonder about these old Bakelite guitars....what is their reputation for stability? I know I should have tuned, but....I mean, this guitar was seriously out there.

i've always heard they were prone to this, even as bad as the frypans - but mine never gives me any problems - as a matter of fact, the first gig i did i was expecting to be tuning all night and took my D-8 just in case, but i never had to touch the tuning other than minor tweaks - i will say it had OLD strings on it...like 2+ years old.
i would imagine it has a lot to do with environment, certainly hot stage lights, AC etc wreaks havoc. the trick is to let your body heat stabilize it
(sitting on your legs) - but really, just about all good instruments are touchy - (the cheap ones seem to stay in tune forever) my mandolin does the same thing. i was playing a show where i did 2 mando tunes at the end of the night, outdoor amphitheater, and it was useless to even tune it before the show. i know most acoustic musicians play about 20mins before the set, not so much to loosen up, but to let the instruments settle in.

i had a 60's tele once that i swear you couldnt keep in tune thru a song, even after checking everything, nut, keys, neck warp - that guitar just wouldnt say in tune

I can't speak for all of the guitars, but my Rick is extremely stable, stays in tune, and doesn't seem to be affected by room temperature. I can leave it on the stand for a week and come back..... still in tune.

extended bass solo on sleepwalk...cool!

fuzz tone?

In my experience, there was always an instability with my B6 as far as tuning went...and I had the tuners replaced, so the blame can't lie there. When I first got it, my teacher Alan Akaka told me how wonderful they sound, but told me to always be vigilant with the tuning, as the bakelite was prone to changing with the weather. I had to stop playing it on my outside deck gig on the cruise ship, as I was spending a ton of time retuning. Even having it in my lap inside would make it go out. Why did I play it for so long? It sounded so darn good, that's why. But I had to eventually switch to other steels in the interest of my sanity.

Thanks for the input, guys. Such a good forum. I haven't hung around for a while. Love the Ric avatars, by the way. And, yes, Chris, the bass solo is very cool. The guy is a monster...well, relatively, I guess. It took him a couple of times playing out to "get it". No fuzz.

My situation may have occurred because of both factors, climate and innate instability. It was a cold night, and we were playing at an old stagecoach log cabin...no insulation. I had the Ric up against the wall, so maybe it cooled way down. Something that screwed me up during my frantic tuning during the bass solo was that I have the low and high strings wound backwards on the tuning posts. The strings travel straight through the nut slot that way, which seems like a good idea. Believe me, though, it didn't help me when I was tuning up quickly.