The Steel Guitar Forum

One of my local big name chain type music stores has a Sierra Artist S-10 that they want to clear out for being there a long time with no one around who could play or much less even tune the thing-it appears to be a student grade model with a brown woodgrain finish over an all metal cabinet with 3 pedals and 2 knees-it does come with a case-I have been told by the sales associate that the store manager would gladly take any reasonable offer despite the $995 price tag-so can anyone tell me what one of these is worth in a "used as new" condition??? I was considering making an offer that would allow me to resell with a small but reasonable profit for doing the restringing,clean up,and set up that it needs

Hi Paul,

I bought a Sierra Artist 'used as new' for I think $895 a few years back, and I think that was a great deal. It's a wonderful guitar for the money - great tone and playability. Plus nice and light. $995 seems a bit high for one that needs setup.

- Andrew

PS sierra makes a set of extra knee levers that you can put on to increase its value futher...

Andrew-thank you-I just checked out that Sierra has a website and the guitar lists for $1495-I think I could get it for less than you paid-though it remains to be seen

Shoot - if this is the Sierra Artist that I saw in the Guitar Center in Arlington Heights, IL in 1997, someone should throw out a serious low-ball offer.

Steve-I just checked with Dave and he also saw the one there at the Arlington Guitar Center-but it is gone-this is the same model but it is at the Sam Ash in Burbank-I just went there again and the manager was in a conference so I could not shoot him an offer-I did pick on the guitar for a short while and have determined that this is TOTALLY not for me-I would only buy it to resell because it is far too light and short for my 6'03" 245lb frame-the construction of the guitar as it sits will not allow me to extend the legs and rods to get under it-anybody interested in this Sierra can call the Burbank,IL. store at 708-499-3485 and ask for Rikk the manager

I had a Sierra Artist on loan for a short time, and I really enjoyed playing it. It's very lightweight, though - the lightest pedal steel I've ever played - and it felt sort of odd because of that.

It sounded real good, though, and it played in tune and stayed in tune. It had 4 pedals and 5 levers with Paul Franklin's tuning (except for the vertical, which was B->Bb). It had been set up properly at the factory.

------------------
<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic) Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bobby Lee on 21 February 2002 at 05:44 PM.]</p></FONT>

Does anybody on the Forum care to own this steel??? I hate to see it sitting there in this music store just getting dusty,shoved around,and unused-I would be willing to get this little axe and do the clean up and set up and packaging for shipment for a modest profit in my effort to help somebody get a working reasonably priced student grade instrument-anybody??? offers??? $$$???

Well I went to the store and talked to Rikk-he said that they were reducing the price to $700(plus .085% sales tax)but still he would consider taking less even though the reduced price is $150 less than dealer cost-the guitar was sent up here from the Nashville store to see if there was any market for it here-which there is not

$500 plus tax buys it now whoever wants to take it for that price must go to the Sam Ash store and ask for Rikk (manger) and tell him that I sent you(to get the discounted price)somebody can get a great deal here

Wow! That's an incredible deal.

Bobby L-yes that is somewhat of an incredible deal when you consider that at the Sierra Website the retail price is $1495 plus $200 for the case when ordered with the guitar-thats a whopping $1695 for an entry level instrument-so he was right that selling at $700 was a $150 loss because dealer cost is roughly 50% which would be $850 with the case-I wish that I could use this instrument because this is opportunity buying<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by PAUL WARNIK on 25 February 2002 at 11:38 AM.]</p></FONT>

A local player who saw this thread went down to the store and bought the Sierra but he returned it the next day because he did not like it-so the thing is back there at Sam Ash-I think that now they may take even less for it as they didn't even bother to set it back up

A Carter Starter is a Better buy with 5 knee levers and 3 pedals. at about $695. In my opinion. That and the Artist are good beginner guitars.....al

What's not to like?!

A local player, Gary Morrison, came over and played my Sierra Artist while I played the Fessy. I ran the Sierra Artist through a Deluxe Reverb and recorded Gary playing a few songs with a mic. Gary is an outstanding player with years and years of club experience. Boy, he could really make that Sierra sing. We used some rhythm tracks and Gary and the Sierra sounded great.

I played the tracks for some other people just to show what a good player can sound like. The Sierra sounded beautiful.

Gary W-I myself did not plug the guitar in to evaluate the sound-they had it set up in the acoustic guitar room of the store and I doubt that they have an appropriate (steel) amp to try it there anyway-as I recall looking at it-I believe it has a George L's pickup

Al Marcus wrote:

<SMALL>A Carter Starter is a Better buy with 5 knee levers and 3 pedals. at about $695. In my opinion. That and the Artist are good beginner guitars.....al</SMALL>

First of all, the Carter Starter has 4 knee levers, not 5. Secondly, have you actually compared the two side by side? The Sierra Artist has Grovers and a triple-raise, triple lower changer. You can put any tuning on it. The Carter-Starter is a fixed tuning, and two of the knee levers (RKL and RKR) only move one string each.

The Carter-Starter is a student model guitar. The Sierra Artist is not.

------------------
<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic) Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

b0b-your defense of the Sierra is admirable-it does have a universal type changer and unlike most "student" models that just lay the fretboard onto the cabinet-the artist model has a neck plank between like any pro grade guitar-those are about the only two main differences though between the Sierra and Carter Starter or Zum Stage One-oh and perhaps the metal superstructure of the body is another difference-I dont know how that fits into the overall tonality of the guitar though as I stated I did not plug the thing in-and by the way b0b-I like your hat-it looks like you are a railroad locomotive engineer-have you ever driven a train??? I have and can tell you that it was a lot of fun-I really liked being able to be musical with the air horns by letting them "whine out" the two longs a short and a long at each grade crossing<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by PAUL WARNIK on 19 March 2002 at 03:31 PM.]</p></FONT>

Actually, Paul, I'm a software engineer, but I like the hat.

The Carter-Starter has a raised neck, too, but there are a lot of other differences that are very obvious when you compare them side-by-side. I think that the Sierra Artist is the most inexpensive pedal steel on the market that doesn't have a "fixed" tuning. Its mechanism is more versatile than many of the older guitars (Sho-Buds, MSAs, etc.) that keep getting sold over and over as people realize that they need more capabilities.

------------------
<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic) Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

I have had a few emails from prospective buyers but I believe the guitar is still there-this is opportunity buying for somebody

well guys called SAM ASH store today 3/20/02 6:15 c.s.t. The sierra,s been sold. Rikk wasn,t their it was his day off. woman told me it was sold this morning. Asked how much it went for she honestly didn,t know she,d been off for few days. So unless it gets returned 2nd time this one,s gone for good.Just thought i,d up date everbody it,s sold.

James I-thanks for the update-I hope somebody deserving is enjoying the guitar and the great deal that I was trying to help with-see I'm not the selfish greedy guy that some might think that I am from my recent post in Buy and Sell about the $99,995.00 guitar

James I-I just got e-mail from soon to be new forum member Kevin Chriss that you should not ever trust a woman-the gal who told you that the Sierra was sold was wrong-in fact Kevin drove all the way up from Indianapolis to get buy the guitar today (Thursday)-Kevin says he is a former finger-style guitarist who suffered a left hand disabling accident that left him unable to fret a standard guitar anymore so he is making the transition to steel-so best wishes to Kevin with his new guitar