The Steel Guitar Forum

The first cast steel I ever made ... 10 years ago ... came home for a redo ...

The original owner passed away and it was sold to a forum member.

I offered up a new Airstream pickup for it ... the original was an H-Shoe I made with Jason Lollar ...

I also re-did the fretboard ...



It was nice to see this rascal again after a decade ... I'm sure the new owner will love it ... it sounds monstrous

Aloha Rick,

As always, looks awesome!

You sir...work wonders with metal....an artiste as it were. Just beautiful.

Rick,

Fantastic to see the guitar again, it looks like you have also had the polishing cloth out as the finish has really come up. It would be interesting to know how different those pickups are as I was already impressed with the original H/shoe for it's tone and power.

Keep up the good work and all the best for 2014 from the UK Lap Steelers.

Lee

Thanks for the kind words ...

The Airstream pickup evolved from a long line of neodymium-iron-boron based predecessors ... Extremely responsive ... Ultra Hi-Fi ... I'm really proud of this pickup ...

But it's so #€£%#ing hard to make ... A single unit takes a full week to fabricate ...

This steel deserved one though ... Had to squeeze in that on-on-on toggle ... Not much room on that pan ...

I figured a fretboard "make-over" was in order also ... So I milled off the old integrated frets ... Cut fret slots ... Then layed in the fret wire ... wet sanded ... then to the buffer it went ...

Beautiful.

What is the toggle about?

The unit has two 38 AWG wound coils ... One on top of the strings & the other under the strings ... And a modified Halbach array of NIB magnets produce a completely uniform dipole field in the air gap ...

The toggle lets you select the configuration of the coils ...

Humbucking for noisy environments ... single coil ( shorts out the top coil) ... and what I call the "Kick A$$" mode ... Both coils turn into what is essentially one giant single coil ... With the strings traveling through it ...

Love it.

Hi Rick:

When you get ready to produce these beautiful instruments I want to be on the list

Sweet! I love the look of that Dustpan with the Airsteam.

Thanks y'all ... I keep putting off packing it up ...

Beautiful work.

It's a thing of true Beauty….what a fantastic job you did Rick...

Very cool

Looks like # 001 made it through the "Polar Vortex" unscathed ...




Enjoy ...

Hey Daddy O'…this thing is the ginchiest! No doubt about it...

Can we hear it Rick?
Just looks way too cool....

I want one!

Maybe James will use it on the new Stooges album ... Iggy goes Hawaiian

Looks great Rick, as your work always does.
I bet she sounds fantastic with that ultra Hi-Fi pup on her.
Todd

Mucho Mahalos Todd ... I am very proud of these pickups

That's a beauty. Would love to hear those new pickups.

Brilliant work, as usual,Rick!
You set the bar very high indeedy.

Love that steel! That configuration of piggy backed pickups must produce some wild sounds. Could be called the Toaster too, although I've always admired Airstreams, 'tis the better name..makes one think of soundwaves. Is that pearl inlay?
I too would be on the list for one like this, somewhere down the road. Wow..

The "Toaster" ... Too Rickenbacker ...

The dots are Abalone ...

Thanks for the kind words y'all ...