The Steel Guitar Forum

The latest episode in the D'Addario Guitar Power web series is an interview with Paul Franklin.

https://youtu.be/69-n32yvEEQ

Mark, thanks for posting. What a great insight into the things Paul plays and how he puts it in the moment. Thoughtful attitude and skill. What a master accomplished player.

I’m so impressed with Mr. Franklin, a genius to say the least. One of several things I learned from his commentary, is “I’m Still a Beginner “ You would think after “46” yrs. of playing this contraption, that I would’ve improved a lot more. At my age “72” I’m very thankful that I can still carry a D-10 and play well enough to make a little cash, playing for weddings, birthdays, and bars.

I guess I’ ve been asleep for some time now. ...
What is this “up to an octave” thing he speaks of?

Dave Little wrote:I guess I’ ve been asleep for some time now. ...
What is this “up to an octave” thing he speaks of?

Dave,

The way I understood it was that he was saying the Franklin guitar's mechanism was capable of raising (and maybe lowering?) the pitch of a string an entire octave.

I could be wrong about that, but that's what I thought he was saying...

Is this “common knowledge” ? Am I alone in being dumbfounded?

Is this “common knowledge” ? Am I alone in being dumbfounded?

Oh no! The dreaded "duplicate topic syndrome." Brad Bechtel started a thread yesterday, but I think this one takes precedence because it was started prior to Brad's.

And in regards to duplicate posts in this thread, Dave, you can go back and delete one of them - not sure if you know this.

At any rate, this is what I wrote:

That's one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. Paul is freaking amazing!

And I'm one of the biggest Mark Knopfler fans on the planet - love the part around the 11:00 minute mark where Paul talks about sort of accidentally coming up with the Calling Elvis steel riff and MK is singing the lyrics on the phone.

Great job by Dweezil as the interviewer. He's a cool dude.
_________________

Dave Little wrote:Is this “common knowledge” ? Am I alone in being dumbfounded?

If it makes you feel better, Dave, you are not alone. There are at least two of us...

Remarkable and a very humble player!!!

I have long read that Franklin steels have extraordinary leverage. I've taken it as a given that a Franklin can do large pulls with ease that push other steels to their limits. An octave? That's pretty mind blowing. Even if it's hyperbole, I'm pretty floored. I'd love a more detailed idea of what & how but it's not important.
This video is great and I cannot express how great an inspiration Paul is to me.

Thanks for watching.... I'm so glad Dweezil made it more about the instrument than me......, Dweezil is as nice as he is great...He is obviously a very unique and amazing musician...It was an honor to spend time with him...

....The Franklin changer will raise and lower a whole octave....Why do that? Nobody would ever need to go to that extreme....but by having that capability, it keeps the travel short, and easy, for the multiple and more complex changes.

Happy New Year!

Paul Franklin

Franklin wrote:....The Franklin changer will raise and lower a whole octave....

Hi Paul, when I heard that, my immediate question was whether you have strings that will tolerate that?

Best wishes for the New Year and thanks for all you do!

Jim

Jim,

The reason is in my answer...As far as I know, there are not any plain strings that could raise a whole octave without breaking the first few times that pedal is used....two tone moves are musical and so is 5 or 6 changes on one pedal....If a changer maxes out at 3 tones, to accomplish a 2 tone raise or 6 changes on a pedal, imagine how far the travel would be, let alone how stiff the pedals would feel...

That is not much stress for a changer that has an octave range.

Happy New Year!

Paul

off topic, but it is nice to see the Zappa siblings have worked out their differences.

Paul: There is at least one person confused here (me).
It may be due to the wording/punctuation in the responses.

The Franklin changer:

1) Will it lower a whole octave?
That is conceivable.
Six stringers do it all of the time with their Strats and related whammy guitars.

2) Will it raise a whole octave?
THAT is the problem child, probably because I don't see how any string would tolerate it.
Unless of course you took an (example) 014 plain 4th E string and tuned it down an octave from normal.
Of course, that would probably be a sound/tuning that most people would not be drawn towards. ;>))

Franklin wrote:
..As far as I know, there are not any plain strings that could raise a whole octave without breaking the first few times a pedal is used....two tone moves are musical and so is 5 or 6 changes on one pedal....If a changer maxes out at 3 tones, to accomplish a 2 tone raise or 6 changes on a pedal, imagine how far the travel would be, let alone how stiff the pedals would feel...

The octave capability eliminates the stress on the changer for these types of requests..

Paul

AJM,

I can't say it any clearer....

Paul...

Thanks for the links. Yours was great of course. The one with Daniel Lanois was also great. I've heard the name, but not consciously heard him. Love what he did in the video.