The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi All,

New to the forum and I'm interested in finding an alternative to the Duesenberg Alamo, particularly the multi-bender. Nothing wrong with the Duesenberg but it is a bit spendy and I'd prefer to support US based builders if possible. I've reached out to Todd Clinesmith (who's pondering if he can help) and am wondering if there are other builders who would be interested. Any and all suggestions welcome.

Thanks,

Douglas

Faulk industrial guitars

Gretsch lapsteel guitar equipped with a Duesenberg Multibender

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkJEedN2fFg

This is the one I had Melbert build for me about a year or so ago.

Clinesmith instruments aren't necessarily where I'd go as a budget option (though I am a devoted fan and my frypan is my favorite instrument for about a year now). Todd is probably pretty busy with his existing designs and a custom one one would deservedly command an expense that I would think might rival the Duesenberg. Your best option is probably a retrofit of the Dues bridge hardware onto a reasonably priced lapsteel. The Melbert above was probably fairly reasonable I'd guess...the bridge/bender alone probably gave the rest of the guitar a run for its money on being the most expensive! Same with the Gretsch, but in that case you'll be the one doing the retrofitting. Might want to looks at a roller nut too (looks like they have that on the Melbert?).

Thanks for the responses everyone. I realize I should have been more explicit in my original post. While the Faulk guitars are pretty cool they're not really my style and I like wood. I'm not opposed to the price of the Duesy per se but the value it represents. A good part of the cost of that guitar is tied up in dealer markups, shipping, import duty, etc. To me a Clinesmith guitar would represent a much better value plus I'd be supporting an independent builder in my own back yard. I do have a couple of old Valco's that I could possibly install the multi-bender on or maybe I just need to build one from scratch.

Hello from George Boards

If you decide to make your own (Recommended) we sell body blanks ready to build out. All of which can be set up to have room to add palm goodies.

We do not sell the mechanicals for these type actions, but now of daze there are American Makers of such things.

Trying to fit a so called vintage with this stuff normally results in some level of abortion anyway.

https://www.jacksonsteelguitar.com/prod ... el-guitar/
https://youtu.be/hk_POwFSrYY

https://reverb.com/item/13855493-peters ... hier-built

This one is beautiful.

I had not Bought a guitar for about 15 years, but been building my own.
I bought the Duesenberg because of the specialised hardware (Multibender bridge, roller nut, integrated Capo) which I could not reproduce in my workshop.
I'm glad I bought it, rather than retrofitting the bridge to something else. Everything just works well together, nice 25.5" scale length, good smooth tuners, good variety of usable tones from the twin pickups etc
Worth it IMHO

Thanks again for all the replies. I went ahead and bought the Duesenberg Alamo and I gotta say Jeff, you're absolutely right. Fit & finish is top notch and the hardware is excellent.

Tom Campbell wrote:This is the one I had Melbert build for me about a year or so ago.

tom. are those hipshot benders? and the roller nut? tell us what all that does. thx!

Bill,

Those are not Hipshot benders.

The bridge and levers are Duesenberg...it's a kit...the same bridge unit Duesenberg uses on their Alamo guitar. I ordered it from Duesenberg in Germany.

The nut is a Hipshot roller nut.

Melbert adapted their guitar to accommodate the parts.

got it!

Bill

The Duesenberg multi-bender allows you to raise or LOWER a string. Most of the other benders only allow you to raise a string.
Don't know if this matters, but if you want to lower a string be sure the bender you select has the capacity to do so.

Duesenberg alternative? Have you considered a Cord?

Maybe Jason Dumont at Lap King? He does excellent work.

Chris - he already bought a Duesenberg - from the post about seven above yours:

Thanks again for all the replies. I went ahead and bought the Duesenberg Alamo and I gotta say Jeff, you're absolutely right. Fit & finish is top notch and the hardware is excellent.

I realize I'm late to the party but just ran across this thread.

After a lot of thought and considering modding one of my lapsteels with a multibender I bought a Duesy FairyTale back in February. It was expensive but the craftsmanship is superb and the built in capo is almost as amazing as the benders themselves.

The pickup combo is p3 neck and humbucker bridge. I love it and have gotten fairly comfortable with the benders.

Most of the time I'm tuned to a hybrid tuning of gbdf#ad or dadf#ad. I stole the hybrid tuning from Luke Cyrus Goetze who is an absolute master at this tuning and the multibenders.

I don't get the point of the capo on an open tuned guitar. Can someone explain it?

you can play the open strings and hammer-ons and pull-offs in different keys as you capo up the neck.
Go watch Jerry Douglas play "On a Monday".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh70uGvOH4Y

.
Chris Fouke of Industrial guitars can help you out at a reasonable price.
He just delivered a baritone lap steel with benders to me and it is absolutely amazing.
He has several basic models to choose from and he can modify them to your liking as needed.
Also a very nice man to work with.

Bigsby palm pedals are an option if you can one.

I too am late to the party on this one...

I am not in USA, consequently the pickings here are slim and if available, expensive.

The D'berg is undoubtedly a lovely piece of kit, but it isn't going to happen down here...

I think the GeorgeBoards idea has merit. As mentioned already, you can buy the palm levers only and they are a well made bit of gear.

If it's of any use to anyone, I have a couple of pics of my floor joist guitar attached. Looking at the headstock end of things, you can get strat saddles with rollers in them from Ebay. Here you will see I have these standing up and locked off with individual screws into the fingerboard. Underneath I have routed a channel to contain threaded inserts (Ebay) and height adjustment screws, so I can get my strings flat.

Or you can purchase a generic roller bridge to serve the purpose of a nut (as you may note I had previously installed).

I don't have a workshop, just a bench in the carport and only a modest selection of hand and power tools. You can get something like this over the line if you want to, it will never be a D'Berg, but it works..