The Steel Guitar Forum

Mike's flying it up to Nashville so Junior can (hopefully) debut with it at the Opry this Saturday.












https://www.stevensguitars.com

Beautiful! All that routing...it’s really a work of art. The metallic finish puts it over the top. I’m sure Junior is going to make it sound great. Have all his guit-steels had that dual bridge pickup arrangement?

My that’s beautiful. Well done !

Very cool!

Still, I wonder what has become of the stolen one. It’s not like it can be easily resold, and even if a dishonest collector bought it, they’d never be able to show it to anyone.

That really is a work of art !! simply beautiful !!

Fred Treece wrote:Beautiful! All that routing...it’s really a work of art. The metallic finish puts it over the top. I’m sure Junior is going to make it sound great. Have all his guit-steels had that dual bridge pickup arrangement?

Big Red (the stolen one) had a Sho-Bud single coil hacked into it by Junior... here's a pic I found:




I asked Mike and he said Junior wanted the original setup for Ol' Blue... I believe Mike hand-winds these and has the covers 3D printed. This one is #4... Junior owned 1&2 I believe, #3 is white and is in the hands of a collector I believe. The guitar Junior is playing right now is Ol' Yeller, #1, and is on loan from a museum. I got to watch Big Red being built in Alpine TX... after Mike moved to town I thought I'd died and went to Heaven.

I think Junior read a bunch of the same children's books that I did... Ol' Yeller, Big Red... maybe the next one will be named Misty?

EDIT: forgot that the top (six-string armpit) guitar also has the dual pickup arrangement... that's a signature part of Junior's sound, and is made up of a pair of Mustang/Duo Sonic II pickups... they're RWRP just like a Stringmaster, so... humbucking!

Stephen Cowell wrote:[EDIT: forgot that the top (six-string armpit) guitar also has the dual pickup arrangement... that's a signature part of Junior's sound, and is made up of a pair of Mustang/Duo Sonic II pickups... they're RWRP just like a Stringmaster, so... humbucking!

That’s the neck I was curious about. Looks like the switching is at least 3-way for each neck. Those pups might be humbuckers when they’re both on, but it looks like they can be switched on and off individually as well. I know I’d want that. As if....

Thanks for the great pics and info, btw.

i met mike stevens at a namm show a long time ago. his work is astounding.

i had a fellow bring in some strange beautiful custom made instrument one day to see if i could work on it for him. he opened up the case and i told him "mike stevens made that"....he was stunned. i had never even seen it, but i knew by the workmanship who made it!

Great work...It's better eye candy then the original.

How come they never show pics of the steel part being played?

If you watch some of Junior's videos, it does show the steel neck being played.
Erv