The Steel Guitar Forum

I wanted to ask the community about this pedal steel; Marlen 10 string with 3 pedals left foot and 1 pedal right foot and possibly 1 knee lever. A small back history. I bought it maybe 15 years ago off of ebay when I wanted to start playing pedal steel as an addition to my lap steel playing. I don't think I got a back history on the guitar to begin with. I didn't know much at the time about playing pedal steel, it's history, tunings, etc. I stumbled into lap steel and true slide guitar playing by accident being a life long guitar player. In general my finger style playing on guitar and lap steel is non finger picks/bare fingers and wider string spacing. For example my 6 string acoustic is a 12 string with only 6 strings. I prefer the wider spacing to get my finger in between the strings. When I bought this pedal steel I tried using finger picks, and the heavier bullet style bar compared to my lighter lap steel bars but it just didn't feel right. I've also been a Robert Randolph fan over the years and looked at some of his tunings but got somewhat discouraged and put it off to the side. Basically I've had this pedal steel sitting around for the last 15 years. Over all this time I've been playing lap steel and guitar with this idea that "one day" I'm going to learn pedal steel because it melts my heart. Well recently I started going back down the rabbit hole and looking at tunings, set ups, and even ordered a (I know some might roll their eyes) 6 string 2 pedals 2 knee levers pedal steel to start mixing into my playing. I never knew there was less than 8/10/12. Which brings me to this Marlen.

I never really looked at it in depth but recently I did. I didn't even realize what brand it was. Stamped into it is a number 007. The wood is basic with a blue paint that reminds me of 50's or 60's. The Marlen sticker is clear. It seems to be a straight pull model. The 4th pedal (right foot) does a tone sweep. Not sure if it was meant to be a type of volume but it still works, sort of. The mechanisms need some adjusting but all seem to work. Maybe the community can share some more info on it. It was made in Reidsville, NC by I'm assuming Mr. Leonard Stadler. Thanks in advance for any help.

That appears to be an early student model pull-release Marlen. The pedal cross shafts, bell cranks and swivels shown in the 7th-8th-9th pics appear to be Emmons though, which is curious. The end plates are very similar to an Emmons GS-10. Definitely needs a bit of TLC. Someone else will have to chime on it's age, but probably late '60s / early '70s?

Are we sure it's actually a Marlen? Never saw a student model, and never knew Marlen to have a volume pot hooked to a foot pedal.

i am gonna say that is an msa student model. i think the red baron had the volume pedal set up that way. the other parts look like emmons push/pull.
i have an early 1960's 8 string marlen and it bears no resemblance to this.

Looks like a “Lil Buddy” as far as body and pedals plus the volume “pedal”
Lil buddy changer and body, but bell cranks and cross shafts have been upgraded.
Someone just put a Marlen sticker on it, my opinion.

Looks like a “Lil Buddy” as far as body and pedals plus the volume “pedal”
Lil buddy changer and body, but bell cranks and cross shafts have been upgraded.

i am gonna say that is an msa student model. i think the red baron had the volume pedal set up that way. the other parts look like emmons push/pull.
i have an early 1960's 8 string marlen and it bears no resemblance to this.

Just to keep everyone on the same page, yes, push-pull parts but it is a pull-release guitar. Looks like it's got a RKR lever that's waiting for someone to hook it up to lower a couple of strings.

I own a Marlen, seen several others.. Can't find a single part there that I can say looks like its from any Marlen.. I too think this student model guitar was "rebranded" at some point in its life... Hardware doesn't look too bad, looks stout enough except for the flimsy looking J hook pull things ... it looks like it could be set up to play ok... bob

tim johnson for the win!

Thanks guys. I’m finally going to clean it up and tune it to E9. It was sitting there and my bass player who has also been a guitar tech and a drummer put it in a variation of open E a couple of months ago and wanted me to play it. I also thought that was a knee lever when I flipped it over and vaguely remember it was supposed to have a knee lever. It definitely needs some TLC. That’s basically the way I received it 15 years ago and it’s been sitting like that waiting to be brought back to life. It needs a little adjustment. I get the feeling the previous owner didn’t play it much because one of the hex adjustment screws is keeping one of the mechanisms from raising a string because it slid next to it. The right pedal with the volume pot makes sense to create the volume swell. The electronics work but when I bought it I didn’t have a clue about all the different variations and set ups of pedal steel. I’m excited to get it going and now have a 10 and 6 string.

I was curious about the stock undercarriage but I couldn't find many Little Buddy pics on the forum, just a lot of unfavorable reviews. There are a ton of pics on Reverb though:

https://reverb.com/item/65813379-little ... -1970-blue
https://reverb.com/item/64269291-sho-bu ... -1960-blue
https://reverb.com/item/7464823-sho-bud ... uitar-blue