My double 8 with benders

Solid Body Steels, Reso, Weissenborn...
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Keith Cary
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 4:16 pm

My double 8 with benders

Post by Keith Cary »

About three years ago I built this double eight lap steel with benders on the front neck. I'd built a couple of the same bender mechanism before and found it works for me, allows me to palm block in the usual way. The scale length is 23.5", parallel string spacing (guitar), Dimarzio 8-string pickups, with a single coil tap for both pickups. The front neck is my morphed version of E9, top down: F#-E-B-G#-E-B-E-D (the D is an octave higher than its location would imply, the same D as an E7 tuning would have.) The near neck is C6 with a high G and a low Bb. Most of the body is walnut and the necks are maple. I made the fingerboards from plexiglass painted black on one side and lightly scored with a radial arm saw. The "dots" were made with an end mill in my drill press. The two bodies aren't quite coplanar, allowing me to get to the far neck without making it sit higher. The bridges are brass, the nuts are anodized aluminum. I built it heavier than I intended but it does have excellent sustain and tone. I end up playing it more than my pedal steels at gigs, both because it's super portable, has a wider tone range with the split pickups, and it takes less brain power to operate, allowing me to drink more beer. -- The knee bender pulls the B up to a C# and the "arm bender" raises the G# to an A. Here's a picture, I hope: http://s356.photobucket.com/user/keithc ... sort=3&o=7 Here's a closeup of the benders and electronics. I've since added a second switch for the single coil tap. The walnut piece that the pickups are in is more or less hollow so all the wires are in one place. http://s356.photobucket.com/user/keithc ... sort=3&o=6
Here's a clip of me playing the C6 neck. I'll try to find one of the E9/benders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPhj7ERLtDw
Keith
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