Steel Guitar Builder

Some ajustments to make yet but my second build will be ready for photos fairly soon. I'm hoping for rain or hot weather so I can go hide in the shop and finnish it off. I was able to play it like a lap steel this morning - nice tone was really surprised. I completed the rodding this evening Attached the pedals and I was REALLY SURPRISED how easy it's going to pedal. It's asingle neck 8 string C6 pull release.

Hi Eldon,How s that steel coming ? anxious to see it ,ive always been enterested in 8 stringers. Russ

Can't believe where summer went, last post was 2 months ago.

Pedal 6 has no rod right now. I didn't tighten the rod's bellcrank and it slipped. There's not enough room to tighten it from below so when I change strings (soon) the fretboard will come off and I can get at it from the top. In the meantime here's a teaser.

man, that's a beauty! always wondered about the all aluminum look.
that's great - also would be fantastic with brushed designs like fish scales and covered in some candy color.i love it.
one question -- is the endplate metal bent on a metalbrake?
i'd like to try it on my builds instead of angle or flat ends.
so far my flat ends are a favorite , but maybe bent corners would be
better.flat just looks a little bit "old school" to me and that's why
i like it.still i love almost all steel designs and formats --as long
as they make music that's what counts!
pastor bruce

Pastor Bruce,

Thanks for the comment.

I was going to paint the pedal bar and aprons a bright bright yellow - well at least the pedal bar but my wife and eldest daughter talked me out of it. There is some brushed underneath (pics later).

The ends were bent in a metal brake, 3/16 inch aluminum plate of some kind. It was originally a mounting bracket on the side of an office desk for a computer tower. The stress cracks on the corners polished out but I didn't spend enough time to clean up the metal break marks on the outside.

I'm quite content with it though.

Wait till you see the truss rods - thanks to Georg for te idea.

Eldon, now that's a solid hunka steel! What does it weigh? I bet it stays in tune and has no cabinet drop as well!
Would love to hear a sound clip of it. Great job Eldon!

Hey Bent, great to hear you're back!

Weight of guitar is approx. 28 pounds, has next to no cabinet drop (or as close as I can figure) and it really stays in tune well.

I'll post a few more pics later and a sound clip when I get to it.

The internal workings are accessible from the top. As an added bonus I may experiment a bit with different tops/fretboards because all that needs doing is removing the fretboard (4 capscrews).

I like it eldon,something different ,nice, sure like to see more details. Russ

Hey Eldon, that is a sharp looking machine! I like the key less tuners, sure makes for a more compact design. What scale length did you use and what is the over all length of the guitar?

I look forward to seeing lots of pictures and hearing a few tunes. I LIKE IT!

Paul

It definitely looks different...