Ed, I sure have that feeling...
Also, the past seems to be "sacred" but largely undocumented, and the future seems to be best "protected" by sticking to traditions.
Richard, I think some of the problem is that "failing integrated neck/changer" constructions have been built using "conventional wisdom", which means all anecdotal evidence of their weaknesses is pretty worthless - at least to me, and no facts has so far been presented.
There is plenty of talk about the "one piece of aluminum" and "aluminum tone", something I threw out of the equation while preparing my own.
- I didn't want "aluminum tone", so I "killed it" by laminating unequal pieces of aluminum in an attempt to get closer to the "non contributing, non subtracting" model outside the laboratory. I am reasonably happy with the result.
- I didn't want to deal with detuning caused by temperature induced expansion/contraction in aluminum either, so I minimized the effect by not letting the neck alone control the length/tension of the strings. By accident (or cleverness) I pretty much matched the expansion/contraction of the strings, relying entirely on information from people who knew nothing about steel guitars but all about aluminum and other metal alloys.
To me any and all references to what PSG builders may have experienced in the past is of no significance, as the points they make in no way refer to my construction. Such points is probably useful to traditional builders though, so I'll just ignore what I don't need.
Always some potentially useful ideas found when going through posts and examples, but I won't base anything in my future PSG constructions and modifications entirely on what traditional PSG builders and/or players think, say or do ... I'm not into "building replicas".
An Off-The-Wall Idea For Y'all To Chew On
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Re: An Off-The-Wall Idea For Y'all To Chew On
Go for it George, your the man!Georg wrote:Ed, I sure have that feeling...
Also, the past seems to be "sacred" but largely undocumented, and the future seems to be best "protected" by sticking to traditions.
Richard, I think some of the problem is that "failing integrated neck/changer" constructions have been built using "conventional wisdom", which means all anecdotal evidence of their weaknesses is pretty worthless - at least to me, and no facts has so far been presented.
There is plenty of talk about the "one piece of aluminum" and "aluminum tone", something I threw out of the equation while preparing my own.
- I didn't want "aluminum tone", so I "killed it" by laminating unequal pieces of aluminum in an attempt to get closer to the "non contributing, non subtracting" model outside the laboratory. I am reasonably happy with the result.
- I didn't want to deal with detuning caused by temperature induced expansion/contraction in aluminum either, so I minimized the effect by not letting the neck alone control the length/tension of the strings. By accident (or cleverness) I pretty much matched the expansion/contraction of the strings, relying entirely on information from people who knew nothing about steel guitars but all about aluminum and other metal alloys.
To me any and all references to what PSG builders may have experienced in the past is of no significance, as the points they make in no way refer to my construction. Such points is probably useful to traditional builders though, so I'll just ignore what I don't need.
Always some potentially useful ideas found when going through posts and examples, but I won't base anything in my future PSG constructions and modifications entirely on what traditional PSG builders and/or players think, say or do ... I'm not into "building replicas".
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- Location: Gallatin, Tennessee, USA
Re: An Off-The-Wall Idea For Y'all To Chew On
Viewed this before. Only problem is that there's half a dozen I'd love to use! Don't want to build that many. Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.
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Re: An Off-The-Wall Idea For Y'all To Chew On
Play "dress the Barby doll". Make the basic guitar out of ??? Then make thin face plates of the fancy woods polished up/etched up/or like RR dashboards and attach via Velcro, inserted magnets, or into grooved/slotted rails on the PSG.
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Re: An Off-The-Wall Idea For Y'all To Chew On
Ed -
Ya got it! With half a dozen cabinets hanging on the wall I could then pick the one which suits my mood of the moment - be it polka-dot or zebra stripe.
Wasn't there - some time ago - a thread by Reece Anderson on the SGF in which he posited that the appearance of an instrument affected one's opinion/determination as to tone?
Hmmmm. I think that I want a mellow tone today. Macassar Ebony, perhaps? Or Rosewood. The decisions seemingly never end.
Richard
Ya got it! With half a dozen cabinets hanging on the wall I could then pick the one which suits my mood of the moment - be it polka-dot or zebra stripe.
Wasn't there - some time ago - a thread by Reece Anderson on the SGF in which he posited that the appearance of an instrument affected one's opinion/determination as to tone?
Hmmmm. I think that I want a mellow tone today. Macassar Ebony, perhaps? Or Rosewood. The decisions seemingly never end.
Richard
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Re: An Off-The-Wall Idea For Y'all To Chew On
Burt, are you saying the steel in action on Youtube that says Gibson USA on it is a Denley?
Re: An Off-The-Wall Idea For Y'all To Chew On
Yes.
It was originally a double 8, with a hand-painted finish.
I converted it to a single 10 with a padded rear neck, and covered it in white formica.
I had various stickers kicking about, and I stuck the Gibson one on it. This was years before youtube, and in hindsight was a mistake, as I'm always having to explain to people that it is a British kit-steel called a DenLey (Named after the company founders Nigel Dennis and Gordon Huntley)
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 0da78dbdac
http://www.pedalsteel.co.uk/gordon-huntley-the-uk
It was originally a double 8, with a hand-painted finish.
I converted it to a single 10 with a padded rear neck, and covered it in white formica.
I had various stickers kicking about, and I stuck the Gibson one on it. This was years before youtube, and in hindsight was a mistake, as I'm always having to explain to people that it is a British kit-steel called a DenLey (Named after the company founders Nigel Dennis and Gordon Huntley)
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 0da78dbdac
http://www.pedalsteel.co.uk/gordon-huntley-the-uk
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Re: An Off-The-Wall Idea For Y'all To Chew On
Thanks for the clarification, I enjoyed your playing and your comments on both Forums. I have an old Console Grande and am uninformed as to how long Gibson produced steels so that was the reason for my question. Next Question....... You mean there were/are Stl Gtr Kits that you could build at home without all the manufacturing? Makes me think of my old Heathkit Gtr amp. What a great way to get started!