I recently acquired a lovely 8-string walnut Allen Melbert steel that Bob made from a "blemished" piece of wood. (The stain didn't take properly in some small blotches on the back.) He sold it to me with a very substantial discount, and while it may be a "blem," it's very attractive and I'd show it off to anyone. Great playing and sounding instrument! It's the standard 8-string model with a laser drilled and notched piece of channel stainless steel for the bridge, powder coated. The pickup is a Kent Armstrong single coil intended for 7-string jazz guitars. It's sealed, but I suspect it has a blade magnet or pole piece inside, and is of appropriate width. The nut is laser-notched anodized aluminum. The "fretboard' is made of that stuff that door nameplates are made from, with the black coating cut through to reveal the white. Very nice instrument, and I have less in it in total with the bag and cable than I'd've paid for a thoroughly mediocre Morrell by itself. (He has a somewhat more expensive "professional" model with a fancier, less flexible bridge of his own design and manufacture, and a different pickup.) I keep meaning to check the gauges on the strings and forgetting, but it's a C6 set. I think if you plan to use one strung in one of the lower, broader E6 or E7 tunings, you might want to let him know how you want to string it so he can notch the bridge and nut to suit your gauges.
I'm still trying to figure out what I can do in this tuning. (Low to high, ACEGACEG) It's got the equivalent of the GBDGBD Dobro tuning in it (a fourth higher) if you skip strings 4 and 8. It's also got pure minor triads on strings 2-4 and 6-8. I haven't really begun to figure out the interval combinations available with a slanted bar. It's easy to find melodies without moving the bar more than two frets either way, and lots of them are mostly on a single fret. But I haven't figured out how to do self-accompaniment rhythm as I'm used to in Open D, E, G or A. Maybe that's why this tuning pattern is traditionally called "Orchestra Tuning."
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Congrats! :)
You can do pretty much anything you like in that tuning, but the biggest challenge is to avoid hitting those "6th tuning" strings when you don't want to,- you'll be surfing outside Oahu before you know what's happened if you're not careful.. :lol:
I believe the C6 with the high G on top is the most popular C6 version among western swing players, and it's the one Cindy Cashdollar use on her instructional DVD (though she focuses on strings 2 to 7 to include the 6-string players).
It sure isn't hard to sound Hawaiian!
I rather like Western swing, but doubt I'll be playing it with anyone around here. Might have to check out Ms. Cashdollar's video anyway.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
very nice looking guitar Ricochet. a slab of mahogany adds a beautiful round tone. especially when playing over the neck.
that looks like a Lollar Chicago 8 pup.
sure would be nice to hear you play.
Not familiar with that steel, although I have been out of the loop on steels for a while. When I was in my teens (that was like last week) :mrgreen: I had a double neck Fender 8 string. It was tuned G & C. wish I had that puppy now...
DB, you're looking at his Pro model. Mine's got the Kent Armstrong pickup. I like it quite well, actually.
I need to take some pictures of mine. Haven't gotten around to it. I just have the pictures Bob took before sending it to me.
These are hand made by Bob and there aren't a whole lot of them around. This one's just #81. I've also got his 6-string one painted bright yellow in a "Police Line" tape motif that I bought secondhand a year or so ago. It's in the high single digits IIRC. He's improved lots of little details since making that one, though I think it's quite a nice instrument, too. (I took out the EMG Select pickup it came with and put in a lipstick.) If you want a decent lap steel without breaking the bank, do talk to Bob.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Here's my new blemished walnut Allen Melbert 8-string steel, in its TKL gig bag, from the front and the back:
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
This is an interesting discussion. thank you for sharing :lol:
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