Al Marcus'
Steel Guitar Web page
page 4
I was playing lap steel in 1936, at the age of 15, I and old timers like Jerry Byrd (he is about a year or 2 older than I) saw this all unfolding.
Gibson had the pedals with the Electra-Harp, it had 8 strings and 6 pedals staggered across the left side, with steel rods hooked to the pedals which pulled down a bar across the changer fingers with 8 holes for raising and 8 holes for lowering. Any string that you wished to activate, you put a screw in the hole , the further down the longer the pull.
It was very simple and easy to change a tuning pull right on the job if you wished. The pedals pushed hard compared to today's steels. You had to sit a little sideways facing your left. Not too bad. Below is a copy of an ad for Gibson's Electra-Harp.
It was a large cabinet down to the floor on three sides , all birdseye maple with matched walnut inserts in the front and sides. Very beautiful . I sold mine in 1965 to a teacher ,John Moore, Cinncinati , who had a hand in developing it.
Terry McCarty, Pres. of Gibson told me, after my discharge from the army in WWII, where I could get one used, as they were out of production forever for that model. They stopped in 1941-42 and never resumed building it. I bought mine in 1946 from a music store in Schenectady, New York. I paid more than it cost new, and it was worth it! I saw Alvino play his, and knew what it could do for me. Alvino Rey had been playing one since about 1939 and he played all the great tunes and big chords that you hear now being played on the C6 neck. Only he did it in E6.
Multi-Kord came out with theirs much later on and it had almost exactly the same tuning head (changer) but they had lock nuts on the screws so they wouldn't move and go out of tune easily. I would say that was a plus.
But they had a foldup guitar with a case and used some cables instead of rods to pull the changer bar, and that was no good , as far as I was concerned. Not stable enough, etc.
Alvino Rey was showing the way playing "practical" and very good Pedal guitar, years before Bigsby came out with pedals. I contacted Paul Bigsby when he came out with his and his tunings possible were very limited. The Gibson I had could raise and lower any string on any pedal, if you had the leg muscle to push it.
So I used the same complicated tunings that Alvino Rey did to copy his records, etc
Here I am playing my Gibson Electra-Harp, I removed the wood panels and base and replaced it with a stand made of pipe. This was at a jam session in Cheboygan, Mich, at the Gaiety. All those fine musicians and good friends have passed away, except the Bass Player, Harry Clark, and me.
My homemade pedal steel guitar, built in 1960. I had a 6 pedal 8 string Multi-Kord tuning head changer, that I bought from Jay Harlan , one of the brothers who invented it. I paid $50.00 for it. I didn't want their guitar. I built my own with solid rods pulling the bars on top. I used a hard maple body with a steel sheet under the wood to eliminate any Cabinet drop. No case. Mine never bounced around like the regular Multi-Kords that my students used. It was all set up all the time. I put 14 strings on it with the changer in the middle, so I had high notes and low notes that wasn't on the changer. It used two staggered guitar pickups, as there were no pickups available that were wide enough.
I had an adult student who knew his stuff and built it for me. I was very happy with it as it played in tune better than my old Gibson Electra-Harp. One reason it had lock nuts on the tuning screws. Change pedal tunings in seconds, any pull you wanted, but it was hard to push those pedals.
I played it for about 10 years in a lot of clubs with a lot of pop and jazz bands. Those were the days. When I got my first MSA D12, I sold it and never looked back...
My old Sho-Bud, with an E6th tuning.
This was the old rack and barrel tuning and you could put any amount of raises or lowers on it. It was all original with dual pickups wound by Sho-Bud, with mini switches to get any sound you wanted, from deep warm mellow to high tinny treble. It also was wired for 4 jacks, so you could plug in 4 amps if you wanted, in stereo. It must have been made for a very special person..I owned it for about 16 years. I am sorry I sold this to Howard R. on the Forum. Oh well, onward and upward. If I kept every guitar I owned, I would have to move out of my house to make room for them.
My 12 string Rus-ler pedal steel, it sounded good, but was very heavy!
I have owned and played almost all of them. I started in 1936 with an Oahu 6 string wood. Then a Electric Supro 6 string, then a National New Yorker, then a Vega double 8, birdseye maple, then the Original Gibson Electra-Harp 6 pedals 8 strings in a big cabinet, no case. After that, I built my own 14 string with a 8 string 6 pedal MultiKord tuning head I got from Jay Harlan in Indianapolis, Then on to a ZB Double 10, Rus-ler S12, Sho-bud crossover, Fender PS 210, 3 or 4 MSA D12's, MSA SS D10, Emmons D10 push/pull, a couple of those, an Emmons S10 pushpull, Sho-Bud D10 Professional, Sho-Bud S10 special Professional with dual original pickups, D10 Deckley, S10 Boen, D10 Pedalmaster, S12 Pedalmaster, MSA Classsic S10, a special Sho-bud S14, D10 Carter, 2 S12 MSA's, A S12 Emmons pushpull, Mullen S12, A 1953 Gibson Electra-Harp in the case, and a few others.
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