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Topic: Gibson Electroharp |
Larry Phleger
From:
DuBois, PA
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Posted 17 Aug 2016 8:15 pm |
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A friend of mine recently purchased a Gibson Electroharp at an estate sale. He asked me to put it back into playing condition. It appears that all the parts are there, and it just needs a thorough cleaning, setup, and a set of strings. The design of the changer appears pretty straight forward, but I have no idea what copedant to set up for it. It has 8 strings and 4 floor pedals. No knee levers Does anyone have any information on what copedent was used on these guitars? Any information would be greatly appreciated.  |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 17 Aug 2016 8:56 pm
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Because those guitars are useless for regular pedal steel playing (the pedal action its both sluggish, takes heavy foot pressure and isn't deadly accurate) a copedent that simply changes tunings so it can be played as a 4-tuning console steel would be your best bet (I speak from experience, having owned one and worked on several others)
Download the Fender 400 or 1000 manual - they have an assortment of pedal setups that et you 4 - or more if you combine pedals - different tunings. A6 was the usual starting point for Fenders, and I believe Gibson recommended the same thing.
They are great sounding instruments, but have deceivingly simple mechanisms - you can raise or lower any string with any pedal, but the machinery is so heavy. clunky and inaccurate (one version lowers ALL the strings and then raises the ones you don't want lowered to achieve lowers!).
Tuning changes is all they were made for, and all they are practical for, They're not easily modded like Fenders to improve or expand the mechanism, either.
Probably not what you wanted to hear, but that's the reality. Gibson did an awful job of making pedal steels as we know them today - they stopped before modern steels were in use.
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No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 18 Aug 2016 8:01 am
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They also had to stop making them because of patent infringement.
The Harlin Brothers had a prior patent on this type of changer. |
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Larry Phleger
From:
DuBois, PA
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Posted 20 Aug 2016 6:57 am
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| Thanks for the information Jim and Erv. You confirmed my suspicions. I have been playing pedal steel for 40 years and this is the only one of these I ever saw. My friend for who owns the guitar asked me what it is worth. I told him that I have no idea. It is certainly not good for playing today's music as Jim noted. I put Don Hlelms' E13 on on it and will set up 2 of the pedals like the A&B pedals on E9 The third pedal will raise raise the C# to D giving him a VII on string 3. I have no idea what to do with pedal 4. I told him the thing I would do is forget the pedals, and play it like an E13 non pedal. If anyone has any idea of the value of this beast, please let me know..Thanks in advance. |
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