NGD - GFI Ultra S10 Keyless

Paul Malta · From: New York, USA

Just received a used Ultra S10 and loving it!!

When I unboxed it, I was shocked at how small it appeared. The case looked small enough to fit inside the case for my Sho Bud 6148! It's super light and compact, but big on tone. The seller said that the guitar was stock but the pickup looks like (and sounds like) a TrueTone to me.

Anyway would be interested in hearing from you Ultra owners out there on any mechanical or other tweaks you've come up with. So far I love this guitar but example, the I don't like that the levers don't stay in the up position, like my Bud. Also, not sure yet about the non-roller nut. Seems ok, the guitar appears to stay in tune ok but time will tell.

Thanks!

Paul

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

I've always been impressed with GFI.
It's also not impossible for a stock guitar to have a Truetone: if you order a new one, they'll put whatever pickup you want in it.
Well done
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2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Ken Pippus · From: Langford, BC, Canada

From Elderly. Drooled a little over that one.

Perfect light-weight gigging/flying guitar

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

Very nice guitar! Thanks for posting.

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

One caveat: Be careful with the keyless tuners. When changing strings, move the tuning lever toward the nut only just until it stops--be careful not to force it by over-turning the knob. That can loosen a collar down inside the tuning block, which can eventually make the lever unable to hold pitch.

(It can be fixed, but the collar is only accessible by removing the whole tuning block.)

Stu Schulman · From: Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)

That's a pretty guitar,I have an Ultra D-10that I use mainly for practicing stuff on and just love it,Mine has GFI pickups,Well built unique guitars! Winking

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Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952.

Paul Malta · From: New York, USA

Thanks for the thumbs up guys! Really impressed with it so far. And now my Sho Bud 6148 can finally get the thorough cleaning it needs (didn't have a backup axe until now).

Yep, got this one from Elderly. Looked too good to pass up! Whoa!

Still can't get over how light and portable this guitar is. Seems barely bigger than a single neck console lap steel. Very Happy

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Nice looking keyless S10. I love my little Williams keyless S10.

What does "NGD" in the topic title stand for?
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Lee, from South Texas - Down On The Rio Grande

There are only two options as I see it.
Either I'm right, or there is a sinister conspiracy to conceal the fact that I'm right.

Williams Keyless S-10, BMI S-10, Evans FET-500LV, Fender Steel King, 2 Roland Cube 80XL's,
Sarno FreeLoader, Goodrich Passive Volume Pedals, Vintage ACE Pack-A-Seat

Paul Malta · From: New York, USA

"New Guitar Day"! Very Happy

Daniel McKee · From: Corinth Mississippi

Nice looking GFI. I've been wanting to try one of those GFI keyless models just to have a light and portable guitar. Does it feel weird to sit behind it when your used to a guitar that is longer such as your ShoBud?

Bruce Derr · From: Lee, New Hampshire, USA

I bought a used S-10 Ultra a while back and I recently finished getting it set up. I've been playing it out for a couple of months now and I'm liking it a lot. It sounds great, sustains well, plays smoothly, and it's sure easy on the back.

Mine had been "tweaked" a bit by the former owner. He put rubber o-rings on all of the brass swivels, between flange and puller, apparently to tighten the bit of play there. It was a bad idea; some of the rubber rings had already deteriorated. I took them all off. I remembered a forum post about using nylon washers for this purpose, so I put some in while rerodding. Since I hadn't played the guitar much before this, I can't say if the washers helped anything or not.

I moved the LKR a bit. (The previous owner had already moved it from the original spot). I also put a spring on the LKV lever to hold it up in playing position. One end of the spring goes to a screw I put on the lever to replace the little set screw. The other end hooks around the linkage rod. The spring holds the lever up and allows me to lift the lever up to fold the RKR down under it.

I put an L-705 reissue pickup in mine after reading SGF posts saying that it was a good match, and I haven't been disappointed.

One other tweak: I usually store the case standing on its end, and I found that the corner screws were scratching the floor. I solved that by putting Fender amp glides at those screw locations.

Paul Malta · From: New York, USA

Hey Daniel, yes absolutely. But I'm finding that it's not because of the overall length (I believe the scale length on both guitars are 24" and string spacing appears to be similar too). It's mostly because the Sho Bud has some fight and slack in its pedal and lever action while the GFI is much tighter with a lot less travel. In playing the Bud for over 20 years it seems I may have developed some habits, like having too much of an ankle roll movement which causes my left knee to flare out. So I'm still adjusting the LK levers on the GFI to find the sweet spot while tightening up on my left foot. Hopefully it won't take long to get totally comfortable, but I'm enjoying the ride nonetheless!! Smile

Paul Malta · From: New York, USA

Thanks for the tips Bruce!! Yeah, putting rubber o-rings in the swivels sounds like a terrible idea! I mean, rubber deteriorates and where else is that gunk going to go. Rolling Eyes

I don't have a LKV on mine but your mod sounds great should I get one which I probably will, as I'm already considering adding more pulls on the guitar. Seems the 2nd string raise from D# to E on RKL isn't there for some reason and according to GFI's documentation, this raise is part of their standard E9 copedant for GFI S10 Ultra's. But this guitar looks super easy to work on and I may tool around a bit on LKR position as I'm still trying to find the sweet spot for it.

Going to keep that L-705 in mind. I have a Truetone on there now and I really like it, but I need to gig her a bit and see how she really works out.

Thanks again Bruce really appreciate the insight on this axe!

K Maul · From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL

I love my GFI keyless S-10. Since there is no measurable movement over the nut,there is no need for rollers. I think it does something positive for the tone and sustain. I put an Alumitone pickup in mine and it is great. Virtually no buzz or hum in all gig situations and it has a wonderful brightness as well as deep bass response.
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Kevin Maul: Airline, Beard, Clinesmith, Decophonic, Evans, Excel, Fender, Fluger, Gibson, Hilton, Ibanez, Justice, K+K, Live Strings, MOYO, National, Oahu, Peterson, Quilter, Rickenbacher, Sho~Bud, Supro, TC, Ultimate, VHT, Williams, X-otic, Yamaha, ZKing.

Paul Malta · From: New York, USA

K, thanks much for the insight on the nut. Makes sense.

You know, I've read a few things over the years about how brilliant a designer and builder Gene Fields was and now that I own a GFI I can plainly see it in details like this. Really blown away by how good this guitar is for its size and especially for the money. I've been shopping for a 2nd steel for a long time and really happy with not having to take out a loan for a quality instrument.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

I have had this one for a few years...

...and have the following experience...

1: about the easiest PSG in existence to work on mechanically.
2: light but more than stable enough - that mine is an SD10 may play a role for stability.
3: pad too thick (too hight) for me.
4: putting on and lower a wound 6th string is barely within what this PSG can handle. Works fine with my preferred Jagwire and LSS string-sets (.022W 6th), but had to hook the lower-return spring upside down - change its curvature when stretched - to prevent the spring from scraping against the lower-scissor.
5: lowering a wound or plain 6th string exposes the solid nut's weaknesses, as the string tends to hang after a lower (G# to F# and back) - audible hysteresis.
6: more space for knee-levers on an SD body, and easy to reposition the RK levers to suit my playing position.
7: screws on knee-levers can be tightened to make the levers stay up when needed.
8: the GFI-II PU suits the PSG, and my taste in tone, just fine.
9: a little "short" on inherent sustain, but no problem once it gets a little acoustic feedback.

Conclusion: as all else are, or can be, tailored to my liking, if it hadn't been for the audible hysteresis caused by the solid nut, this little PSG would have been my preferred instrument. That hysteresis irritates me enough to go for my (a lot heavier) Dekley instead.

Paul Malta · From: New York, USA

Nice axe Georg!

So far the solid nut hasn't given me any problems but I'm using an unwound S6. Nice workaround on the spring for a wound S6! Definitely will keep that one in mind. Also, GFI does use roller nuts on their non-keyless Expos so I wonder if it's possible to swap one of those in there. I don't have a lower for S6 now so maybe I won't have this issue, but I'm still skeptical about the solid nut... I guess I'll wait and see on that one.

Thanks on tip 7!! No more floppy knee levers!! It was kind of a pain to tighten it though. I had to hit it from both sides simultaneously (the hex head and the nut on the other side) to get enough torque to tighten it. But now they stay up! Very Happy

That was really annoying me (couldn't push the seat in under the axe) and if it gets loose again, I'll look for some small Delrin washers to wedge in there as the screw right now is as tight as it'll ever go.

Thanks Georg... very helpful post.

Norbert Dengler · From: germany

great guitar and a great company building it!
perfect customer service!
there ain`t no better road guitar!

Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

One great looking GFI Steel.

If you are considering changing the Solid Nut. The Nut roller is separate and has 2 screws from the bottom of the steel to hold it in place on my GFI U-12 with regular key head and Roller Nut.

Good Luck and Happy Steelin.

Mike Sigler · From: Give Em A Try !

I've been playing GFI for 12 years, one of only a couple guitars built with stainless steel changers, the GFI-3 pickup is great on string separation and tone, I have been throwing them on busses and stages all around the world for some time now, with NO issues at all... its always in tune, tone is always killer, and they dont break your back to carry around !
Its been my choice of guitar to feed my family for 12 years and i just love em ! oh yea, they have the sigler pedal on the single necks as well ! LOL

Dan Robinson · From: Colorado, USA

Michael J Pfeifer · From: New York NY 10036

You can adjust the knee levers to stay up with a wrench and a hex key.

Johnie King · From: Tennessee, USA

Iâ€™m looking for a used GFI they seem to be sold before I get a chance to buy must be Excellent Steels.. Mike Sigler just sold a really nice one I didnâ€™t get a shoot at it.

Jeffrey McFadden · From: Missouri, USA

the green guy is me.
Green with envy. Mr. Green

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Well up into mediocrity
I don't play what I'm supposed to.
Home made guitars

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