How attached are you to your guitar?

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 21 Aug 2004 4:32 pm

Every now and again, some steel players seem to need to hit the reset button and buy a new PSG. This can be a Very Good Thing, especially if their older PSG was somehow limiting them.

Me? I have this tendency to try and make whatever it is I already own do for me what it needs to do (I pushed my Mac Performa 6115 along for 9 years before I replaced it with a G4; I owned a VW Rabbit for 17 years; and I can cite more examples). That includes my built-like-a-tank 1973 MSA U12. I think I've become "attached" to it.

How attached to your current PSG are you?

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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 21 August 2004 at 05:33 PM.]

Rex Thomas · Post by **Rex Thomas** » 21 Aug 2004 4:41 pm

Extremely.

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 21 Aug 2004 5:07 pm

I was surprised last week when I realy thought about it.

Sometimes, like I did, changing the fretboards gives you a whole new outlook.

Rarely does a guitar limit a player.

Usually it's the other way around.

EJL

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 21 Aug 2004 5:34 pm

I think a guitar is like a person. You don't really know them until you've been "around the bend, and back" with them...maybe 5-10 years?

Damir Besic · Post by **Damir Besic** » 21 Aug 2004 6:39 pm

I love my guitar because it was bilt for me personaly.By hand and with lots of love.It also has a little metal plate with a memo from my friend (who bild it) to me.This guitar is very special to me and plus ,it sounds better than anything I have ever played before.And for now there is only 6 other Promats in egzistance,few more are being made as we speak (one of those for me again)and they are all labor of love.With this two, my Webb 614 (that I just got from Bobbe) and my Stelling Red Fox five string I`m set for the rest of my life.Finaly.

Db

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 21 Aug 2004 11:45 pm

Somebody's gonna have to dig deep to top my Excel U-12 and my two Stringmasters.

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 22 Aug 2004 3:20 am

I started playing a lapsteel that I built in high school shop class, then a double-neck which I built(1 pedal). Finally got pedals when the fender400 came out. Then a D12 Marlen with 1 knee lever which lowered the Es.
Now I have a modern All-Pull with more knees.
I think I was a better player when I had less to work with. Now I think about all the options I have for playing the same lick. This thinking process slows me down when improvising.
Yes, I am attached to my guitar with all its gadgets and my great sounding effects system but I always wonder if I should have done like my old friend Ralph and just keep on hittin those good basic licks. ......JD

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 22 Aug 2004 9:24 am

The main guitar, and I have a bunch to choose from, is a modified Sho-Bud Professional. If there was something that sounded better, I'd get it, but there isn't.

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 22 Aug 2004 10:02 am

I've had a couple people ask me why in the world I'd want to spend $2000 for a Marrs rebuild of my old, unused, spare Professional when there are all these "New Guitars" out there for $6000, I have to chuckle and tell them "just wait".

When I get it, I'll be taking apart my totally bush whipped PIII, and show people just how worn out a guitar can be and still be the best one I've ever played..

I think like Mr Remington was with guns, Shot and Buddy were with some of those Sho~Buds.

Designed in months to last centuries.

EJL

John Cadeau · Post by **John Cadeau** » 22 Aug 2004 4:26 pm

I have an old Sho-Bud which I very rarely play, but it's a beautiful steel, and my Emmons LeGrande, which I play now. My wife keeps asking me why I need two steel guitars, when I can only play one at a time. I just can't seem to make her understand my attachment to these insrtuments. Heck I can't even understand it myself. I just know that I cannot part with any of these instruments. She knows most steel players are like me. She dreads it when we meet up with another steel player because she will have to sit there and listen to hours of steel talk.
John

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 23 Aug 2004 3:14 am

pretty good topic..

For me I think I am very attached to my Carter D10..not for any reasons with flash and glitter..but rather I am comfortable with it and as I learn new phrasing with different grips and levers it "FITS" me...

I think this is one of the very few Instruments, maybe the only, where it is extremely important for the player to "FIT" the instrument and be comfortable. Just one more piece of the puzzle to get out of the way.

Now the Tele's..thats a different story...they have got to have the neck feel, then the body weight, then the twang..all 3..or it's a no go..at least for me...

I do have "one" that fits all 3 requirements, another thats a fairly close second and a 3rd that has no chance...

I have always wondered if some of the players here who have a Steel at home set-up and a second for gigs..if it takes a bit to get accustomed to the GIG Steel after practicing all week on the HOME Steel..

Thoughts?

t

Tim Harr · Post by **Tim Harr** » 23 Aug 2004 7:06 pm

My Carter is a guitar I will have a long long relationship with.....

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Tim Harr - Carter D-10 8p & 9k w/ BL-705s; Webb 6-14E Amplfier

Ron Sodos · Post by **Ron Sodos** » 24 Aug 2004 7:57 am

I have owned and played Shobuds for 25 years. I have been playing a d12 for about 15. I decided to splurge and buy a Zumsteel d10 6 months ago. Wow, not only has my playing improved but it was like going from a Ford escort to a Corvette.

Thanx Bruce

Chris Forbes · Post by **Chris Forbes** » 24 Aug 2004 8:25 am

Yaaaaaawn, make me an offer.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 24 Aug 2004 9:28 am

My Sierra SD-12 fits me really well. The pedals and levers feel like natural extensions of my body, and they work very smoothly. So, I'm pretty well attached to that guitar. I hope that my new Williams D-12X will eventually feel like that.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session SD-12 (Ext E9), Williams D-12 Crossover
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, C6, A6)

Charles Turpin · Post by **Charles Turpin** » 24 Aug 2004 7:16 pm

I have a Zum U12 that i played for 15 years. ANd when i got through my first surgery with the cancer my wife said if i could have anything i wanted in the world and i could live for it what would it be. I told her i would like to have a Double neck Zum steel with a lightning bolt on the front. Set up as close to Paul Franklins set up as i could get.Which i made it through, and she got it for me.But somehow i just can't retire the old 15 year old U12. So i practice a lot on the double neck. But due to my health when i play family dinners and stuff now, I take the Universal. I am terminal though i fight it everyday, But i won't get rid of that guitar till they lay me cold in the ground. There just developes to many memories between some guitars and there players.

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Eddie Malray · Post by **Eddie Malray** » 26 Aug 2004 5:33 pm

My first(an only) new guitar was my 1980 Emmons PP. I've tried several othe brands over the last 24 years but I'm glad I never made the mistake of trading the Emmons. I always come back to it. (very shortly). I bought a Super Pro a few months ago an it's a great guitar. But If I had to part with one, it would have to go, I can't imagine life without an Emmons---------Eddie