The price? The most expensive instrument I've ever bought...... I had promised myself to not buy any more guitars this year, but I fell head over heels in love with this one.
Hopefully it'll arrive in Norway in 10-14 days time. Can hardly wait...
Hey Steinar, when will you actually have it in house?
Sorry Dude, I was suffering from heat exhaustion. Had to clean out the garage and it's 100+ here today...<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Ron Bednar on 07 August 2004 at 01:11 PM.]</p></FONT>
<SMALL>Hey Steinar, when will you get actually have in house?</SMALL>
Ron,- can you please de-code that sentence for me?
Roger,- I guess stuff like this is one of the reasons I'm single. Better get them now before it's too late....
Steinar<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 07 August 2004 at 12:29 PM.]</p></FONT>
She's a real beauty! I'd suggest you sleep with the guitar and put your wife in the dog house ! Man, that's one pretty guitar..hope it sounds as good as it looks.
Travis,- from what I understand the Horseshoe is an original Rickenbacker, but Bill Asher has rewound it. The other pickup is another of Asher's custom pickups, basically a P-90 but as a stacked humbucker. There's also a transducer under the bridge which has its own output.
PS - I've already been in touch with Prof. Aiello and have asked the seller to ship to him so he can check the horseshoe and work his magic on it. I want this guitar to be The Best........
I played an Asher once, much like the one you're getting, but it had only two pickups. They looked kind of like the custom one from this guitar, but the guy in the store didn't know what they were. All I can say is, that guitar sounded GREAT. A huge warm fat sound which sounded great overdriven. I hope this one turns out just as good--and I imagine it will...
How does the blending work between the three pickups? And does the saddle transducer need a preamp?
-Travis
P.S. My other main recollection of the Asher was that it was very playable. Hard to describe why. Nice high action, good string spacing, nice weight--just felt good to play. Once again, I am extremely envious.
Travis,- I have no idea how the electronics are set up on this one, so I'm just as curious as you.
From the eBay add I learned that the neck pickup has a phase switch, but I'm not sure if that's the mini switch or if it's a push-pull knob for that. I guess it's a three way switch for the two pickups with one volume and one tone control. There ought to be a three-way switch for going between electric/acoustic, or both mixed, so perhaps that's the mini switch. Didn't say anything about preamp for the transducer......
Steinar
PS - I doubt this has been on Harper's website, it was a custom job for the original owner (there's even a dedication from Asher to him at the back of the headstock). But I've seen photos of Harper with a semi acoustic with 'violin' shaped soundports and a horseshoe. I read an interview with Harper where he said that there would only be made 200 of these lap steels, and that he owned two of them. Sounds a bit strange to me though.......
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 07 August 2004 at 04:51 PM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 07 August 2004 at 04:54 PM.]</p></FONT>
I've had the pleasure of talking with Bill Asher on a number of occasions and I can tell you that he's a dedicated luthier who has spent a lot of time thinking carefully about tone and experimenting to get the best sound out of his instruments. Everyone I've talked with who owns one loves their Asher steel. Congratulations, Steiner!
Steinar is the man......way to go my friend. Life is to short to do with out!!! And you will have this fine instrument to finish your CD...I want to place my order for a copy now. :->
ebb,- will do as soon as I record something with it. First Rick (aka The Mad Doctor) will inspect it, and then he'll ship it to me (or maybe he won't... ).
Chuck,- we'll see. I'll wait for Ricks 'verdict' before I decide what to do, maybe he'll remag it, maybe he'll change it...
That's one nice looking steel! Congrats on that.
BTW Asher was using custom Tom Anderson pickups on his standard guitars. I wonder what the piezo bridge sounds like. I have never cared for that brittle tone myself. Perhaps all blended with the others it ads definition.
Have fun with it.
PS it was 111 degrees here today!
Hi Loni,- I agree with you on the general sound quality of piezo pickups. Unfortunately, I'm not very fond of the magnetic 'Sunrise' sound either, and the solutions that sounds best to me (like Pick-up The World and other soundboard transducers) usually have a very low feedback treshold. So perhaps this can turn out to be a compromise I can live with, at least in a loud band setting, and if not,- well, I didn't buy it for its acoustic sound in the first place....
