Morrell Lap Steels

KENNY KRUPNICK · Post by **KENNY KRUPNICK** » 1 Nov 2008 3:59 pm

Anyone own,and play a Morrell? How are they,and the sound? Quality? The Little Roy Wiggins model is an 8-stringer,and looks to be of a good instrument. Thanks in advance.

Edward Meisse · Post by **Edward Meisse** » 1 Nov 2008 11:47 pm

I had that very model for awhile. I used it for my campout guitar. It sounded ok to me. And it worked well for what I was using it for. But the strings were not equidistant, the pick up was poorly placed so that the 8th string (that I seldom used anyway) was noticeably lacking in volume compared to the other strings. The finish and all the hardware were of the lowest quality. But like I said, it was a seviceable guitar.

Tommy Auldridge · Post by **Tommy Auldridge** » 2 Nov 2008 5:11 pm

I have one too. It's not too bad. But if you really want a great 8 string lap steel, Save up a little more money and get Mark Vinbury to build you one that's very much like the Roy Wiggins model. Execept of course, it's about 50 times better. The Brand name he uses is "Dynalap". He made one for me. I love it. The sound is incredable. It has a Wallace True Tone pick-up. I think it's made from Canadian maple. I wish I could post some pictures of it, but I don't know how. Tommy Auldridge............

Robbie Daniels · Post by **Robbie Daniels** » 2 Nov 2008 7:30 pm

I just received a new Morrell eight string. I re-strung it to suit my tuning preference and find that it plays quite well and has an excellent tone. For a lap steel with a low end price range, I find it does the job quite well. I use it for practicing without having to set up pedal rigs or lug a heavy guitar around for small projects.

John Burton · Post by **John Burton** » 4 Nov 2008 8:22 am

I have two Morrels.
The first one is a maple six string. The problem I had was poor placement of the bridge and nut slot (or you could say the fretboard was silkscreened a little off).
I ended up moving the bridge a teeny bit and replacing the nut with a Gretsch nut.(chromed steel)
The new nut made the string spacing at the nut match the bridge spaceing and also improved sustain.
Anyhow, IMO, the stock maple six string "Pro Model" sounds pretty great. The maple and pickup combine nicely. I really like my Morrel 6 since I tweaked it a little. 23" scale and sounds round and full.

My other Morrell is an 8 string poplar one. I had the same problem as others: the pickup was off and the high string was dropping out. I redrilled holes and moved it. Much better now.
Sound on this one is okay, I'm betting the maple eight string version sounds better. It's a little brighter then I'd like and the pup is a little noisy.
Otherwise, it isn't a bad eight stringer.

For the price, the Morrells aren't bad. I little tweaking and setupis probally needed on all of them, but again, for the price, they can be made into excellent sounding instruments.
(Just my oppinion)