Like I said in an earlier post, I bought a Carter D-10 8/5 steel guitar. This was not my last purchase. After a couple months of lessons and discussions with my instructor I decided to buy a Mullen Steel Guitar.
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| Carter D10 8/5 |
I think at this point a little background and discussion of my experiences with Tony as an instructor are in order, so you understand my ordering of Mullen guitars. When I began taking lessons from Tony he was playing on a 1982 ZB guitar. Beautiful tone and sustain if he could keep it in tune. He would complain that it would go out of tune on the bandstand at the most inopportune time. When I decided on buying a Mullen guitar, Tony told me, if you can afford it buy two that way you have a backup. He then told me that he wish he could afford to buy a Mullen. I then came up with an idea. I told Tony I would buy him a Mullen and exchange free lessons in exchange for the price of the Mullen. Tony agreed.
I called Mike at Mullen and told him I was interested in having a Mullen guitar. He asked me what I was looking for and I told him a D-10 made out of Zebrawood. There was a pause and a sigh and Mike said that he did not want to make another zebra wood guitar. The reason being that when you cut zebra wood it smells like a backed up sewer. I asked Mike would it make a difference if I bought 3 out of zebra wood. Mike told me he would. So, Tony designed the copedant for our guitars and we added the chrome and chose alumitone pickups. Now, wood choice is not just for aesthetics but the density of the wood chosen will impact tone. The denser the wood, the better the tone. Most modern steels are made out of maple which has a density range of 0.6 - 0.75. Zebra wood has a density of 0.79. These guitars weigh 78 pounds in the case. The other point to notice is that most steel guitars built today have aluminum necks. We chose wood necks. How much if any this impacts tone I do not know. I do know it is prettier. We also chose 9 pedals and 8 levers. We added chrome every where it was not wood. It took 11 months to get the guitars and Mike and crew did a wonderful job and produced what I think is one of the best sounding steel guitars around. Of course I have no bias here. All three guitars were made from the same piece of lumber. Even so when you play each one, each has a distinctive unique tone. By the way, I had the entire crew at Mullen sign each of the guitars.
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| The Three Amigos! |
My next piece of gear I have is my Fender twin reverb reissue amplifier. This one has the single 15 inch speakers instead of the double 12". I like the warm sound of the Fender amp over the Peavy, however, the Peavy is more durable. Tubes need replacement, biasing, warm up and cool down periods and are heavy. Mine I believe is around 60 pounds.
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| Fender Twin Reverb Reissue with Single 15" Speaker |
My next amplifier is the Digital Stereo Steel amplifier. This amplifier, in my opinion, does not sound as good as a tube amp (nothing will) but it has XLR outputs on the back which allows me to hookup to my Presonus 16.4.2 Mixer/recorder board. I use this amplifier for recording.
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| Presonus 16.4.2 |
I also have a Presonus Mixer/recording board. You don't need anything this fancy but you should have a way to record yourself play for later review. It comes in handy when you get discouraged, you can play back what you did in the past and hear how much progress you have made.
Well thats it in a nutshell of my set up. In my next post I will describe the steel guitar itself and the basic copedant concepts. If you are looking to possibly learn this guitar, please, please do not be intimidated or discouraged by the information presented. This instrument will be a life long learning journey and can be very rewarding.
