Need some input on "Fessys"

Ray Anderson · From: Jenkins, Kentucky USA

First and foremost I'm new at this,but most of you are not. I'm thinking about upgrading from a GFI Expo to a higher grade steel. Iam looking at a Fessenden D-10, but I don't have all the information on it yet as I am waiting on an E-mail. Are they p/p or all pull rlease or what is the specs on these their web page was not helpful in this area. Steels are not plentiful in this area unless you drive about 6 to 8 hours one direction. How do these guitars compare to Mullen, Emmons and some of the other top rated instruments? I really could use some sound advice on this matter, because if it is not what I think it to be I will keep looking. Honest and unbiased opinions please..money is tight and hard to come across these days. Thanks in advance for your input. Confused

Storm Rosson · From: Silver City, NM. USA

Fessy's are all pull, they are about as good as any pro model psg ,depends on what u get put on it extra etc.....Stormy Smile

Tracy Sheehan · From: Fort Worth, Texas, USA

IMO the Fessy is as good as a GFI.

Bill Miller · From: Gaspe, Quebec, Canada

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

One of the best classic sounding steel guitars out there. Extremely good string separation.

Storm Rosson · From: Silver City, NM. USA

My SD-10 has a GeorgeL E66 on it and sounds pretty darn good, fatter than withe the B.L. 710, it sounds really great, the best of the three is the tone-aligner Bob Hofnar wound for me....it's a sweet sounding pup for sure Winking

Ken Pippus · From: Langford, BC, Canada

Most people would not regard the Fessenden as a huge step up from the GFI. Both are modern, light guitars with easy setups.

What don't you like about the GFI?

KP

Ned McIntosh · From: New South Wales, Australia

My Fessenden D12 has awesome tone, with the original BL-712s. Being a D12 it is heavier than most, but the advantage is it doesn't creep about on-stage. Solidly-built, easy to tune, tone galore and beautifully engineered.
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The steel guitar is a hard mistress. She will obsess you, bemuse and bewitch you. She will dash your hopes on what seems to be whim, only to tease you into renewing the relationship once more so she can do it to you all over again...and yet, if you somehow manage to touch her in that certain magic way, she will yield up a sound which has so much soul, raw emotion and heartfelt depth to it that she will pierce you to the very core of your being.

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

I have a push-pull, a ShowPro, and a Fessy. I do play the other two guitars pretty regularly, but the Fessy is my go-to guitar. It is a solid, wonderful sounding guitar that is easy to maintain and adjust. Two thumbs up. Plus, Jerry Fessenden is a great guy to deal with, either to build you a guitar or to support his product. BTW, a Fessenden is NOT a light weight guitar like a GFI.

(again, my opinion) The Fessenden guitars are among the best value for the money on the market.
_________________
Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
My CD's: 'I've Got Friends in COLD Places' - 'Pedal Steel Guitar'
2021 Rittenberry S/D-12 8x7, 1976 Emmons S/D-12 7x6, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Quilter ToneBlock 202 TT-12

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

by looking you'd think fessenden, rains, zum, franklin, mci, rittenberry,carter, emmons all pull, mullen, justice, etc.are pretty similar...
notice that buddy charleton and ralph mooney were playing gfi's at the end.

Ray Anderson · From: Jenkins, Kentucky USA

I like my GFIbut it has some drawbacks, for one it is too light, when I lower the 2and 9 strings with RKR lever it wants to dance around over the floor the lever is very stiff and difficult to operate. Seondly the material that it made of is very sensitive to temperature changes and drasticaly affects the tuning, but I do like my guitar. The tone is a little brighter than I would like to be, so I'm going to change to Nickle wound strings and try that. This is my first steel guitar so I don't know a lot about them but my first choice was a MSA Classic D-10 and it got sold while I was trying to make the deal so that fell through so settled for this one. I am not downing GFI products by any stretch of the imagination. My scenario is that some people like Fender Strats and Teles and some like Gibson Les Pauls and Melody Makers, I am a Gibson man and my GFI sounds more like a Tele than a Les Paul. My quest is to find a steel that satisfys my ear like a Les Paul, that kind of tone. So knowing that, what say you Forumites? All help greatly appreciated. Rolling Eyes

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

It does'nt matter what we say. You must try the guitars yourself. The amp has as much to do with your output tone as the guitar. Sometimes more. Fessenden guitars sound great. You should try one.

Storm Rosson · From: Silver City, NM. USA

I'll have my SD-10 Black Fessy 3 x 5 that I got from Dave Yustin a forumite, for sale in a month or so ,soon as I get my changer fingers from James Winking

btw it's in cherry shape too....Stormy

Willis Vanderberg · From: Petoskey Mi

I had a couple of issues with my Fessy. Number one it had no serial number and the nylon tuners were a bastard size. When I ask about it , the answer was , " Well thats Jerry "
That may be Jerry but in my opinion you should be able to date the guitar. and use a standard tuning wrench instead of one that was worked over.
I called , after describing my guitar was give a date of manufacture as between this year and a few years later.

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

I have NEVER known Jerry Fessenden to not address anything on his guitars. I don't agree with that statement. That's not the Jerry Fessenden that I know.

Storm Rosson · From: Silver City, NM. USA

Me either , I called Jerry bout a year ago outta the blue and left a voicemail and he called me back like the same nite from airport in bumf*** just so I could get a few parts, which he had sent to me by the next day. Jerry is solid if u had a funky guitar it wasn't his fault I assure you....Stormy Winking

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

The thing about nylon tuner size rings a bell with me.

I briefly borrowed a Fessy four or five years ago to check it out. I recall the owner told me the nylon tuners were a different size from the standard tuning wrench I have. It was a very tight fit.

This led to a complication. On that Fessy, the pull rods were not secured to the bell crank, but just hooked into slots on the "back" (side away from the changer) of the bell crank. When tuning the changes, it was hard to jam the wrench onto the nylon. That led to unintentionally pushing the finger inward, which in turn pushed the pull rod out of its slot (which I didn't realize at first).

That had me baffled for a little while when the tuning of a string went badly out of whack, until I saw that the pull rod was hung up on the back of the bell crank, not in a slot. It would have been harder to discover that the rod had been displaced if it had wound up in a different slot, which would have looked normal. But which slot had it originally been in? In order to restore the correct timing of the pull, it was necessary to get the rod back in the right slot. But unless you had a chart handy or had memorized the rodding, how would you know which? (Say, tuning up just before the set on a gig.)

That made me think, not only that it would be better to use standard-size nylon tuners, but that it would be better to secure the pull rods to the bell cranks (as most other steels I've seen do), so they would be unable to come out of their places.

I don't know if other Fessys are all constructed the same way--from the Fessenden website, it would appear so.

Not being the owner I had no occasion to contact Jerry about this, so I do not know what his response would have been.

In all other respects that Fessy was a fine steel guitar.

Mitch Ellis · From: Collins, Mississippi USA

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Mitch, I don't, but I have played them and heard them played from the audience. I like both Lawrence 710's and Truetone single coils. I would not put an Alumitone on a Fessenden. The clarity is already there on that guitar. As far as amps go I like Webb's, but that is a very personal subjective choice.

Brett Lanier · From: Hermitage, TN

The bell cranks are Jerry's design. It's true that the rod isn't secured to the bell crank, but that isn't a problem if the rods are set up right. And you can pinch the teeth around the end of the rod if you need to. I think they are a cool design, they fasten very securely to the square crossrods, which is a problem (loose bell crank) that can sneak up on you at a bad time.

He doesn't use the slightly larger nylon tuners anymore. If you have a guitar that has them, all you need to do is hammer a slightly larger hex screw bit into a standard size wrench and it will widen it a little.

I don't think A Fessenden sounds like a GFI or Mullen at all. Less midrange, brighter and more clarity. Check out Danny Sneeds YouTube videos. Him and Terry Crisp are a real testament to how good Jerry's guitars can sound.

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

You can nitpick all the little details you wish, but, when all is said and done, what comes out of your speakers is most important. Every guitar I've owned has had some little detail (some not so little) I would have changed -- this includes ZumSteel, Mullen, Sho-Bud, and other brands too numerous to mention.

The design of Jerry's stamped aluminum bellcrank is genius. Much cheaper to build than others on the market. If adjusted properly they work fine; if you have too much slack in the pedal or lever, the hooked pull rod might pull out the front of the bellcrank. As was mentioned, you can slightly bend the ends to retain the rod.

Listen to any of the sound samples from my 'Cold Places' CD on my website. All were recorded direct -- no amp -- and very little eq or fx.

The only two guitars are a Fessy and a vintage push-pull. Try to figure out which is which.

Click here then click on the individual sound bytes.

My favorite pickup in a Fessy by far is TrueTone. I tried a couple of GeorgeL and the BL712 and 912 and the TrueTone always won handily.
_________________
Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
My CD's: 'I've Got Friends in COLD Places' - 'Pedal Steel Guitar'
2021 Rittenberry S/D-12 8x7, 1976 Emmons S/D-12 7x6, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Quilter ToneBlock 202 TT-12

Willis Vanderberg · From: Petoskey Mi

Kevin:
I think you misunderstood my two issues. The guitar played fine. The quality of workmanship was good. Am I the only owner that had a guitar with no serial number ? Some have told me they had a date written in pencil. Also I didn't say Jerry didn't respond. I just never got an answer as to how old my guitar was.
As most of you know I am a Emmons p/p guy so when I say the Fessy had a quality sound I have something to compare it to. I also play a Mullen and a MCI.
It just seems to me that it isn't too much time and effort to stamp a serial number on the guitar.

Dan Beller-McKenna · From: Durham, New Hampshire, USA

My Fessy has a serial number stamped on the underside.

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

ray..since you aren't crazy about the brightness of the gfi you might actually like an older msa classic. they had a darker tone and there are quite a few of these steels out there for very fair (cheap) prices.

i worked on a friend's rustler and it had 1/4 inch tuning nuts as opposed to the normal 3/16 found on many steels. whatever size you end up with, you can get a cheap nut driver for it at your hardware store.

fessendens should be good steels. i still think, for instance, that they look so similar to legrandes, ritts, rains,jch and my zum that if you changed the brand name badge on them no one would know the difference. they all sound as good as the player behind them.

Dan Beller-McKenna · From: Durham, New Hampshire, USA

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