Steve Lipsey
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 8 Jun 2011 8:47 pm |
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I started playing lap steel (after many years of slide guitar) a few weeks ago, on a 6-string 1960's Harmony Bobkat...the Bobkat sounded OK, but nothing special.
From the info gained in this forum, I ordered an 8-string Melbert Pro from Bob Allen (www.musonmt.com) - never having seen one in real life. It arrived yesterday, strung and tuned in High-G C6,...and I played my first gig with it today, substituting it for the PRS Hollowbody tuned in open G I use for slide guitar....a bit cheeky, but it came off OK, and I even got asked to sit in on a few tracks on another band's CD recording session! (more a tribute to the Melbert than to me, for sure).
The review (I'm not an experienced lap steel player, but have been playing guitar for 40 years, and it is now my day job).
The bottom line: On a scale of 10, this one goes to 11. I apologize in advance for the superlatives to follow, but they aren't just mine...
The maker:
Truly, not enough could be said about Bob to do him justice...he graciously put up with my continuously changing specs (just learning about tunings, etc.) and my need to have it quickly so I could learn it and play it on tour in a month....he was helpful, knowledgeable, responsive, and generally a real quality individual in a way that is rare in this world.
Workmanship:
Great attention to detail, all parts fitted perfectly together. Maple/cherry/maple joints are perfectly made. Clearly handmade, not from a Chinese machine shop, but that lack of total uniformity is fine with me. And all I mean by that is that the tuner cavity bottom isn't perfectly smooth. You know I'm reaching when that it the only thing I could find...
Materials:
I chose to go with a body he had in stock, rather than designing my own...but I have no issues at all. The wood is pretty and smooth. I probably would have chosen it even if I had time to design one...The other materials are perfectly chosen for their tasks. Fretboard is clear and solid. Pickup, etc. are mounted well. Volume is too close to tone to adjust on the fly with a pinky (he has since changed that for most models, I believe), I will probably just remove the tone knob, leaving more room to get at the volume. Tuners are smooth. Nut and bridge are powdercoated black, a nice touch. Perfect alignment of strings, nut and bridge, with a good break angle over nut and bridge. Fretboard is black with white markers - great visibility. He seems to make incremental improvements regularly, although I really don't see what else he could change at this point.
Aesthetics:
Nice shape, a few little woodworking touches in the shape that add a lot. All black pickup mount, nut and bridge lend a touch of class. Weighs about 7 lbs.
Tone:
Well, this thing blew me away....I don't have a lot to compare it to, but the tone of all but the very highest and lowest strings sounds like you are in a cathedral and it sustains for days. Those are fine too, just not quite as heavenly....Between the Lawrence 705 the wood, nut, bridge, etc, I'm not sure where it comes from.... but at the gig I played today, people were amazed...somewhat due to lack of familiarity with steel guitar, certainly, but whatever the reason, the Melbert took the prize. My band members, who were pretty hesitant to have me play lap after such a short time with it, now wouldn't let me go back to slide if I wanted to...and the PRS was not an easy one to beat for tone...so I'll be playing a much bigger gig with it tomorrow, and many more to come.... |
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Steve Lipsey
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 11 Jun 2011 2:10 pm
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OK, played a big gig on Thursday at a country music venue in Portland, the Ponderosa Lounge (Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, etc. have played there)...and they asked us back for a weekend gig in the future, so I guess it sounded OK...and my band loved it (I hadn't even ever rehearsed with them with the steel yet, just pulled it out and played it instead of my normal slide guitar!).
Once again, all due to the Melbert, not much contribution from me yet! Everyone commented on the beautiful tone.... |
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