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Topic: Joe Morrell MJMP-8N 8 string lap steel ( a review) |
Steve Ahola
From:
Concord, California
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Posted 15 Aug 2011 12:40 pm |
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This lap steel was brought up in the recent thread on the Rogue Jersey Lightning. I got two of them in February 2010 so I could work on C6 and E13 tunings- one of them a second with a small crack in the body for $125. I was very pleased with them, made from very solid maple and a very low price for 8 strings. I had Dom Franco make me two upgrade nuts out of angle iron, which was a big improvement. I played them without an amp as much as I did with an amp because the maple body was so resonant.
As for the bad points (besides the cheap plastic stock nut) the string spacing was way too tight (0.340" string-to-string vs the recommended 0.375" for 8 strings) and the Kent Armstrong vintage lipstick pickup wasn't quite long enough for all 8 strings. (You could move the metal pickguard a bit to determine whether the 1st or 8th note would have the reduced output.)
Bottom line: the MJMP-8N has a lot of potential but out of the box it is not a fully functioning 8 string lap steel. Here is what BobbeSeymour had to say about a similar model (the "Little Roy") in an earlier thread:
| BobbeSeymour wrote: |
| This is a great "Hot-Rod" guitar. We put state-of-the-art pickups on these guitars, legs and sockets, optional fretboards and tuning keys. Why? Because the maple body is incredible and very worthy of modifications. Properly set up, this steel guitar has no equals, for less money than a so called "great guitar". This guitar is the '55 Chevy or the '32 Ford of the lap steel world. |
While Bobbe recommended the George L 10-1 pickup another post in that thread mentioned that the Lollar 8 string Stringmaster pickup fit right in without modifications to the pickguard.
Another approach would be to convert it to a 7 string lap steel by modifying the bridge and replacing the nut. I have cut slots in bridges for several of my lap steels to adjust the string spacing and I have had no problems with them. (The bridge changes the vertical angle of a string- often very sharply- so why not the horizontal angle as well? Be sure that there are no sharp edges to cut the string.) Doing this would not require the replacement of the pickup so it would be the least expensive way to go. If 7 strings were enough for Jerry Byrd I think I can get by with them here! 
Unless you are a DIY-er looking for another project I would not recommend buying a MJMP-8N new. But if you already have one around (or can get one cheap) you might consider some of the upgrades mentioned here. As Bobbe says it is a really nice piece of maple.
Steve Ahola
P.S. I think that two of these could be used to build a really nice double-8!
_________________
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Recordings on electric guitar:
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Michael Lee Allen
From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
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Posted 15 Aug 2011 6:00 pm
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Deleted
Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 1:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Michael Lee Allen
From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
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Posted 16 Aug 2011 10:44 am
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Deleted
Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 1:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Steve Ahola
From:
Concord, California
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Here is a link to a thread here on upgrading the pickup, bridge and nut:
