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Topic: lap steel with string bender on ebay...Brad? |
Chris Walke
From:
St Charles, IL
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Posted 15 Nov 2000 8:12 am |
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Brad, or anyone that might know...
Interesting National on Ebay with a string bender mechanism. Does anyone know anything about these? When were they made? How many were made? Did they work? Not gonna buy it, I'm just curious about it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=494054908 |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 15 Nov 2000 9:44 am
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That's a 1953 National Triplex Chord Changer from what I can tell (thanks to Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars). The string changer should work fine, but don't expect to use it as a mini pedal steel. The string changer just adjusts the pitch of some strings so you could have A tuning, C6 tuning and E tuning available without changing strings.
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Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars
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Chris Walke
From:
St Charles, IL
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Posted 15 Nov 2000 10:00 am
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Thanks, Brad!! My curiosity has been satisfied.  |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 15 Nov 2000 9:03 pm
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I had one of these Triplex units for a couple of years... just like the one shown. The seller of this one at Ebay has mis-labeled the lever on the instrument. It's not a stringbender, as on a regular guitar. It's a 3-way lever that operates a series of cams on the bridge end of the instrument. The cams raise and lower certain strings to change the open tuning. It's a primitive arrangement. The cams pull and release the strings... not from the end of the string, but they pull down ON the strings themselves. The cams are set up to work one way only... so you must use the original tunings specified by National in order to gain the full benefit of the changing mechanism.
The cams and the lever may look "cool" and be vintage, but they don't work very well, nor are they very practical in my opinion. This was National's answer to the player's growing demands for string changing capabilities back around 1950. The instrument has a decent tone and may be played as a straight lap steel. It's a real eye-catcher.
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www.dougbsteel.com
[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 15 November 2000 at 09:04 PM.] |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 16 Nov 2000 5:44 pm
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| In the late-'60s, Carvin had the same type of device available on their Hawaiian guitars. Called the "Change-O-Matic" bridge, it had a similar lever, only on the end of the guitar, and allowed 3 different tunings. These devices never caught on, and in 35 years of playing...I've seen only one. |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 16 Nov 2000 9:09 pm
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I've got a 1958 Oahu D-6 with a Stringtone changer device on each neck. These devices are mounted on the top of the instrument, just behind the bridges. There is a little lever on each of them and there are 3 settings on each one. The front neck settings are C7, E7, C6. The rear neck settings are C#, E, A. These ancient changers were made by Rowe Industries in Toledo, Ohio. They are very clean and they work great. Evidently Oahu offered these as an option on certain models. Has anyone else here ever seen these "Stringtone" changer devices on a lap steel?
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www.dougbsteel.com
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