mullen vs mullen royal precision?

Scott Appleton · From: Ashland, Oregon

My question is, what is the differance between a Mullen built before the Royal Precision and the ones
which are? is there a tonal difference? and lastly
can an older Mullen be converted to the RP standard if that is advantageous to plyability and tone?.

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Mullen S12
Acoustic 165 100W tube
71 Tele, Regal 45, Gretch
Lap, Columbia Lap, Sho Bud S10 lap, Line 6 flextone 3, JBL d130,

William Peters · From: Effort, Pennsylvania, USA

Scott,

I don't know what all the differences are, but the Mullen folks told me that the changer is different. The undercarriage parts look the same as the earlier Mullen to me, but I suppose not everything is visible.

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Bill

http://www.wgpeters.com
Mullen RP U-12, Cougar SD-10, PV-260, Tubefex, PV TNT-115, Gibson SG, Squier P-Bass, Berhinger V-amp Pro

Dale Dorsey · From: Granger, Indiana, USA

One change is the thickness of the body wood. I believe the Royal Precision is 1/16 or 1/8th less than the original Mullen. I have a Royal Precision and am very pleased with tonal qualities but I did install the True Tone pickups which I felt made a big difference. They definately increased the high end and sustain for me. The guitar plays like a dream and stays in tune better than anything I've ever had (so far anyway). It's a keeper for me though.

Al Marcus · From: Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)

Some of us were pretty comfortable with the Pre-Royal Precision Models.
Mechanically , the ones I had ,played great and I liked the thicker wood.
Either one of them is just a fine guitar, IMO...

.

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

If you kneel down at the changer end of the guitar and look at how the nylon tuners line up with the fingers you will see the difference. On the pre-RP guitars, the nylon tuners aren't right below their respective string fingers. They are slightly offset to the left just a hair. On the newer RP guitars, the nylon tuners are lined up directly under their respective string fingers.

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Lee, from South Texas
Down On The Rio Grande

John Bresler R.I.P. · From: Thornton, Colorado

The older models have a smaller crossrod and bell crank. I ordered another floor pedal for my 92 Mullen and had to do some swapping with Del to get the right parts.

I've listened to both, the Pre RP and the RP's and they both have that great Mullen tone. Everything is so smooth, and solid stops on all the knee's and pedals.

Larry R · From: Navasota, Tx.

The pedal bar and pedals are different on the pre-models. For those that have both, like I do, you'll see the difference. Neither is good or bad. I play both and get a ton of tone from both. The Royal Precision has helper return springs at the changer like a Zumsteel, which makes the pedal pressure lighter, however; I have several pre RP's and the pedal pressure is just as light on one of them as with an RP.

Del Mullen · From: Flagler Co. USA

Here are some of the major differences between the Royal Precision and the HWP (the original model of the Mullen Guitars)

We will start with the changer:
The changer has been completely redesigned, the new changer is designed to pull all straight as Lee mentioned. By pulling inline, it eliminates any friction and twisting of the changer levers when pulled. The changer levers are separated so the levers do not rub against each other and eliminates an area where dirt and other unwanted debris can collect. The pull rods pass between the two levers for each string, which makes for the center pulling. The new changer design also is more durable and it stays in tune while returning true, without any need for compensators. The rollers were also changed. They now have a slot where the string end slides into, this makes changing the strings a breeze. They do not have the pin that you have to hold the string on. The slot is designed to catch the ball end of the string should one break, so it does not fall into the changer mechanism.

The undercarriage:
We redesigned the under carriage to have larger diameter cross rods, by doing this we eliminated the bar going down the center of the old guitars, which eliminates another bushing and friction point for every cross rod. The bigger cross rods also provide more torque when pedals and knee levers are engaged, which makes the guitar play extremely easy. Also adding extra knee levers is now a breeze without the center support bar. You can install new levers without removing the whole undercarriage. We also have made the bellcranks much stronger, so your pulls are accurate and rock solid stops on the knee levers and pedals. The new undercarriage has what we call floating cross rods, the cross rods will automatically adjust themselves when the body swells or shrinks due to the different humidity. Each cross rod has two bushings which are easily accessible should they ever need replaced.

The Body:
We changed the thickness of the body, to give more room underneath the guitar. The new body thickness provides a better mid range tone and excellent sustain and clarity of the notes. The original style body provides a much brighter tone. Both have excellent tone. The new body is also slimmer and more durable.

Pickups: We wind our own single coil pickups and we have changed them as well. They are wound to match the characteristics of the new guitar, the combination of the pickup and new design of the guitar gives you great tone.

Working on the Royal Precision is much easier, changing the copedant is very easy and everything is designed to be able to remove and add parts without taking the whole guitar apart.

Every part on both guitars is machined here, in our shop, with state of the art machines, so the tolerances are extremely close. When ordering parts or additions you can be certain that they will fit just like they are designed to.

For those who have tried, or own the HWP model, the pedal and knee lever action on the Royal Precision is much easier and requires less travel than the original model.

We still manufacture the original style guitars as the HWP Model. So you can get a brand new one if that is the model you prefer. Orders can be placed through Herby Wallace.

Both guitars require very little maintenance. A drop of oil here and there and a cleaning is about all you have to do to them. Both of the guitars are built very rigid and strong to last for a long time. They have chrome plated steel endplates, which provides a mirror finish for the life of the guitar and also provides great stability.

The overall design of the Royal Precision took Del about 4 years to complete. We manufactured the HWP or original style guitar for 20 years before starting production on the Royal Precision. We are always working on design changes and improvements, when we come up with something that would make the guitar better, we incorporate it into the Royal Precision and this is why we only have the two models. The guitars keep getting better and better.

If you have not seen a Royal Precision and had the chance to sit down to one, we strongly recommend it. We will be in St. Louis with guitars, so stop by the booth and give one a try.

Also to answer your question Scott, the original Mullen cannot be converted to the parts from the Royal Precision, due to all the differences between them.

Hope this helps answer some questions.

Mike Mantey
Sales and Production Manager
Mullen Guitar Co., Inc.

Al Marcus · From: Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)

Thanks Mike and Del Mullen for the complete detailed descriptions of your guitar.

Now if all the other builders would reciprocate and do the same here on this Forum , we would all be more knowledgeable about what goes into the construction of their Pedal Steel Guitars...al..

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

William Peters · From: Effort, Pennsylvania, USA

Mike,

It would be nice if you guys would post sound samples of the different pickups available on your web site like Carter does on theirs. Swapping pickups is pretty much a crap shoot I'd say.

On the other hand, the stock pickup that came with mine sounds pretty sweet to me.

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Bill

http://www.wgpeters.com
Mullen RP U-12, PV-260, ART-SLA, Tubefex, PV TNT-115, Gibson SG, Squier P-Bass, Berhinger V-amp Pro

Scott Appleton · From: Ashland, Oregon

thanks to you all I need not change a thing on my
U12 I just wondered iffin it were possible.

------------------
Mullen S12
Acoustic 165 100W tube
71 Tele, Regal 45, Gretch
Lap, Columbia Lap, Sho Bud S10 lap, Line 6 flextone 3, JBL d130,

Del Mullen · From: Flagler Co. USA

William, in the future we will have the sound clips on our website for comparison. Currently we have one song on there by Del. It was recorded with the original style guitar with the stock single coil pickups. We will have some really great sound clips by Del, with the Royal Precision coming soon. Here is a link to the sound clip now, you must have real player to listen to it.
http://www.mullenguitars.com/media/DelMullen.ram

Mike Mantey

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