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Author Topic:  The most strings on a steel guitar
b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 23 Oct 2019 10:09 am    
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Johnny Cox's T-10 had 30 strings. A Fender Stringmaster Quad and other 4-neck steels had 32 strings. Did any steel guitar ever have more than that?
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David Ball


From:
North Carolina High Country
Post  Posted 23 Oct 2019 10:33 am    
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That triple neck Sho Bud permanent that Chas has has 36 I believe. 10-10-16

Dave
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Jack Goodson

 

From:
new brockton,alabama (deceased)
Post  Posted 23 Oct 2019 12:51 pm     strings?
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i believe julian tharpe had a .20 string single neck that was built by msa....thanks jack
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Larry Carlson


From:
My Computer
Post  Posted 23 Oct 2019 1:33 pm    
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.
Are you sure you weren't just looking at a piano with it's top open?
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Jerry Horch


From:
Alva, Florida, USA
Post  Posted 23 Oct 2019 1:38 pm     Franklin
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Dont forget the baratone Franklin...
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Jerry Overstreet


From:
Louisville Ky
Post  Posted 23 Oct 2019 1:49 pm    
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Bill Stafford was delivering a 20 string single neck chromatic tuned Excel one year in St. Louis. That's the most I've ever seen on one neck. I would not be surprised to find there were other weirder strung steels out there especially from back in the day.
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Lee Baucum


From:
McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier
Post  Posted 23 Oct 2019 8:47 pm    
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A bit off topic; but, I just ran across this 36 string bass guitar.


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Landon Jarrel

 

From:
Space
Post  Posted 23 Oct 2019 8:53 pm    
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There were some Wright Customs with four ten-string necks!
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Barry Blackwood


Post  Posted 24 Oct 2019 7:45 am    
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http://www.buddyemmons.com/ShooBug.htm




Buddy Emmons


From:
Hermitage, TN USA * R.I.P.
Post Posted 7 Feb 2012 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Here's the story behind the 20 string Emmons in the picture. We were a few weeks away from starting the Western Strings album and I wanted to record Linda Lou with a dual string sound. I had been playing one Shot Jackson built but didn't want to ask him to play it because I was with the Emmons Guitar Co., so I asked Ron Lashley to make a 20 string single neck.
Due to a time problem, Ron told me he didn't have a single neck body cut out and the double ten bodies were too short for the twenty string neck, and were unfinished maple, so I said slap the neck on double ten body, let it hang out over the end, and don't bother putting a finish on it. When I received the guitar, it was raw white maple that needed dressing up, so I took a magic marker and drew tiger stripes on the back cabinet and on the top front I inked in a pick guard. To add a finishing touch I attached a coon tail on the key head, printed the name Shoo Bug on it and I was ready to go.
We recorded Linda Lou with it as you see in the picture and I left the guitar in the studio because we had a session the next morning. Meanwhile, Shot had heard about it and went by the studio to check it out. Apparently Shot didn't think it was funny so when I got to the studio the next morning, he had poured maple syrup through the strings and over the keyboard. We had cut the song and it was history and it didn't do all that much damage to an already lame guitar so I wiped it off and took it home. Shot was the king of pranksters, and knowing he didn't find it funny made all the funnier for me.
There you have it.
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Barry Blackwood


Post  Posted 24 Oct 2019 9:23 am    
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Actually, Barbara Mandrell's 40-stringer is the largest I could find..


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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 24 Oct 2019 6:27 pm    
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This Framus has 38 strings.




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b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 25 Oct 2019 7:41 am    
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Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
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Thiel Hatt

 

From:
Utah, USA
Post  Posted 26 Oct 2019 7:07 pm    
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Here's 36 strings.....A 6th--E13th--C 6th--C Diatonic
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Gabriel Edell


From:
Hamilton, Ontario
Post  Posted 28 Oct 2019 5:15 am    
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Barry Blackwood wrote:
http://www.buddyemmons.com/ShooBug.htm




Buddy Emmons


From:
Hermitage, TN USA * R.I.P.
Post Posted 7 Feb 2012 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Here's the story behind the 20 string Emmons in the picture. We were a few weeks away from starting the Western Strings album and I wanted to record Linda Lou with a dual string sound. I had been playing one Shot Jackson built but didn't want to ask him to play it because I was with the Emmons Guitar Co., so I asked Ron Lashley to make a 20 string single neck.
Due to a time problem, Ron told me he didn't have a single neck body cut out and the double ten bodies were too short for the twenty string neck, and were unfinished maple, so I said slap the neck on double ten body, let it hang out over the end, and don't bother putting a finish on it. When I received the guitar, it was raw white maple that needed dressing up, so I took a magic marker and drew tiger stripes on the back cabinet and on the top front I inked in a pick guard. To add a finishing touch I attached a coon tail on the key head, printed the name Shoo Bug on it and I was ready to go.
We recorded Linda Lou with it as you see in the picture and I left the guitar in the studio because we had a session the next morning. Meanwhile, Shot had heard about it and went by the studio to check it out. Apparently Shot didn't think it was funny so when I got to the studio the next morning, he had poured maple syrup through the strings and over the keyboard. We had cut the song and it was history and it didn't do all that much damage to an already lame guitar so I wiped it off and took it home. Shot was the king of pranksters, and knowing he didn't find it funny made all the funnier for me.
There you have it.


So I just listened to Western Strings for the first time. What a great album! And the playing on Linda Lou is fantastic. But the steel guitar doesn't sound appreciably different to me on that song from the steel on the rest of the album. What exactly was going on with that 20-string steel? How was it tuned?
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Johnny Cox


From:
Williamsom WVA, raised in Nashville TN, Lives in Hallettsville Texas
Post  Posted 28 Oct 2019 8:33 am     Re: The most strings on a steel guitar
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b0b wrote:
Johnny Cox's T-10 had 30 strings. A Fender Stringmaster Quad and other 4-neck steels had 32 strings. Did any steel guitar ever have more than that?

Bob it actually had 10, 10 and 11. 31 strings total.
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Bill Ford


From:
Graniteville SC Aiken
Post  Posted 29 Oct 2019 9:25 am    
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Charlie McDonald


From:
out of the blue
Post  Posted 29 Oct 2019 10:28 am    
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Wow!
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Alan Brookes


From:
Brummy living in Southern California
Post  Posted 29 Oct 2019 10:47 am    
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I built this 24-string console steel a few years ago for my own use. Like the guitar described by Big E, it has double courses. The one neck has octave courses and the other unison courses.
Here's a video of Pete Grant checking it out.
https://youtu.be/DVvbW4VAisE
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Bill C. Buntin

 

Post  Posted 31 Oct 2019 5:08 am    
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What ever became of the triple neck zum Johnny? Bruce told me about building it and I saw pictures of it.
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