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Topic: somebody scored |
Chuck Fisher
From:
Santa Cruz, California, USA * R.I.P.
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Bill Leff
From:
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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Posted 27 Aug 2004 6:06 pm |
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| What a beauty. 7 strings too... Nice. |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 28 Aug 2004 5:30 pm
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I was drooling over that one earlier this week, and am very surprised it went so cheap.
Didn't bother keeping track of it, figuring it'd go over my budget of $0
Sure would like to hear a user report as well! |
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Stephan Miller
From:
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
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Posted 14 Sep 2004 8:09 pm
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Chuck, Bill, Ron-- thanks for your interest in the "Rowan 7"! I've had it a week now, and would be happy to give a user report,
especially since this little stunner is a real keeper. It caught my eye as a 7-stringer, and it gave a strong impression of
design flair and competence. "Master luthier
Mike Rowan" is a Dallas guitarmaker whose website had pictures of cool-looking electric guitars (though no steels), many
having piezo transducers. I e-mailed the seller with questions about the pickups (a
Bartolini, and a Fishman Matrix piezo) and string spacing.He described the Bartolini as
"an active pickup for a 6-string bass guitar-- a full range pickup that accomodates any string spacing". This steel has 3/8" string spacing at both nut and bridge, and with its 22 1/2" scale that seemed ideal for someone like me trying to learn slants. So I was attracted and intrigued enough to make a couple of bids. Reading the seller's "description of the item", I noticed he used the words "beautiful", "beautifully" and "beauty"-- all in the same sentence-- which I thought was laying it on a little thick, until the guitar arrived and the bubble-wrap came off, and I stopped breathing for a few beats. This thing is
made of deep reddish-brown high-gloss bubinga, and it's as nicely figured and finished as any piece of wood I've seen.
Inspiring...As far as the electronics: master volume and tone, with a separate vol.
control for each p/u (one mounted over the other in a "blend stack" arrangement).On its own,the Bartolini sounds best to me without much treble roll-off,and the piezo
is just the opposite; so they also sound terrific blended together in one way or another, and it's safe to say that this steel contains quite an array of fine, distinct, usable tones. It also is an excellent sustainer, and sings like a bird
clean or overdriven. Even makes my vibrato,
which I'll kindly call a "work in progress",
sound pretty good sometimes...
I guess this review wouldn't be complete
without mentioning what will have to pass for "the bad news", which isn't all that bad. Sometime after sending off payment, and
before the guitar arrived, I was taking my daily "ogle" at the eBay pictures when I noticed something I hadn't seen the first
15 or 20 times-- it's actually not that hard to spot if you look at the strings where they cross the Bartolini p/u (esp. with the pic enlarged), a definite irregularity in string spacing, with the 4th
string too close to the 5th, and too much of a gap between 4 and 3. I was hoping this was some kind of photographic distortion, but no:*EDIT (original post found fault with the saddle, but I was able to manually correct this problem) What else? The 9v battery for the p/u
preamps was out of its clip when the guitar arrived, rattling around and also real low on juice. While I was replacing the battery
with the guitar turned over, the top control
knob in the blend stack fell off...small set-screw having taken a hike. And there's the gig bag this instrument came in-- don't
think it'd offer much protection against
anything (except possibly theft!). Really not much of a downside, considering the terrific looks, sound, and playability of
this steel. Considering that it cost slightly over four bills including shipping,
I'd agree it's a heckuva lot of guitar for the money...still it was puzzling to watch
5+ days roll by without a single bid, and only one other bidder got in it at all. Guess that "One-of-a-kind..." tag, a steel
that wasn't a "name" brand, starting at just
under $300, kept most folks away from this one.
[This message was edited by Stephan Miller on 17 September 2004 at 04:01 PM.] |
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Chuck Fisher
From:
Santa Cruz, California, USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 15 Sep 2004 9:47 am
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The spacing should be fixed lest your slants be out-of-tune. I think thats a cool guitar, I have been looking at those active pickups as the freq response and internal blade configuration made them seem a lapsteel possibility. Could you compare the tone to some other commonly heard guitar/pickup?
Again, good score. |
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Stephan Miller
From:
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
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Posted 19 Sep 2004 4:49 am
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Chuck, thanks for the caution on the string spacing-- have amended above post to reflect
that 1 or 2 strings had wandered laterally on the saddle; detuning and repositioning them seems to have solved the problem.I've
been brushing up on the subject of active pickups/electronics with Stew-Mac's "Wiring
101" page, which lists advantages such as low noise, wider frequency response and greater dynamic range, in addition to maintaining a clean, balanced and nondegraded signal through an effects chain
and/ or long guitar cable. My background is
mostly electric bass and acoustic guitar, so
I don't have a big mental inventory of electric guitar p/up sounds to draw from. I
have started owning/playing electrics in the last 4 yrs and have a little working knowledge of single-coil, humbucking and piezo p/ups. The Rowan's Fishman piezo sounds much like those in the Carvin AE185
and Parker Nitefly I've previously owned, possibly a little less "acoustic-y" tho its
harder to compare with a steel bar forming
a big part of the sound; still, it doesn't
simulate an acoustic steel sound. To me it
best contributes "grit" and treble bite to the overall sound, playing the role of bridge p/up to the bass Bartolini's "neck".
With the tone knob set halfway and the p/ups
equally blended-- the tonal "crossroads"-- there's no hum, and the sound seems harmonically rich without having the thickness of a humbucker, and clear and open
with little single-coil "twang". It's also
not a real mid-rangy sound, either. This pickup combo is so versatile you can certainly dial in plenty of twang or "fatness" to suit, but the signature sound, if there is one, is a fine clarity and openness very much akin to the natural sound of a steel guitar. Roll the treble down to the point which would be that muffled, "blanket-over-the-tone" territory
on any of my other electrics, and there's a
dark thick tone which still maintains some of that open vocal quality (the Sarah Vaughan setting?).Anyway,I believe this clarity/openness correlates to the wide frequency response of the active pickups/electronics, and a pickup design that allows for the tonal balance of extremes of bass and treble not normally found on electric gtrs/steels. Those who like all-twang-all-the-time, or a more mid-
rangy signature sound, can certainly find what they want without going "active".
When it comes to the question of using active pickups for steel guitar, IMO
"curious minds" are looking in the right place, although active or not the Rowan has a unique combination of pickups, and the nice chunk of bubinga tonewood has to figure in the equation as well. BTW, other than acoustic steels with pre-amped piezos,
I'm not aware of any steels that offer an all-active-pickup design. Are you considering a custom project? Also, I've asked the previous owner to weigh in with
pickup comparisons, and will invite the builder to discuss the setup. Probably knowing the basis for his pickup choices would shed more light on your question than
my groping descriptions. Hope this helps a little. -Steve-
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