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Topic: Artisan lap steel |
Ted Lowe Jr
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 1 Feb 2006 11:25 pm |
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| Hello, I'm looking to get one of those cheap Artisans to try out some of the other tunings, Does anyone know of a good source to get a better nut for the Artisan? |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 2 Feb 2006 1:44 am
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Why don't you start with Stewart MacDonald, the luthier supplier. Google the name, the website will come up.
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Mark
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Colin Brooks
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Posted 2 Feb 2006 1:50 am
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Ted, any place that sells 'L' shape aluminium angle. That's what I used. I also made the spacing a little wider at the new nut to make the strings more parallel to each other.
Colin Brooks |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 2 Feb 2006 8:00 am
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On my Artisan, I put on a brass nut left over from when I ordered my "Redneck" from Loni Specter. I had it left over because I wound up putting on a roller nut together with a Hipshot Trilogy on my "Lap Strat".
Loni's brass nut fit on real nice and greatly improved the sound of the Artisan. I don't know if Loni will sell you this nut separately or not but you can contact him if you click on "links" above and look up "Lapdancer" guitars.
Erv |
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Gene Jones
From:
Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)
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Posted 2 Feb 2006 9:50 am
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| * [This message was edited by Gene Jones on 06 April 2006 at 02:08 PM.] |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 2 Feb 2006 11:19 am
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Gene,
Yes, but even if you drive a Yugo, it's nice to put some fuzzy dice on the rear view mirror! 
Erv |
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Randy Reeves
From:
LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 2 Feb 2006 1:02 pm
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Yugos have rearview mirrors.?
I guess they never heard of value engineering. |
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John D. Carter
From:
Canton, Ohio, USA
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Posted 3 Feb 2006 10:55 am
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| Seems to me to be the perfect experimental piece. Hack it up to try something different or new, throw it in the garbage if and when you screw it up and then go buy a new one. Nothing worse than spending $1000 on an ax only to find that it doesn't produce the sound you really want. [This message was edited by John D. Carter on 03 February 2006 at 10:57 AM.] |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 3 Feb 2006 12:37 pm
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John,
My sentiments exactly! I have some grandchildren coming up and I'd sure rather have them banging around on a $50 guitar than a $500 one or, gulp, a $5,000 one! 
Erv |
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Mike Ihde
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 3 Feb 2006 6:36 pm
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All the students in my Lap Steel lab are buying them. So much so, that when one guy went to Musicians Friend recently, they were sold out! I should be getting a dealers commission.  |
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Matt Lange
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 10 Feb 2006 11:46 am
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| Ted, i've got an Artisan and for a quick nut replacement i just put a "golden gate extender nut" on it. You can get one for 8 dollars or so on musicians friend. It's designed to be used to change a regular guitar to a lap style, but it works quite well on the Artisan. It had much better sustain when i put it on. |
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Bill Creller
From:
Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)
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Posted 10 Feb 2006 4:16 pm
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It should make a great experimental board to try things out with, sort of a lap-mounted R&D rig.
If I had a Yugo, I really WOULD put a Chevy Small block in it!!! |
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John Pelz
From:
Kettering, Ohio, USA
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Posted 10 Feb 2006 4:33 pm
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Any thoughts on the feasibility of putting a humbucker in an Artisan -- would that be do-able? Would it just be a matter of routing out a larger cavity than that for the stock single-coil & then plopping in the humbucker, or would it be more involved than that? I'm pretty green when it comes to the subject of pickup-types, so take it easy on me!  (Just recently bothered to learn the actual differences bet. single-coils & humbuckers, though I'd heard those terms bandied about for some time. As you can tell, I'm not much of a gear-head, tone-freak, etc., etc...) Anyhow, since we're on the subject of mods to an Artisan, would installing a humbucker be do-able or make much sense? |
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Michael Aspinwall
From:
Arizona, USA
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Posted 10 Feb 2006 5:32 pm
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| Why not? If I were you, though, I'd go with a 3- or 4-conductor humbucker and wire it up to a switch so you could have series/parallel or humbicker/single coil capabilities.....like I do on the laps I make! |
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Roman Sonnleitner
From:
Vienna, Austria
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Posted 11 Feb 2006 5:52 am
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John,
of course you could route the Artisan for a humbucker - but it would be much easier to just drop in a single-coil-sized humbucker - most pick-up producers make at least one model - Seymour Duncan has about 4 or 5 different ones (e.g. the 'HotRails').
But why do you want a humbucker, anyway? I have to admit, I'm personally prefer single-coils in all my guitars (lap-steel or regular) - particularly P90 types - and especially with a lap steel I'd definitely go with (hot) single-coils, as they have a much clearer, trebly sound than humbuckers (wich tend to be more mid-rangey, muddier); historically, most traditional lap steels also had single-coils; I'd only use a HB if you are playing mostly with dirty, overdriven sounds, e.g. for power-rock or blues.
Or do you only want to get rid of hum? Shielding your guitar well (= covering the electronics cavity either with special, conductive paint or with metal foil, and soldering that to ground) will get rid of most of the hum with single-coils, either, and if you want to have a very single-coilish sound without any hum, get a so-called stacked humbucker (where the two coils are not side-by-side, but one above the other).
BTW, if you need an in-expensive, yet great sounding pickup, check out the GFS brand at www.guitarfetish.com - I use (& love) their 'Brooklyn' model in my archtop guitar, and have heard great things about the other models from many users. They have a HB-sized SC called 'Lil Killer'.[This message was edited by Roman Sonnleitner on 11 February 2006 at 08:37 AM.] |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 11 Feb 2006 8:02 am
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John,
There is more to installing a larger pickup than "routing". The Artisan has a (looks like) stainless steel plate that the pickup is mounted in and you would have to enlarge the hole in that. NOT!
Erv |
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John Pelz
From:
Kettering, Ohio, USA
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Posted 12 Feb 2006 2:17 pm
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Mike A. - thanks for the tip; sounds good to me.
Roman - You asked, "But why do you want a humbucker, anyway?" Just to try different sounds, that's all.
Erv - Thank you for that very pertinent observation! I guess the thing to do is check out an Artisan in person & then determine how/if to install a humbucker.
Anyhow, I don't want to hijack this thread anymore than I already have (sorry, Ted!)  so let us now return to our regularly-scheduled programming, "How To Get A Better Nut For The Artisan"... |
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Todd Weger
From:
Safety Harbor, FLAUSA
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Posted 6 Mar 2006 8:09 am
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Hey Erv, do you have any pics of your Artisan after adding your improvements to it? Would love to see how that turned out. Oh yeah -- and any soundclips, if you have them, too. Very curious to hear the differences in tone with the brass nut.
Thanks!
TJW
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Todd James Weger --
1956 Fender Stringmaster T-8 (C6, A6, B11); 1960 Fender Stringmaster D-8 (C6, B11/A6); Regal resonator (C6); 1938 Epiphone Electar (A6); assorted ukuleles; upright bass
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Richard Sevigny
From:
Salmon Arm, BC, Canada
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Posted 6 Mar 2006 9:11 am
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| Quote: |
| Yugos have rearview mirrors.? |
...not only that, but the fuel gauge is a stick. |
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Howard Tate
From:
Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 6 Mar 2006 11:08 am
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How about a trailer hitch? I have an Artisan, and I like to use it to try different tunings. If I ruin it my wife will ley me buy another.
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Howard |
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Mark Treepaz
From:
Hamburg, New York USA
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Posted 6 Mar 2006 12:19 pm
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I just picked up one of those Artisan's from Musicians Friend. Came complete with the legs and carrying bags for both the legs and guitar. Not bad for the price.
The two things that bother me are the nut which seems to be made out of wood(?), and where they located the 1/4" plug - it's directly in the way of your arm. The only way around it is to use one of those 90 degree flat top plugs. (Why in the world would they locate the plug there in the first place?) Other than that, it's not a bad "experimental" rig for the money. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 6 Mar 2006 1:28 pm
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Todd,
I'll send you a few pictures of my Artisan.
Erv |
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Craig Stenseth
From:
Naperville, Illinois, USA
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Posted 6 Mar 2006 4:21 pm
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| What's the maximum height the Artisan with legs can be set to? (I am thinking it may be cheaper than either a stand or a chair for me playing what I have now...) |
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Matt Lange
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 6 Mar 2006 5:32 pm
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Mark, on my Artisan i threw an extender nut over the wooden one and it seemed to give it a bit more sustain and made me feel better about it's durability.
Craig, my Artisan is an EA-1 (doesn't have legs) but i've heard from a guy who's probably 5'8" that the legs don't extend enough for him to play standing up. |
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Mark Treepaz
From:
Hamburg, New York USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2006 6:09 am
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Matt; I think I'll do the same. I can't see the wooden nut lasting very long.
Craig; I have the EA-2 so when I get home tonight, I'll check and see how high the legs extend. However, judging from the length visually, I doubt that they'll extend far enough for stand-up playing. I'll let you know. They certainly have more then enough adjustment in them for sit down playing.[This message was edited by Mark Trzepacz on 07 March 2006 at 06:12 AM.] |
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