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Topic: New Fender lap steel |
Jim Case
From:
Whitney, Texas, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2006 1:50 pm |
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Has anyone out there played the new Fender FS-52 lap steel (like they have on elderly.com) or know if they are any good? I'm looking for a lap steel under $500 that sounds & plays good, and has a traditional look like this one. I know looks ain't everything, but the band I'm playing with plays traditional 1940's & 50's country & western swing, and we want to have a vintage look and sound. Thanks, Jim
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Bill McCloskey
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Posted 31 Oct 2006 2:01 pm
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| Past reviews on this forum have not been favorable to this lap steel. |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 31 Oct 2006 2:36 pm
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My biggest complaint with the FS-52 lap steel is the mirrored finish on the fretboard. It gives you a false idea of where your bar is placed. As Bill said, there have been several previous discussions about this lap steel, with mixed reviews.
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Brad's Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars
[This message was edited by Brad Bechtel on 31 October 2006 at 02:42 PM.] |
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Rick Alexander
From:
Florida, USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 31 Oct 2006 2:45 pm
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| Quote: |
| we want to have a vintage look and sound |
Then you need a vintage guitar . .
Here is a vintage Fender Champion at $300 with 12 minutes to go.
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Rick Alexander
From:
Florida, USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 31 Oct 2006 6:24 pm
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It ended at $461. If you troll eBay and this forum you can find some nice vintage steels in your price range.
A Fender Champion or a Supro Supreme will smoke an FS-52.
Email me and I'll tell you what "FS" really stands for. 
RA
BIG STEEL |
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Paul Arntson
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 4 Nov 2006 12:04 am
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What Rick said. I tried one at a big shop in Vegas last year. I was totally unimpressed. It's like they didn't even try very hard.
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Mike Maddux
From:
Cerritos, CA
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Posted 4 Nov 2006 2:29 am
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I have personally played and sold a few of these at my music store. They play ok after putting on heavier strings. The mirror does throw you off a bit but that can be overcome. What cant be overcome is the tone...its just a strat pickup housed in a "strings-through-pickup" casing.
If you upgrade the pickup to lets say a seymour duncan "antiquity" bridge pickup it would be a direct replacement and yeild better "vintage "tone.
BTW - for all you experimental types this steel souds pretty interesting with a single-coil sized humbucker wired in a coiltap configuration. Use a push-pull pot on the volume or tone and you can switch from single-coil to humbucker.
My overall opinion - For the money you could buy 2 vintage steels and both would sound better than this. Supro-silvertone-harmony-magnatone-etc.
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Regular Rig: 60's Versatone Pan-O-Flex Amplifier, '85 Fender Tele Custom, '98 USA Fender Strat, Magnatone G-70, Harmony Steel, Silvertone Steel, Sho-Bud Maverick
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Terry VunCannon
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 4 Nov 2006 6:41 am
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| I placed an order for one of these new Fender laps while there was still a waiting list as a show of support of Fender making lap steels again. I trusted Fender to put out a quality new product. I will never do that again. It was such a dog that I felt guilty about selling it to another player...I sent it to a guitar show with a friend of mine to sale(Cheap-at a loss) so I would not no any of the dirty details. I felt betrayed by Fender. [This message was edited by Terry VunCannon on 04 November 2006 at 06:42 AM.] |
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