Duesenberg Pomona 6 Lap Steel mini-review

Fontaine Burnett · From: Germany

http://www.duesenberg.de/duesenberg/en_news_lapsteel.php

I'm sure some of you will be interested to know that Duesenberg is finally shipping their new lap steel with multibender equipped bridge and built-in capo. I had a chance to try out one of the first ones and would like to give you all some of my impressions. First, this is a very sharp looking little sled. I prefer a more full body over a slab style lap steel, but this thing is sexy nonetheless. I'm sure many of you have seen the photos of the Pomona on the internet and it definitely holds up in real life. That being said, there is a slight cosmetic difference from the published photos. The fingerboard is no longer made out of metal (aluminum?) but out of a black acrylic material. I actually think this is a better choice because it eliminates the possibility for stage glare which irritated more than a few owners of the new Fender model.

The string spacing seemed a little on the wide side for my taste, that in combination with the full 25.5" scale made certain slants a real challenge. I could get used to it though.

Although I am personally trying to wean myself from using a capo too much, the integrated capo is still pretty cool. It sits on a block beneath the strings and in the normal position acts as a zero fret. Once the threaded wheel is released the capo is loosened and can then be guided down the neck to the desired fret position and retightened via the wheel. The entire construction is held laterally in place by a runner beneath the capo which sits in a channel that runs the length of the fretboard. A clever construction indeed. I was a little disappointed because I expected the operation of the capo to be a little easier, maybe even possible with one hand. Not the case. For me it was still a two handed operation and not really any quicker than the capo that I'm currently using (Beard). In defense of the Duesenberg I will say that I didn't notice any ill tonal effects when using the capo. One major disadvantage with most capos is the drastic change of tone after they're attached. This seems to have been eliminated with the Duesenberg. Not to mention that it's impossible to misplace the capo because it is permanently attached to the guitar.

Many of you are already familiar with the multibender, and there is a copious amount of info here on this forum and elsewhere on the net so I won't get into much detail here. I'll just say that the machine works great and might be the main reason for getting this lap steel. The pedal action is smooth and a piece of cake to set up. It really expands the vocabulary of the lap steel without seeming gimmicky (at least to me). The basic model comes with two levers but can easily be upgraded to taste with other levers.

The electronics are simple but very cool. The Pomona has two Duesenberg designed humbucking pickups that are strongly reminiscent of Gretsch Filtertrons. A three-way pickup selector switch, a master volume and a 70 degree "speed pot" for the tone control (all done in a very cool chromed art-deco styling) round out the control panel. The speed knob is great for the "boowah" effect, (I spent some time annoying a friend at the store with that one Winking

) One strange thing that I noticed was the three way switch seemed to be wired in a strange way. What I mean is, the bridge setting sounded like a bridge setting but the neck and middle position settings seemed to be reversed. Strange. Could be that the neck position was wired parallel or something. Dunno. Anyway the axe sounds great and after about an hour of playing it, I realized I had caught myself a mean case of G.A.S. Demand seems to be pretty high already for this little puppy and I can see why.

Martin Huch, the co-designer of the Pomona 6 is a forumite so maybe he'll jump in and give us some background info on this exciting new offering from Duesenberg.

Hope this little review helps any potential buyers.

FB

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Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

Thanks for the review, Fontaine. I added a link to Duesenberg's web site at the top of your review for convenience.

Any idea how much these will cost in the USA?
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Fontaine Burnett · From: Germany

Hi Brad!

Thanks for the linkage. No, I don't know what these will go for in the States. They list at around € 1300 and have a street price of just over € 1000 (without a case) here in Germany. With the current exchange rate, that comes out to about $1450. I think I remember seeing one listed on Ebay by a stateside dealer with a Buy-it-Now of over $2000!!! WTF?!!! I guess with shipping and import that is probably not too unrealistic. Still, I think that is a little on the pricey side for most.
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Lynn Oliver · From: Redmond, Washington USA * R.I.P.

I see that the ebay seller is not far from where I live; in fact he is only an hour or so from Port Townsend where the Lap Steel Intensive is coming up the first weekend in October. I'll see if I can get in touch with the seller while I'm in the area.

Steve Hamill · From: California, USA

Since these are coming out now, will they still sell the Multibenders separately?
I haven't been able to locate any of them.

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

The video is taking forever to load. What was the tuning, and what did the levers do on the one you played?

Fontaine Burnett · From: Germany

Steve,

Yes, I spoke with Duesenberg about two weeks ago and they told me the multibender strat replacement bridge is still available. They have had problems delivering them due to the untimely death of the original supplier. These things were being manufactured by an external shop. Now they have found another source and are feverishly trying to fill orders. That means that they will be a little hard to come by for the next few weeks or months.

John,

The one I played was tuned in open E. The two palm levers were setup to raise the string a whole step on the 2nd string (B to C#) and half step raise on the 3rd string (G# to A) This can obviously be varied in a million ways according to tuning and tastes.
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John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

FB, I'm a double bender player on 6-string. I can see a lot of things that could be done with the Duesey, but E to A? That's basically the simplest pedal steel deal. Why do that with a lap? Just get an S-10, and have all the other stuff that's available? Not meaning to be negative, cuz I think the guitar is very cool! But E to A?

Lynn Oliver · From: Redmond, Washington USA * R.I.P.

It appears that the ebay seller does not in fact have a Pomona in hand. He states that they will be available for special order in the near future, and I see that language is in his ebay ad also.

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Very impressive. About a year ago I put a Multibender with 3 palm levers onto one of the budget SX lap steels and I've been playing it to death since then. It certainly does everything it claims to, although I've found that the springs supplied with the unit as it comes aren't strong enough to return bass strings to their original pitch after you release the lever.

I was so impressed with the lever unit that I tried to get another and wasn't able. They went out of stock for a long time.

One thing to point out is that although you can use the palm levers on any string you have to change the strings to do so. You can't do it "on the fly" like on a Multi-Kord.

A shame they don't offer an 8-string version. I guess you can't have everything.

Fontaine Burnett · From: Germany

John,

This E to A is the factory setup and not what I would do with it. Granted, the multibender was designed to simulate basic pedal steel licks. Still you're right, that's a little too basic. I'm personally not so interested in substituting a pedal steel but rather expanding the voicing possibilities of the lap steel. I think whoever is planning on buying the multibender should definitely plan on getting a third lever to maximize flexibilty. One thing for sure, this thing weighs quite a bit less than your standard pedal steel.

FB
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Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Alan, my '67 S-10 Shobud is not heavy at all, and only takes a few minutes to set up. I generally take my Airline Rocket along too.

Twayn Williams · From: Portland, OR

James Mayer · Posted 15 Sep 2008 9:49 am

so.......How does it sound?

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

TW, don't get me wrong, but,,, it seems to me, as a lap steeler, bottlenecker, bender Tele player, and pedal steeler, that the device would be much better suited to getting intervals and bigger chords on a lapsteel. Just emulating some pedal steel licks seems pretty limiting to me! I'd think it would be much more useful to set it up to get bigger augmented, diminished, 13th chords, etc..
If you're playing lapsteel, and you need to emulate a pedal steel a lot, get an S-10. But if you're not needing a lot of pedal steel licks, I would think there are a much better things to do with this bender.

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Alan, my first good guitar was a Crossover, and it was heavy. If you get a chance, pick up an early rack and barrels S-10 guitar. Infinite raise and lower, great sound. light weight, and a blast!

Iain · From: Edinburgh, Scotland

Just for comparison's sake, here's my lap steel with D/berg levers. E7th tuning, levers used like pedals A&B on an E9th steel (3rd lever takes high E to F, like a knee lever).
Portability and ease of set up were my main reasons: I'm mainly a guitar player so this beats taking a D-10 to a gig play just a few steel songs!

John Bushouse · Posted 16 Sep 2008 7:36 am

For someone who doesn't come from any sort of pedal background, I think the setup is pretty nifty. I would probably be using the palm pedals much like B-Benders on Teles.

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=125905&start=75
Check out the above thread.

Here's the SX that I put a Deusenberg on in February. It works great. Very Happy

I used four palm levers. In retrospect it's difficult to use more than three while using the same hand to pick the strings. I don't think I would use more than three on any future project. The good side is that I can remove one of the palm levers by sliding it off the shaft and use it on a different instrument.

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