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Topic: Anyone ever hear of "Chord Guitar"? (Harlin Bros clone…) |
Paul Arntson
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 13 Dec 2014 9:19 am |
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I saw it a couple weeks ago at Trading Musician in Seattle. I had one years ago. I thought it was a one-off.
It's apparently a clone of a Harlin Bros 6 string with 4 side mounted pedals.
The one in Seattle is a lot nicer than the one I had. Both have an engraved plastic plate on the audience side with the name "Chord Guitar".
I'm not in Seattle right now, but if its still there around Christmas, I'll try to get a photo to upload. It's not on their website, so maybe somebody was willing to pay their large price tag.
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Excel D10 8&4, Supro 8, Regal resonator, Peavey Powerslide, homemade lap 12(a work in progress) |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 13 Dec 2014 11:17 am
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| I'm eager to see a photo' of it. I look forward to that. I've always been fascinated with the Harlin brothers, and I have several of their instruments. |
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Paul Arntson
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 13 Dec 2014 3:55 pm
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I'm not sure since it was many years ago before I had studied changers, but I think these Chord Guitars have a raise-only changer.
Did the real Harlin Brothers have a raise/lower changer?
_________________
Excel D10 8&4, Supro 8, Regal resonator, Peavey Powerslide, homemade lap 12(a work in progress) |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 14 Dec 2014 11:12 am
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Yes, the Harlin mechanism can lower or raise. In fact it's a lot more versatile than any changer on the market today. Any pedal can work any combination of strings, and the copedant can be changed from above in a few minutes without having to turn the instrument over or get underneath it. I don't understand why this type of mechanism didn't become standard for pedal steels.
By the way, there's a myth that the Harlins were built as tuning changers, the idea being that you kept your foot on one pedal for the duration of a number. That idea is ludicrous. It would be too uncomfortable, and, if that were the intention, there would be pedal locks fitted. No, the MultiKords can be played like any other pedal steel. The only problem, to my mind, is the awkward location of the pedals. I'm thinking of modifying one to take normal pedals. |
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Danny James
From:
Summerfield Florida USA
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Posted 14 Dec 2014 5:06 pm
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
Yes, the Harlin mechanism can lower or raise. In fact it's a lot more versatile than any changer on the market today. Any pedal can work any combination of strings, and the copedant can be changed from above in a few minutes without having to turn the instrument over or get underneath it. I don't understand why this type of mechanism didn't become standard for pedal steels.
By the way, there's a myth that the Harlins were built as tuning changers, the idea being that you kept your foot on one pedal for the duration of a number. That idea is ludicrous. It would be too uncomfortable, and, if that were the intention, there would be pedal locks fitted. No, the MultiKords can be played like any other pedal steel. The only problem, to my mind, is the awkward location of the pedals. I'm thinking of modifying one to take normal pedals. |
Right on Alan old friend. It is always good to see you on the forum. I understand your thinking on Multi-Kords. I don't know what tunings you use on yours, but on my 6 string 6 pedal Multi-Kord, I used to frequently depress one pedal all the way through a song, such as Song of the Islands (E tuning), or Steelin The Blues (C6th tuning), and Silent Night (E tuning).
However, on an 8 string Multi-Kord and wanting to play a song all the way through, using a tuning where 4 strings would all raise at the same time with one pedal only being depressed, It would be very difficult for sure.
Getting back to the original topic, I too would love to see pictures of the "Chord Guitar" Paul Arntson saw and describes,- especially a close up of the changer. |
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Paul Arntson
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 14 Dec 2014 6:42 pm
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On the subject of the changer:
So in this picture on Elderly's site of a real one:
http://www.elderly.com/items/images/185U/185U-246_tuners.jpg
The raise and lower are indicated by the screw going to either the right or left half of the finger, right?
I believe the "Chord Guitar" changer had solid pieces instead of being split for either raise or lower.
At least I never could figure out how to get that old chord guitar I had to do a lower, and I'm sure I would have found it by experimentation.
By the way, I looked at the pickup from a real multikord once, and it was wound with very small number of turns of heavy wire, and then it went directly into a little integrally mounted step up transformer. Same idea as the alumitone, I think...
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Excel D10 8&4, Supro 8, Regal resonator, Peavey Powerslide, homemade lap 12(a work in progress) |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 15 Dec 2014 9:18 am
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That is a Harlin changer for the six string model with two of the bars removed.
I don't know what amplifier Harlin recommended, but I use a regular Peavey Nashville without any preamplifier. |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 15 Dec 2014 9:59 am
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
copedant can be changed from above in a few minutes without having to turn the instrument over or get underneath it. I don't understand why this type of mechanism didn't become standard for pedal steels.
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Gene Fields did it very much this way on the PS210. The only downside I see is that you can't "equalize" the pulls, by which I mean that if one pedal pulls multiple strings, you can't make them all start together. It's like a rod puller (often erroneously called a "crank") with only one hole or slot for the pull rod. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 16 Dec 2014 11:54 am
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| I would have thought that be adjusting the slack on the cables and the screw travel you could compensate for that. The bar that pulls the strings pulls all of them that you've nominated at the same time, so, the problem isn't there. |
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