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Topic: Light, small steels for the road? |
Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 29 Aug 2005 6:01 am |
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This quote in another thread, http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum15/HTML/010114.html
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| I agree totally with him about Heather's {ed. - Myles} commitment to and support for our instrument. Here's an example: in July this year, she forked out £417 sterling ($730 USD) in excess baggage charges for my steel to fly to Amsterdam! |
leads me to ask, as a general question,
1. Do many road or traveling musicians develop, at least as a backup, skill on a lightweight small universal guitar to avoid this pitfall, even if they prefer their heavy, old-school D-10 P/P, Bud, etc.?
2. What are some of the best designs to get not only lightweight but small packages. I'm aware of very compact and light universals by GFI and MSA. Others?
I ask this, because this seems to be one answer to the question "Why doesn't so-and-so carry a steeler to 'my-remote-location'?". It seems to me that, to really make a steel small as well as light - both might be issues when flying - one is restricted to one neck. This problem doesn't look like it will go away.
Perhaps this isn't a real issue for a "deep pockets country superstar", but for a lot of working road shows, this does sound like a showstopper. |
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2005 6:31 am
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| Carter and Williams are both pretty light. A Williams keyless S-10 might be the smallest pedal steel produced today. |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2005 6:49 am
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| Dave... What b0b said.. My Carter was by FAR the lightest steel I had ever owned.. UNTIL I got the Willy Keyless. The Carter is certainly light, but feels like its made of cast iron when picked up side by side with the Williams.. I have heard GFI guitars are also quite light.. Both my Williams and Carter are a pleasure to handle in comparison to my older guitars, Plywood MSA's ,Various Sho Buds including a ProIII and several Pro I's,etc.. I think my biggest back breaker was a MSA D 10 XL wood body... a real hernia machine..bob |
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Tom Campbell
From:
Houston, Texas, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2005 7:13 am
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| If you like custom, try a Lamar. I have a keyless U12...low 30's lbs. and fits a tenor sax size case. |
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Ernie Pollock
From:
Mt Savage, Md USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2005 8:28 am
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Gotta chime in on this one, I haul my steels out without a case, I have a padded cover for them & the All Time Champion, according to my wife Deanna is the GFI Economy, it weighs about 23lbs & she carrys it in and I roll my Nashville 'Maricle Audio souped up 400' with my seat on top into the gig. I can remember my first old Shobud Crossover, wow that GFI sure is nice!!
Ernie Pollock  http://www.hereintown.net/~shobud75/stock.htm
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Al Marcus
From:
Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)
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Posted 29 Aug 2005 9:46 am
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For what it is worth. I had a Williams S10 keyless with 5/5 and a Carter S10 with 3/5, they both weighed out of the case, 28LBS....so figure from there.
Also my MSA Millenium U12 with 9/5 weighed out of the case. 30Lbs, and my GFI U12 Keyless weighed out of the case, 32lbs. I always carried my guitars out of the Case and left the case home.....al
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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2005 5:20 pm
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Dave, I've had to do exactly what you suggest, get a 2nd steel, not my usual make or model, for travel. I'm doing some fill-in steel work with Freddy Fender, mostly fly dates. He doesn't cover extra costs of overweight baggage, so to meet the 50 lb limit (it's 70 on some airlines, but my flights are booked by someone else so I don't get to choose), I recently picked up a 2003 Carter SD-10, 4+5, weighs 34 lbs out of the case.
Like Freddy's regular steel man, Vern Monnett, I'm flying it in a fiberglass w/wheels and handle SKB drums trap case, model SKB-H1136W, which weighs 11.5 lbs. With custom foaming, it should easily be under 50 lbs total.
My main love is my Mullen pre-RP D-12. But it's too heavy for this situation, dang!
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E9 lessons
Mullen D-12/Carter SD-10/Webb amp/Profex II/Lexicon MPX-110
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 29 Aug 2005 6:45 pm
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My Franklin D10 with 8 and 7 comes in at 36 lbs. I found a flight case from Norway at right around 20lbs so I'm good to go with no thought of compromise. If the airlines want to bust me for the 5 lbs over 50 thing I pull the legs and pedalbar out and put them in a soft padded bag that I put inside another bag.
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Bob
My Website
[This message was edited by Bob Hoffnar on 29 August 2005 at 07:46 PM.] |
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Rick Schmidt
From:
Prescott AZ, USA
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Posted 30 Aug 2005 10:50 am
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I could be wrong, maybe Gerry Hogan can chime in here, but I sort've recall that some of the smaller "jump-jet" airlines in Europe like Ryan Air and Easy Jet have a 20 kilo weight limit on ALL luggage combined. If that's true, that doesnt help up out too much does it.  |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 30 Aug 2005 7:29 pm
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Rick,
Have you checked out the prices Ryan Air charges ? It can be really really cheap. What bands I have toured in Europe with do is take the bus on the Ferry or tunnel instead of the puddle jumpers.
Bob |
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Carlos Polidura
From:
Puerto Rico
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Posted 30 Aug 2005 8:39 pm
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CONSIDER EXCEL.............THEY ARE VERY LIGHT AND QUITE COMPACT. I KNOW. I OWN A D-10 TEN KEYLESS W/ 8 & 9. VERY SIMILAR TO WILLIAMS GUITARS.
CARLOS |
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David Friedlander
From:
New York, New York, USA
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Posted 30 Aug 2005 9:16 pm
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I agree with the gentleman who said Lamar.
I have an S/10 which could easily be mistaken for a Sax when it's in the case.
My Williams S/10 is also very light and small- but I do have a keyed model versus my keyless Lamar.
Both are awesome sounding and playing guitars |
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Olli Haavisto
From:
Jarvenpaa,Finland
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Posted 30 Aug 2005 11:02 pm
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I got a keyless Williams S-12 4x5 a week ago for just this purpose. On gigs about 90% of required playing is E9 and the rest is usually providing a swing flavour which is fun to do on an E9 extended out of B6 or A6 positions.
48 lbs in case.
BTW , this guitar is a BEAUTY ! Bill`s new wide body(7,5 inches),extruded kls and endplates,burgundy laquer and rope inlays!
I`ll post pics soon.
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Olli Haavisto,
Finland
[This message was edited by Olli Haavisto on 31 August 2005 at 12:04 AM.] |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Spicewood TX 78669
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Willis Vanderberg
From:
Petoskey Mi
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Posted 2 Sep 2005 1:05 pm
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At least one well known steeler carries his D-10 LeGrande lll in a SKB drum trap case with wheels and carries it on the airplane and puts it in the overhead bin. Please don't sit under this bin..LOL.
If you have not looked at the h11x36w SKB case ,do it.They are reasonably priced and it does require a little work with the foam lining.[This message was edited by Willis Vanderberg on 02 September 2005 at 02:06 PM.] |
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 2 Sep 2005 1:44 pm
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| How do you lift something horizontally, Herb? |
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Gary Spaeth
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 3 Sep 2005 8:31 am
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| wait till the airplane is flying sideways. haha |
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Jon Zimmerman
From:
California, USA
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Posted 3 Sep 2005 8:57 am
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Oh, where can Steve Robinson be, to answer this for Herb? --maybe orbiting around the St. Louis show?  |
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