posted 30 May 2000 10:31 PM         

I received this letter from Al Marcus and with his assumed approval, I want to share it with the SGF.

I've read many of Al's postings and I wish someone would visit the man and write his life story as it deals with the steel guitar. He certainly was there when pedals were introduced to our instrument and in my mind, Al Marcus is both a Treasure and a Delight for all of us to share on the SGF.

(Please note that I added the bold to parts of his letter.)

From: "Al"
To: ,
Subject: Ps 210  and Gibson Electra-Harp
Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 22:44:01 -0700

Hi Al, I saw your post on the Forum, it looks like you and I have both been around the Horn , as they say.  I got a kick out of seeing your pictures of the PS-210 and Gibson Electra-Harp. Brings back old memories to me.

I didn't know that Gibson marketed that model of Electra-Harp. I had a music store and studio in Northern Michigan in the 50's and Gibson asked me to come down and try their new Electra-Harp in Kalamazoo. I went down there and brought my old Pre-world war II Electra-Harp with the birdseye maple cabinet all the way to the floor 8 strings and 6 pedals, with the pedals bolted crossways on the left end.Alvino Rey had one in 1941 and I copied every thing he did then. After seeing what they were doing, he went to Fender.

That Electra-Harp in your picture, was one that I played on down there. I didn't like it at all. It still had 8 strings, and Fender 1000 came out with 10 strings, so Gibson was behind the 8 ball there. then when you hit a pedal it pulled the tuning bar on both necks, so you were always pulling both necks, no crossover.It was heavy and big. Of course the Fender was too. I told them I didn't like it and it wouldn't sell, and it didn't. Fender took over and the rest is histiory.

Now the PS-210 I was in Arizona around 1972 and the Arizona Music Center in Glendale, let me take one home for the weekend to try out. I was playing 3 nights a week there in one club for 2 years, and working days for Maricopa County. I went to their store and played a lot of C6, and kinda amazed them. I kinda liked it, it had the same tuning system that was on my Original pre war Electra-Harp only the bars were sideways instead of on top. It had 9 pedals. They told me knee levers were going to be available. 4 knees and 5 pedals would have been nice, as with the crossover, you used the same ones for both necks. A good idea. It was a little heavy but not too bad and I thought it played good. And you could put any amount of raises and lowers on it , and change setups in only seconds.What a deal! these guys today don't realize what Fender had then. It is too bad that they dropped it. Why, I just don't know. They listed at $1500. then. I had a Emmons D10 push pull and a MSA D12 then. If that Fender PS-210 had knee levers, I would have bought it, and probably still be playing it.

But I never would have had the chance to try and play all the steels on the market, that I had. You name em, and I have had one. Rus-ler,ZB,Multi-Kord,Electra-Harp,Emmons,MSA,Carter,Mullen,pedalmaster,
Boen, Deckley, 4 or 5 Sho-Buds,  One a crossover, S10's,D10's, S12's,D12's, 2 or 3 of several of these, I built a 14 string,played that a year. I probably left some out.

Anyway it brought back memories to me. Do you still play the Fender PS-210 or the Electra-Harp? I have a MSA "Universal" S12 with 8/4 right now.  a beauty. and I have a S10 Sho-Bud Prof. birdseye with 5/5 dual orig.sho-bud pickups. I like them both, but may get a Carter , williams, or Excell for their lighter weight to haul around.

Thanks for letting me look at the pictures and keep in touch. OK?....Regards..al

I want to tell Al that I bought both these guitars off of EBay recently: I took delivery of the Fender PS 210 in January 2000 and the Gibson Electraharp EH-820 arrived (damaged by UPS) earlier this month.

Both of these instruments, while certainly not well thought of during their time, to me represent a real playing treasure.

My initial thoughts while playing each of these is summarized:

Fender PS 210:

1) The sustain on this guitar is remarkable. It allows you to play music with your foot off the volume pedal so that you can access pedals with both legs.

2) The instrument suffers from a "physics" lever type of problem: pedal changes set up on pedals physically nearer the pedal changer "lever" have very little travel while those set up at the other end have too much pedal travel. Therefore it's difficult to get a uniform pedal travel feeling throughout the 8 pedals.

3) I find it difficult to get used to a Keyless tuner after using my Fender 1000 for over 35 years.

Gibson EH-820: (Because this instrument was damaged by UPS, I've not been able to hook up the pedals to the instrument)

1) This guitar had beautiful old time tone that's probably reminisent of the old Gibson non-pedal steel guitars, which I have never played. It's works well for Hawaiian and other older country music.

2) Gibson in their design of this instrument made two additional mistakes not mentioned in Al Marcus' letter above. First, the front neck in not elevated from the back neck. This makes it difficult to play the front neck without putting your hands on the strings of the back neck. Second, because of the unusual pedal cage that is raised aluminum on both the left and right sides, you can't put your volume pedal on the floor in the place where you normally place it.

3) The pickups on this guitar are Gibson Humbucking stereo pickups and the guitar includes a six position Varitone switch that changes with phase and equilization. The output is either stereo or monaural. It's certainly a very interesting device and it produces many unusual voicings that I've never heard on any steel guitar. Gibson used this feature on several of its lead guitars during the 1960s.

4) While not using the pedal changer, it certainly is capable of sharpening or flattening any of the strings (subject to overall pressure if too many strings are changed at one time) and I suspect is may have the same problems with pedal travel that I described above with the PS 210. More important, Gibson appears to have solved the problem of flattening all the strings and re-raising the ones you don't want flattened that existed in the 2nd Generation of Electraharps that were built from the late 1940's thru 1967. The EH-820 work more like the original 1st Generation Electraharp (1930 to early 1940s)...which is similar to that in the Harlin Brothers Multi-Kords and the Fender PS 210

Well there you have it, Al Marcus. I expect to get much enjoyment out of both these guitars in the future and share their sounds with the audiences in the venues that I perform in on weekends.

------------------

Regards,
Al Gershen
Grants Pass, Oregon. USA
Fender 1000 (1957),
Fender PS 210 (1972) &
Gibson Electraharp EH-810
(1962)
Pictures of PS 210 &
EH-810 at http://www.rvi.net/~aldg

posted 31 May 2000 09:15 AM         

I think around about the same years (early 1950`s) we had a couple of guys in our home town back in the North of England who were doing some remarkable things to steel guitar that tied with similar lines to what the guys were doing stateside, i.e. tunings, levers, pedals etc.
One of the guys name was Ken Hufton who had made himself a name localy for playing steel in the local clubs, while the other guy was Harry Greenwood who was building steel guitars up `till very recently.
Kens son, Ian who now lives in Ontario (the Canadian one) I believe is still playing and recording steel, although I haven`t seen him in years.

With all the knowlegable characters we have/had here on the forum combined with a wealth of talent, is there any reason why a compilation of articles couldn`t be printed and sold to offset costs for our continuity of this fantastic forum???????????????

Bob Mainwaring. Z.Bs. and other weird things.

posted 31 May 2000 10:17 AM         

Your in depth reporting on the Fender PS-210 and the Gibson Electra-harp is very precise, insightful, and interesting.

I have always felt, in my heart, that the Pedal Steel Guitar is one of the most beautiful and versatile musical instruments in the world.
I have never heard of an instrument that had a convention with thousands of players of that same instrument all together at places around the country, like the Pedal Steel Guitar. AMazing!

We are all very lucky to be able to share our thoughts and ideas on this Steel Guitar Forum, thanks to Bobby Lee who started it all.
To help him along, I have purchased some CD's and have donated to the Forum, and I will continue to do so, hopefully.

Again, thanks Al for your post, and Thank you fellow Forumites for all your great post's on this Forum!.........al

posted 31 May 2000 11:50 AM         

If I could talk you into taking a trip to southern Oregon, I sure would like to hear you play the Fender PS 210 and Gibson Electraharp EH-820.

Thanks for your very nice comments and above all, please stay active with the SGF.

------------------

Regards,
Al Gershen
Grants Pass, Oregon. USA
Fender 1000 (1957),
Fender PS 210 (1972) &
Gibson Electraharp EH-810
(1962)
Pictures of PS 210 &
EH-810 at http://www.rvi.net/~aldg

First, I admit that I don't know anything about steel guitars, but I do know something about Al Marcus! He's my Grampa!! I wish you could all meet him. He truly is a wonderful person to listen to and talk with. He's so very intelligent and full of insight and analysis. He's got a certain style and flair that just draws you in. I'm so glad that he is on the web and getting the opportunity to share with you all. I'm proud of him and love him dearly. Miss you Grampa!

posted 06 June 2000 05:34 PM         

I hear he goes all the way back to LBP (Life Before Pedals). I'll bet he misses that about as much as the Depression. How about it, Al?

posted 07 June 2000 08:00 PM         

Hi LoriB, thank you for your posting, and I am very proud of you too. Lori is a great gal, she took 6 years to get her computer science degree, while raising 2 beautiful daughters, and working part time. That's a pretty good plus for the new generation too.

You'll have to forgive her, guys, she is a little prejudiced.LOL. But seriously, Lori, I will treasure this and we love you and miss you too. (Gramps)

And thanks again to Harry Hess. Yes I am one of that Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" and one of the 6 million veterans of WWII that are dying at the rate of 1000 per day.
Hey, we got a lot of years on our backs.

No Harry, I don't miss life before pedals or the Depression, that's for sure. I just couldn't wait until Pedals came out.

They had Magnatone with two pedals that looked like volume pedals, one foot on each, You push forward for one change and backward for another change, this gave you 4 changes. It wasn't too bad. Then there was the one with 6 buttons hooked to solonoids. Push a button and get a chord. When you hit it, it made a big racket right through the amp. (that didn't last long).

I tried these out at the NAMM music trade show in Chicago, in 1953. But I already had the Gibson Electra-Harp made in 1941. I got it after the war used in 1946.
I played it for 20 years before I got my first MSA.
Jerry Byrd and I are about the same age and I really admired his playing. I was disappointed at the time that he didn't go to pedals.
But he made his decision and proved to us that you can play great without pedals, as he did.
There is nothing in the musical world like this Steel Guitar Forum.. Excuse me for going back in History, OK?....al

[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 07 June 2000 at 10:24 PM.]