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Author
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Topic: Thr Steel-O-Caster prototype
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Andy Zynda
Member From: Wisconsin
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posted 02 April 2003 03:45 PM
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Well its finally finished. The Barden pickups are in, as well as the Bigsby vibrato, and the case (major pain in the butt) is also finished. The Pickoff contest is this Sunday so I finished just in time. The bar attaches to the neckplate of the Steel half. It's a polished Steel pipe, with nickels soldered inside for some weight and sustain. The plain steel being ferrous, grabs onto the two neodymium magnets mounted to the neck plate. Quick and easy to grab & drop. Now it's practice, practice, practice!!
http://webpages.charter.net/zmonkees/miscpics/ |
Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 02 April 2003 03:49 PM
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Hi Andy. I was just looking at your pics the other day from your posts at the Amp Workshop board. I didn't connect your name to here. Your axe is cool beyond belief. Bravo! Good luck Sunday! |
Mike Neer
Member From: NJ
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posted 02 April 2003 04:03 PM
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Very cool, indeed. Wow, what an ambitious undertaking and what a craftsman. I'm impressed, and I'm wishing that I had that kind of patience. Just don't do any Pete Townsend strums.  |
Terry Farmer
Member From: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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posted 02 April 2003 05:17 PM
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Andy,
Very nice. Workmanship looks excellent. Innovative and practical! How's it sound? |
Mike D
Member From: Phx, Az
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posted 02 April 2003 05:34 PM
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Well now we know what happens when you leave two Teles in the closet together!  Very cool indeed! |
Andy Zynda
Member From: Wisconsin
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posted 03 April 2003 07:48 AM
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Thanks for the kind words guys.
It sounds great Terry. The steel side is very stringmaster-ish, and the Tele side is very Danny Gatton-ish. The Barden pickups are just awesome. I have them in 5 guitars now. If Joe made a P-90 barden, I'd have a pair of them too.
-andy-
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Bill Moore
Member From: Manchester, Michigan
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posted 03 April 2003 04:15 PM
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Andy, I only looked at one of the photos, I have a dial-up connection, and they are just too large to download in a reasonable length of time. Why not make them a bit smaller and reduce the resolution to 50%, like this one:
The file is about one tenth the size of yours. The guitar looks very cool, though. [This message was edited by Bill Moore on 03 April 2003 at 04:18 PM.] |
Andy Zynda
Member From: Wisconsin
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posted 03 April 2003 07:42 PM
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Yep, I figured that out a bit too late. The pics of the case have been shrinky-dinked.
-andy- |
Chris DeBarge
Member From: Boston, Mass
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posted 04 April 2003 07:36 AM
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What craftsmanship! Finish is so beautiful, especially compared to any of my Krylon specials! |
Paul Osbty
Member From: Seattle, Washington, USA
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posted 05 April 2003 11:38 AM
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Great results. Being a fan of natural finishes, I can even appreciate yours, which is saying something!Also being a Fender player, the Squire neck logos kind of ruin it for me. This is what I see beginner/teenager guitarists playing. I would imagine cost may have been your issue. If this was your experiment, do you plan on doing this again with some higher-grade components? |
Andy Zynda
Member From: Wisconsin
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posted 06 April 2003 09:13 AM
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The only real differences are the pickups (replaced), the fretwork (refretted) and the neck craftsmanship. (resurfaced and refinished).
After that, it's all pretty much the same. Well, maybe tuners. I have a warm fuzzy for Sprezel locking tuners.
I could care less what it says on the neck, unless it's pre-CBS Fender. Then I care a great deal. Leo was, and still is, the "man"!
-andy-
(and No, no more like this, one was quite enough!) |
CrowBear Schmitt
Member From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France
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posted 06 April 2003 09:27 AM
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Nice Piece of Work Andy
what's the angle between them geetars?
what's the weight ?------------------
Steel what? |
Andy Zynda
Member From: Wisconsin
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posted 07 April 2003 06:09 AM
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The angle is just a bit lower than 45 degrees. 45 was too sharp when I tried the setup clamped together before I glued it, so I re-cut the DuoSonic at a more square angle, taking off only a degree or two, succesively (2-3 times, dont remember) till it felt right. And she's pretty heavy. 3-4 songs in a row will have you looking for a place to set 'er down. It feels much like my old Gibson Ripper bass, with a little extra neck weight.
Thanks for the compliment. We played in a pickoff the last weekend, and this thing turned more heads than the radio station babes.
-andy-
(BTW, we took 2nd place. The 1st place winners were the only band with a real steel player, and he was a killer! They deserved 1st.) |
CrowBear Schmitt
Member From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France
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posted 07 April 2003 09:32 AM
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thanx 4 the reply Andy
so i guess that angle is correct for a comfortable right hand position on the DuoSonic ?
are you gonna end up w: a stand for it ?
yeah, i can imagine you can steel the show w: that baby
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Andy Zynda
Member From: Wisconsin
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posted 13 April 2003 09:48 AM
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Hey Crowbear,
Yeah, that angle fits me just right. I can switch from Tele to slide and my right wrist angle is perfect for me. As far as a stand, if you mean a "holder" for when I play it, no, the whole idea is to be able to move around a bit. If you mean a stage stand, it sits in a regular guitar stand just fine.
Gigged with it again last night, and for the few songs we use it for, it is just slicker than hell.
-andy-[This message was edited by Andy Zynda on 13 April 2003 at 09:49 AM.]
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CrowBear Schmitt
Member From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France
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posted 13 April 2003 11:28 AM
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David L. Donald
Member From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand
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posted 13 April 2003 12:31 PM
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Very interesting axe. Fine job. I like the smooth angle of the top's pick guard onto the bottom unit.
What tuning on the bottom axe?
Where do you keep the bar? Or is it attached and not clear from the pictures? |
Andy Zynda
Member From: Wisconsin
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posted 14 April 2003 06:39 AM
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The tuning I use is C6, for swing, blues & rockabilly, and I change it to C7 when doing Country Rock. The Bar was a puzzle. Junior Brown has a felt lined hole righ in his axe, but mine is thinner than his, & I didn't like the hole idea. What I did was make a bar out of an old section of microphone stand, removed the chrome, grinded & polished it till it was like glass, and then rolled one end round, & soldered in some nickels till the weight was right. Then did the same to the other end, and polished it again.
I now had a very smooth bar that fit my hand just right, and was ferrous. The rest was easy. Two neodymium magnets out of an old hard drive, stuck to the neck plate of the steel half, then covered with cusioned tolex, and the bar sits and waits to be grabbed. And you can almost drop the bar and it'll suck right to the magnets due to their powerful magnetic field.
So far, it works great. I just have to remember to hit the friggin neck selector when I switch! 
-andy-
(If I can locatet a pro-built bar that's magnetic, I'll probably retire the home-grown.)
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David L. Donald
Member From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand
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posted 14 April 2003 09:13 AM
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Now that and the magnets is a very cool idea.
As long as it doesn't get magnatised it's self and start doing odd things up the neck near the pickups. |
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