click here

Greg

[This message was edited by Greg Cutshaw on 11 September 2004 at 08:26 PM.]

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Brad's Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

[This message was edited by Brad Bechtel on 15 September 2004 at 10:57 AM.]

they work, pickup is single coil, so.... if you dont like tone they are strat-type, very standard mounting and size.

oops, I edited this cause I'm wrong, the link is to the Artisan -brand, not sure on the scale-length on these........ they DO have the Morrell too.
cf

[This message was edited by Chuck Fisher on 14 September 2004 at 06:33 PM.]

The construction of the instrument is good. Nice finish, decent gears, not noisey or anything. The body is advertised as being of hardwood, but it is too light to be a REAL hardwood such as maple or a good grade of mahagony. Finger board is moulded plastic. The jack is in the wrong place, but fixed easily with a new hole in another area and a plug where the original one is. The instrument looks like it could be upgraded sound wise very cheaply by just replacing the wooden nut with some sort of metal one with a little mass to it.

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Daniel J. Cormier
MCI D-10 , Peavey Sessions 500 & 400 Limited ,Nashville 400
http://www.cajunsteelguitar.com email at djcormier@cox-internet.com

I've paid more than $59 for just a gig bag . . .

Thanks for the headsup, Greg!

Since you measure 21" and Brad stated 22.5"; I wonder if the model on Musician's Friend is a closeout / discontinuance of a shorter scale length ... or one of those measurements a mis-statement. 21" is a bit short and a consideration for learning and/or playing slants above the 12th fret or-so.

Some additional pros and cons food for thought as some of us ponder buying an Artisan, ....IMHO:

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PROS:

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It looks like this Artisan is at least about the most affordable complete Steel to learn on, modify / improve, build upon, use as a R&D platform, or do some decor we wouldn't on other instruments. The Artisan also appears to afford easy modification upgrades for folks wanting to learn on one at an unheard of entry price.

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The bad location of the jack MIGHT be overcome by simply using a 90 degree plug at that jack. The hole drilled for the volume or tone pot should be the same size hole as the jack hole, and therefore a spot available to remove the tone control and install the jack, putting stacked volume / tone pots in place of the volume pot (if there's enough space or enough body meat to rout deeper). It also appears to me that a jack mounting hole could be run horizontally through the audience side of the body between the volume and tone pot, OR horizontally into the existing jack cavity via the back side of the body straight back from the section of the top plate that the existing jack is installed in (looks like a convenient place for a socket and plate to me).

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Cutting a nut from any number of materials is not a big chore for even a novist if he/she did some homework and took their time. Many of the considerations for doing so are in the SGF archives; Plus Stewart McDonald has tools for different materials and probably even has free online literature about nut cutting considerations.

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In my not being able to examine the pickup / pickup mounting angle / string spacing / etc; I am SWAG'ing that a strat type pickup MIGHT be a drop-in replacement ...(stacked or dual rail humbuckers would be nice, especially if the coils were tapped ...affording single, dual, parallel and series wiring and impedence options). ------- Recutting the body and top-plate for a telecaster bridge pickup at a desired string spacing angle might also be an option for a handyman.

If a person is buying an Artisan without regard to practicing / playing tone-bar slants above the 12th fret, then I see no downsides other than overall quality which appears to me to still be a great value at the Musicians Friend price.

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CONS:

A 21" scale is quite short for learning slants above the 12th fret without discouraging difficulties.

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MISC:

Beware that cheaper after-market non-tremelo strat type bridge saddle pieces ...which the Artisan appears to have, ...are notorious for string buzzing at the moment of pick attack release, ...particularly on unwound strings. The cause of this is that the saddle groove is often too flat and with not enough departure angle where the playing end of the string leaves the saddle, ...allowing the string to rattle in the saddle when picked strongly. Solution: Buy quality replacement saddles even if just for the offending saddle(s). Sometimes raising the saddles for more string tension helps. ------- Another trick of getting deeper body tone from bridge-plate / body contact with the height adjustment screws the saddles ride on, ...is to place a small, thin, flat, copper strip shim between the saddle height adjustment screws and the bridge plate. (Or better yet, a soft brass or soft stainless strip). The saddle screws will seat into the strip better than the chrome bridge plate, and will make better vibration conductive contact with the bridge plate through the shim. This affords a deeper tone that is otherwise tintier in tone with the screws'normal contact. ------- I would also suggest that a Player searches and reads up on Tuning and Just Intonation vs Equal Temperment here on the SGF, ...to more fully understand how to set-up the intonation of adjustable bridge saddles for Steel.

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Aloha,
DT~

[This message was edited by Denny Turner on 20 September 2004 at 01:30 AM.]