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Author
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Topic: Gold Tone lap steel
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Kevin Ruddell
Member From: Toledo Ohio USA
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posted 11 October 2003 07:00 PM
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The Saturday before last I bought the in stock Gold Tone lap steel w/ gig bag at Elderly Instruments in Lansing. THey have three on back order and have sold twenty this year. It sounds, plays, and looks nice , esp. for the price. Elderly had two used copies of the origina Oahu Tonemaster it was modeled after. The Goldtone is much easier to play than the eight string Morrell I bought as a learner instrument. String spacing is very comfortable for me. For some reason both instruments sound poor when plugged into my Ampeg tube bass amp or powered mixer with any combination of tube compressors or active eq direct boxes. I plugged the Gold Tone into the Fender Pro Sonic left in the rehearsal room by our bands' guitarist and bingo ! it sounded as it should. I'm not sure what the interfacing situation with the other equipment was but I'm guessing input impedance mismatch. I'll be looking for a small tube Fender combo amp w/ reverb to play the Gold Tone through I guess. It came tuned to an open E chord so I tuned it to a G6 and after a trip to the music store tomorrow for some strings I'll probably try stringing and tuning it to A6. I'm happy with the instrument and the $19 3/4 size guitar bag with retaining straps for the neck is actually good deal. |
Bobby Lee
Sysop From: Cloverdale, North California, USA
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posted 11 October 2003 08:32 PM
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Most steel guitars don't sound good with a bass amp or with powered speakers. A good tube guitar amp with reverb will usually bring out the tone correctly.------------------
 Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax |
Michael Devito
Member From: Montclair, NJ, USA
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posted 12 October 2003 05:41 AM
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Kevin: Did you try also try the original Oahu Tonemasters while you were buying the Gold Tone? I'm really curious about the Oahu Diana and Tonemaster, but haven't yet seen either one. If the Gold Tone is a high-quality, faithful reproduction I would seriously consider buying one. |
C Dixon
Member From: Duluth, GA USA
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posted 12 October 2003 06:36 AM
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b0b is correct.The ampeg "bassamp" has a very limited fidelity. As best I recall when I used to service them, its range was from 20HZ to 800HZ. No way should this ever be used for a steel guitar amp. However, a finer amp for bass is hard to find. They were designed AND built to do precisely what they do; and they do it incredibly well. carl[This message was edited by C Dixon on 12 October 2003 at 06:37 AM.] [This message was edited by C Dixon on 12 October 2003 at 06:38 AM.] |
Erv Niehaus
Member From: Litchfield, MN, USA
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posted 12 October 2003 07:02 AM
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I also recently bought a Gold Tone. It is a beautiful little guitar and well worth the less than $400 I paid for it. I bought it through www.folkofthewood.com and ordered it will a really nice hard shell case. Erv |
Steinar Gregertsen
Member From: Arendal, Norway
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posted 12 October 2003 07:51 AM
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I once owned a '30s Oahu Tonemaster, and if my memory serves me right it was aprox 25" scale.
Is this the case with the Gold Tones? |
Kevin Ruddell
Member From: Toledo Ohio USA
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posted 13 October 2003 02:56 AM
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Steiner . the scale is 25" , string spacing is 3/8th at the picking area next to the pickupcover and approx. 1/4" at the nut although the nut slots weren't cut evenly spaced.
I looked at the two used Oahu's ( one w/ amp ) at Elderly but didn't play them.One had some material on the bottom of the nek and body, don't know if this was added by the owner.
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Erv Niehaus
Member From: Litchfield, MN, USA
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posted 13 October 2003 07:59 AM
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The groove spacing at the nut isn't sposed to be cut the same. The spaces are cut further apart for the bass strings to allow for the thicker strings.
Erv [This message was edited by Erv Niehaus on 13 October 2003 at 09:19 AM.] |
Kevin Ruddell
Member From: Toledo Ohio USA
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posted 13 October 2003 05:52 PM
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Erv , thanks for the clarification on the nut spacing , actually it's the opposite on my Goldtone with the second and third string being farther apart.
Steinar , apologies for mispelling your name in my previous post.
Does the move to a seven string or eight string always mean narrower spacing than this comfortable 3/8" one on the Goldtone ?
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Erv Niehaus
Member From: Litchfield, MN, USA
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posted 14 October 2003 06:24 AM
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Kevin,
Yes, a lot of the time that is the case. The guitar manufacturers basically use the same guitar and neck. When they add more strings to the neck, they just position them closer together. My first electric lap steel was a Gibson. When I went to Fender the string spacing was a lot tighter. After I got used to the Fender, it was very hard to go back to the Gibson. Espically when playing the faster numbers.
Erv |
Steinar Gregertsen
Member From: Arendal, Norway
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posted 14 October 2003 07:05 AM
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Steinar , apologies for mispelling your name in my previous post.No problem Kevin, it heppens ell the time..
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Cliff Oliver
Member From: San Antonio, Texas, USA
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posted 21 October 2003 02:24 PM
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I got a replacement pickup from Jason Lollar
for my Gold Tone. It is called the Chicago. It is almost a drop-in relplacement. It is a much better pickup
than the stock one. The high, no. 1, string on the GoldTone
has a high piercing overtone to it that I am
trying to track down. I will replace the nut
and bridge first with brass and hopefully
it will settle down.
Other than that it has great 3/8" string spacing with wonderful 25" scale length, looks good and plays and slants accurately.
The GeorgeBoard is still #1 for playing out. Very powerful, short scale length 8 string. I play out once a week with the lap steels. I am 51 yrs old, average age of other musicians is probably 22. We play all types of music and they like the lap steel. |
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