The British Steelies Society

This is the latest of my creations. Made from Ash which had been kicking about in a wood-yard a few kilometers from my home here in a not too sunny France. And part of my very first LS to create the fret-board...Elm which was cut down in the 70's very close to my old house...again here in France. Now I have controlled the urge to be contentious or thought provoking...Now watch the comments!!!! It is a lot shorter than all my other creations and a lot more flashy???? The scale length is 628mm 24.something in old money and I have used a Lace Alumitone pick-up, which is made for 8 string LS. The pots are 250K, as per the instructions of the maker of the pups. and I use as always C6th tuning and the fabulous Newtone Hex string sets.

That looks very nice Maurice, the binding really sets it off.
Keith.

Thanks Keith, I practiced on one of the first ones I made and used cream binding...it just didn't look right. My wife Yvonne looked at it and passed a comment about it "It looks bland" so I thought of the Abalone I'd seen and hence the guitar is now sporting the binding. So once again thanks for the positive feed-back.

Maurice,
Making your own guitar gives great pleasure when it's finished but the challenges that crop up during construction could drive you to drink!
You have made a really good job of the fretboard and it's not easy cutting the fret lines and finishing off the surface without doing any damage to the frets.
Ash is a good choice of wood ( even though you had little input ) and you have made a good job of the binding, abalone for the binding was a good choice, even if you can't claim the credit for thinking about putting it there in the first place!
I made a 7 stringer from a scrap piece of wood ( mahogany ) that had been lying in a neighbours back garden and again it has a scale length of 622mm or 24 1/2" in old money, your's being 628mm or 24 3/4" should sound even better, especially with that pup!
You can hear and see my guitar on a previous post "Vox MV50 conclusion"
I think your instrument will sound even better, so post a video of you sitting playing your guitar in the sun and well done for making it in the first place!
Regards
Robert

Hi Robert,
Thanks for the input, I have made 4 others and then cannibalised (or however it's spelt) the first one to make the fret-board on this one. That was very hard as the wood was over 20 years old when I got it and made the first one. The others I made were from Wild Cherry with Walnut for the fret-boards, great sounding but when the timber man said what do you think of this piece of wood I just loved it. Ash here in France was used along-side oak because of it's strength properties...they don't tell you just how damned hard it is to work, but once done it makes the hard work worth it. One of the day's I'll do a short vid. with sound. It sound's fine to my ears, thru a Peavey Rage 258 with a 10" speaker...but my ears are not what they used to be from years of road racing...before anyone had heard of ear protection.
Regards
Maurice

Looks good mate and I should think it sounds good too.

Mick, thanks for the comments...but Look's are deceptive. Yes it is I think lovely and the sounds is awesome, until I actually play it. The tone is fantastic and when I play the right notes possibly in the wrong order it is terrible. What it needs is a first class picker to record something using my LS, then we could all sleep better at night.

Too many years road racing, too many late nights door stepping people for Fleet Street and now just old age, has had the major effect on me!!!!!!!

Maurice

Love it!