The British Steelies Society

Hi everyone.

What it says. Anyone familiar

Hi
If you google 'Stringtone Oahu Tonemaster' there's a load of you tube demos and info, pretty well all you need to know. The Oahu was a cheaper line of instruments in it's day, made by various makers, but still a great instrument by todays far eastern instruments and you'll never lose money on them
Cheers
Barry.

Thanks Barry.
I am now in a position to answer all of my own questions regarding this instrument.
I bought it on Christmas Eve from an eBay store in Florida and received it last week.
Photos and further details will follow...

Anyhoo, as I was saying....

I had written a more detailed question to ask you all but it was Christmas Eve and I had been generous with the Eggnog and, consequently, the post was lost. I hadn't the will to retype it, therefore the brevity of my opening post.

What I was really looking for information on was the Stringtone tuning changer. I had, as Barry suggested, read everything I could find online. As it happens, there isn't a great deal of info. I had asked the vendor to supply info regarding tunings. What he gave me had been cut and pasted from a forum which I had already seen. Although I knew nothing about the mechanism, I knew enough to dismiss it as nonsense. We are talking about pitch changes of 7 semitones here!!

The model I have has 3 positions : A maj Low bass - E.A.E.A.C#.E (low to high) ; Emaj - E.B.E.G#.B.E - E6/C#min7 -E.B.E.G#.C#.E. As you will observe, the 1st, 4th and 6th strings are all tuned to E and do not change. The 2nd changes by 1 tone - B to C#. The 3rd by a semitone - A to G#. The 5th by 1 tone - B to A.

The mechanism is very simple - no cams, no rollers, no friction! The 2nd, 3rd and 5th strings pass through little bars/levers which are activated by flat areas which are machined into the central lever-operated shaft. As you rotate the shaft, one or more of the flats come into play changing the string length/tension. The travel of the little bar/ levers is regulated by a set screw. Set up consists of tuning to the "home" (i.e.-unaffected) pitch, then moving to the changed pitch and fine tuning with the set screw.

I had it apart. Gave it a good clean. Back together again. (I also sprayed the pots which were a bit scratchy) New strings- I wasn't sure whether to go for custom gauges or just a set of regular 6 string guages. In the end, I decided to go light and put on a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt (Lah-di-Dah!!) Slinky. 48.38.28.18.14.11.

I tuned it up to Emaj and played for a bit. Got a wee screwdriver out and fine tuned the set screws. Bada Bing Bada Boom! It works! I had read a few reports saying how useless it was, how unstable etc. Works for me.

The pickup is amazing! Very bright and sparkly. And hot!!

I have photos which I tried to post without success. Any advice in this department will be gratefully implemented.

buddy bashville wrote:I have photos which I tried to post without success. Any advice in this department will be gratefully implemented.

See Resizing and Attaching Pictures to Posts

Thanks Mod. will have another bash in the morrow. Probably the file was too big.

Too busy playing My Oahu Tonemaster at the moment.

I should add that it is one of the early ones. Made by Valco/Supro in Chicago (?) around 1947. Serial No.-1137.

Stays in tune really well. You can change it on the fly too. The A tuning has 3 5ths, 2 Roots and a Major 3rd - great for Rhythm and vamping chords. E maj has 3 Roots, 2 5ths and 1 maj3rd- great for melody. then you can add the 6th.

I read about some old school player who used it to emulate pedal steel licks. Not quite there yet......>

From top to bottom. the central shaft with flats machined into it.
An exploded shot of the whole assembly.
How the levers are activated by the shaft

The pickup.



The guitar.

nice looking geetar...howsabout a sound clip?