Cliff White Steel? Any Info?

[Matt]

About 10 months ago a launched myself (well, aimed and took a step forward!) into the world of Pedal Steel playing by purchasing an S10 of Jason Lynch from this very Forum. I feel I have made moderate (to my ears) advancements and have very much enjoyed getting stuck in. However, I am left longing to know more about this monster residing in my music room. It was, made in England by a guy called Cliff White, according to Jason, who may, or may not have at one time or another been from Yorkshire! It is a 3 pedal, 4 lever set up that is a little different to how some of the books describe "Emmons" set up (On the levers that is.)

If anybody can help me with any info, dating, are they good, are they bad, what pickup is in it etc, I would be over the moon.

Many thanks, Matt.

[Jason Lynch]

If my memory serves me correctly, It had standard Emmons levers on the left knee, ie LKL raises E's, LKR lowers them, RKL was a half raise on string 7 ( a nice change to have, gives you a 7th with pedals down, substitute string 8 for string 7) and half lower on string 2 with RKR. A full lower with a half stop would be more benificial, and fairly easy to do. Parts permitting. It doesn't have Buddys Half step loewr on strings 5 and 10, but to be fair I've got that now and rarely use it.
There's not that much info on Cliff white around, but a few on here will know more than I .
How are you getting on with it?

[Malcolm]

They were indeed built by Cliff White in Yorkshire, they were good looking guitars , well engineered with things like bearings/bushing on cross shafts etc, string spacing was wider than most other guitars, a good solid machine.

[Matt]

Hiya Jason. Getting on great with it cheers. That sums up the way it is although I have a feeling I need to look at that RKR thing, not sure that's working. I use the RKL semi tone on the 7 quite a bit. Blue's licks on the 1 and 2. That is the one that some of the text i've read seems to indicate should happen somewhere else! Still, works for me! I've gigged it tentatively about 7 or 8 times, kept it simple and survived. Mechanically it all runs smooth as!

[Jason Lynch]

Gigged? Hell, I've been playing 2 1/2 years, and I'm nowhere near Gigging yet? well done!

[Matt]

Jason, I have been playing guitar and lap/dobro for longer than I care to remember and gigging for long time....I just squeeze the pedal in on a few numbers....nothing to brag about, I assure you!

[Tony Russell Davis]

Although there is no absolute right and wrong, the half tone raise on 7 is more usually coupled with string 1 (i.e. - both F#s to G). The second string lower is more usually coupled with the 9th string lower. Sometimes you can get the "half stop" on the second string by adjusting the pulls until the 9th string "pick up" co-incides with the second string getting to D. The extra pressure, caused by the added tension from the 9th string, can be felt and is the half stop. The lever then continues, against the additional "weight", until both strings reach C#. These changes are useful on kneelevers 3 & 4, often on the right knee, but it is not important whether they move to left or right. The only one of these that is generally considered "essential" (loads of tutorial stuff needs it) is the second string lowering to D. Most, although I don't, then continue to C# after the half stop and some of my friends couldn't be without it.
Cliff White worked out of Little Driffield, N.Yorks around 1970's and there has been a few threads in the past about his guitars. With fairly ornate (retro?) styling, all were mechanically decent and some were very good. The differences are mainly due to the improvements he made during the time he was in production. I have only had hands-on experience of an earlier model and the bellcranks were welded to the crossrods, making a copedent change an engineering nightmare. However, I have been told that this was remedied on later guitars. Even with welded cranks, adding another change - like a fourth k/lever - should not be impossible.

[zbplayer]

Found this Pic. Hope it might help. Regards Graham

[Matt]

Top stuff chaps.

Love the little advert. That model looks like a d10 version of mine!

[dave hepworth]

Hi there I started out on Pedal Steel in 78 playing a sunburst White. I later went for an SD 10 White.These guitars were beautiful & completely hand built by Cliff himself including the Pick ups.I got to know Cliff very well -he is a lovely guy and would make you the guitar as you wanted.
There is at least one White still being played proffesionally that I know of.(D10) .He also made lap steels too-a friend of mine has a 6 string White which looks very similar to the Gibson lap steel.
Cliff stopped making his guitars quite a long time ago now- his last guitar being a 12 string universal for himself.
Regards Dave