Bill laurence original pickups

[Ken Byng]

Thank you Mr M. I'm spending all weekend counting my money unfortunately.

[Malcolm]

Is Spence coming down to help you.

[Ken Byng]

No Spence is doing the same at his house, only it will take him longer to count his.

I can get mine counted in a weekend, but Ivor Loadsamoney takes a fortnight to count his. I don't know why he doesn't buy out the MSA company. He could then employ Jeff Surratt and Gary Ritt as consultants to get them to design some tone into the MSA range. It would take a lot more than a couple of original Lawrence 705 pickups to do that.

However, If I had Ivor's financial wherewithal I would buy out the Emmons business and get it back on its feet. That would be a good business to resurrect and develop.

[Malcolm]

The Matron said it's time for you to take your pills again ,and have your little nap as you get too excited counting all that cash.

[Ken Byng]

Don't need a matron. The missus makes sure I take all of my pills.

[Ivor Greenwood]

Well now....Here we are again........Malcolm we can't loose this debate after all....Take a look at the bottom of Mr Bings last post.
There is seven guitars listed there...Not a bad one on the list , ..If we were to connect, anyone of them, up to Ken's new Telonics Combo amp...Or the Webb.......Hide them from view ....Ask Ken to play something and tell us which guitar it is.....I bet you he won't get close ,... with the Push Pull being the exception ... ..That Telonics Combo is that good an amplifier, and has a tone control, that can make any reasonable guitar sound good with a pair of hands like he has........So now what are we looking at.
Well pretty much all the builders choose the same type of wood....The same aluminium...Pickups of individual choice...Stick on fret boards and whatever strings floats your boat.

MSA .... use the best Maple available
Fret boards machined out of solid aluminium billet
Beautiful lightweight pedals and sculptured Kneel levers
Titanium pedals rods........Pedal rods and Knee levers fully adjustable while sat behind the guitar
superb end plates machined from solid billet...No sharp edges on these
Quick change pickups...you can change your pickup in between songs
Quick release pedal bar clamps....Not just a sliding clamp with a bolt and a wing nut on the back
Pedal bar machined from solid aluminium bar...not just a piece of aluminium channell
superb 11 hole pullers
aluminium lightweight legs
Special metal for the rollers...Three different types across the strings
Pedal rods pull from the center...No sideways deflection...superb pedal action

So where does this illusive tone come from......I can guarantee nobody knows....Not even Mr Paul Franklin senior...I had this conversation with him for over an hour in Dallas....He still could not tie it down to anyone thing......
Now we are left with build quality...They are all well built....But simply the MSA is light years ahead in design and quality
You don't need to be an engineer to appreciate that..........Lets face it....If you are flying to the USA....There is a hang glider on one end of the apron and a jumbo jet on the other side ...Which one are you going on ?
Ken call Kyle at MSA on Monday...Spend some of your cash and get a real class musical instrument

[Malcolm]

Well documented Ivor, we just have to educate the uneducated.

[echospence]

Hello Malcolm.
So it only took Ken two weeks to count his money,I started when I returned from Dallas this year and we are still counting !
We have been thinking of buying the Bank of England! To me it does not matter what steel you buy just enjoy what you have
Malcolm you have a great steel enjoy, enjoy, Ivor it will be interesting to see your steel when you get it.I hope you will post
some images of it for all to see,with lights and with out.
Spence..

[Malcolm]

Spence , great to see you back on forum, hope you are feeling better.Once you have finished counting you better take trip to old BING'S vault and double check his cash, you know what he's like, probably mixing up amount of guitars and amps with money, he is easily confused.

[Ken Byng]

On a serious note, I have different makes of guitar for a reason. My pupils can try out the different steels and make an informed decision which manufactured guitar to buy when they are ready to do so. I can show them the strengths and weaknesses of each guitar, and yes, the MSA is not perfect. It is very well put together, but so too are most modern guitars. This is as a result of the use of CNC machines to make the bodies and much of the metalwork.

A musical instrument tone is a result of the sum of the parts. A pedal steel's tone can be affected by over-torqued screws and bolts, body resonance and vibration direction. I have spent many hours discussing tone with Bobbe Seymour, and while the old scallywag was capable of telling some very tall tales, he undoubtedly knew a lot about good tone. For him the keyhead had to be closed and not open. He was not a lover of gauged roller nuts, but did prefer brass rollers. He felt that the Lawrence chrome surround 705 pickups were the best pickups ever, and that certain makes of guitar had little sustain because much of the string energy went straight down the legs instead of much of it being retained in the body. He maintained that the changer design and the changer roller bridge played a big part in tone. He was a great advocate of the Emmons push pull, but I have played some push pulls that had sublime tone while others not so. However, a well set up push pull with correctly torqued necks will sound as sweet as is ever possible from a pedal steel.

He was not a lover of MSA guitars, but his clouded views were due to his personal differences with Reece Anderson. He did concede that the newer Mark Gile bodied MSA's were nice instruments. He didn't rate the Franklin guitar in any way, nor the Zumsteel. He felt that both guitars had very small tone. He was a lover of the Emmons push pull and Sho~Bud (certain older models), plus Rittenberry, GFI, Mullen and especially the Jackson and Show Pro. Jeff Surratt had a beautiful D10 guitar in his workshop on my visit to him in April this year that Bobbe had ordered.

I don't see the sense in buying a load of guitars from that same manufacturer like Ivor the Driver has done with his MSA's, but everyone to their own. Reece Anderson was a dear friend of mine from the mid 70's, and he and I would talk often about the instrument for hours on end. I disagreed with his long held assertion that all pedal steels were basically similar sounding and could be EQ'd on the amp to sound the same. We agreed to disagree on that one, but he gave me a lot of challenges to take his 'blindfold' test. I would only agree to participate in that one if the amp's tonal settings remained constant throughout the test, but he wanted to change the settings for each guitar. The aim from his point of view was to disprove the argument that all pedal steels sound different (some more than others), but for me, changing the EQ was just clouding the whole testing process.

Reece would often try to convince me to buy an MSA, but wouldn't press the point too hard. The worst guitar that I have ever played was an open keyhead, natural maple finish MSA. As soon as a string was plucked, the note would die almost immediately. I don't know why. To be fair, Ivor's red Giles/MSA guitar sounds quite nice and is far from that duff sounding MSA I have just referred to. I have talked one on one with many of the top pros over the years, and very few of them ever considered buying an MSA, for whatever reason. That does say something to me.

The Infinity guitar is very nicely put together, and I have mentioned to Buck Reid that I think it will become as sought after as the Franklin guitar. He agreed with that assessment.

My group of 7 steels would only be enhanced by a nice D10 Rittenberry (the new design), and I might well put an order in when I go to the Dallas Show next March.

Here is an under skirt pic of a Ritt, which by the way to put this thread back on topic, comes with Lawrence 705's fitted as standard!