The most strings on a steel guitar

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 23 Oct 2019 10:09 am

Johnny Cox's T-10 had 30 strings. A Fender Stringmaster Quad and other 4-neck steels had 32 strings. Did any steel guitar ever have more than that?

David Ball · Post by **David Ball** » 23 Oct 2019 10:33 am

That triple neck Sho Bud permanent that Chas has has 36 I believe. 10-10-16

Dave

Jack Goodson · Post by **Jack Goodson** » 23 Oct 2019 12:51 pm

i believe julian tharpe had a .20 string single neck that was built by msa....thanks jack

Larry Carlson · Post by **Larry Carlson** » 23 Oct 2019 1:33 pm

.
Are you sure you weren't just looking at a piano with it's top open?

Jerry Horch · Post by **Jerry Horch** » 23 Oct 2019 1:38 pm

Dont forget the baratone Franklin...

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 23 Oct 2019 1:49 pm

Bill Stafford was delivering a 20 string single neck chromatic tuned Excel one year in St. Louis. That's the most I've ever seen on one neck. I would not be surprised to find there were other weirder strung steels out there especially from back in the day.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 23 Oct 2019 8:47 pm

A bit off topic; but, I just ran across this 36 string bass guitar.

Click Here

Landon Jarrel · Post by **Landon Jarrel** » 23 Oct 2019 8:53 pm

There were some Wright Customs with four ten-string necks!

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 24 Oct 2019 7:45 am

http://www.buddyemmons.com/ShooBug.htm

Buddy Emmons

From:
Hermitage, TN USA * R.I.P.
Post Posted 7 Feb 2012 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Here's the story behind the 20 string Emmons in the picture. We were a few weeks away from starting the Western Strings album and I wanted to record Linda Lou with a dual string sound. I had been playing one Shot Jackson built but didn't want to ask him to play it because I was with the Emmons Guitar Co., so I asked Ron Lashley to make a 20 string single neck.
Due to a time problem, Ron told me he didn't have a single neck body cut out and the double ten bodies were too short for the twenty string neck, and were unfinished maple, so I said slap the neck on double ten body, let it hang out over the end, and don't bother putting a finish on it. When I received the guitar, it was raw white maple that needed dressing up, so I took a magic marker and drew tiger stripes on the back cabinet and on the top front I inked in a pick guard. To add a finishing touch I attached a coon tail on the key head, printed the name Shoo Bug on it and I was ready to go.
We recorded Linda Lou with it as you see in the picture and I left the guitar in the studio because we had a session the next morning. Meanwhile, Shot had heard about it and went by the studio to check it out. Apparently Shot didn't think it was funny so when I got to the studio the next morning, he had poured maple syrup through the strings and over the keyboard. We had cut the song and it was history and it didn't do all that much damage to an already lame guitar so I wiped it off and took it home. Shot was the king of pranksters, and knowing he didn't find it funny made all the funnier for me.
There you have it.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 24 Oct 2019 9:23 am

Actually, Barbara Mandrell's 40-stringer is the largest I could find..

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 24 Oct 2019 6:27 pm

This Framus has 38 strings.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 25 Oct 2019 7:41 am

Thiel Hatt · Post by **Thiel Hatt** » 26 Oct 2019 7:07 pm

Here's 36 strings.....A 6th--E13th--C 6th--C Diatonic

Gabriel Edell · Post by **Gabriel Edell** » 28 Oct 2019 5:15 am

Barry Blackwood wrote:http://www.buddyemmons.com/ShooBug.htm

Buddy Emmons

From:
Hermitage, TN USA * R.I.P.
Post Posted 7 Feb 2012 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Here's the story behind the 20 string Emmons in the picture. We were a few weeks away from starting the Western Strings album and I wanted to record Linda Lou with a dual string sound. I had been playing one Shot Jackson built but didn't want to ask him to play it because I was with the Emmons Guitar Co., so I asked Ron Lashley to make a 20 string single neck.
Due to a time problem, Ron told me he didn't have a single neck body cut out and the double ten bodies were too short for the twenty string neck, and were unfinished maple, so I said slap the neck on double ten body, let it hang out over the end, and don't bother putting a finish on it. When I received the guitar, it was raw white maple that needed dressing up, so I took a magic marker and drew tiger stripes on the back cabinet and on the top front I inked in a pick guard. To add a finishing touch I attached a coon tail on the key head, printed the name Shoo Bug on it and I was ready to go.
We recorded Linda Lou with it as you see in the picture and I left the guitar in the studio because we had a session the next morning. Meanwhile, Shot had heard about it and went by the studio to check it out. Apparently Shot didn't think it was funny so when I got to the studio the next morning, he had poured maple syrup through the strings and over the keyboard. We had cut the song and it was history and it didn't do all that much damage to an already lame guitar so I wiped it off and took it home. Shot was the king of pranksters, and knowing he didn't find it funny made all the funnier for me.
There you have it.

So I just listened to Western Strings for the first time. What a great album! And the playing on Linda Lou is fantastic. But the steel guitar doesn't sound appreciably different to me on that song from the steel on the rest of the album. What exactly was going on with that 20-string steel? How was it tuned?

Johnny Cox · Post by **Johnny Cox** » 28 Oct 2019 8:33 am

b0b wrote:Johnny Cox's T-10 had 30 strings. A Fender Stringmaster Quad and other 4-neck steels had 32 strings. Did any steel guitar ever have more than that?

Bob it actually had 10, 10 and 11. 31 strings total.

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 29 Oct 2019 9:25 am

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 29 Oct 2019 10:28 am

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 29 Oct 2019 10:47 am

I built this 24-string console steel a few years ago for my own use. Like the guitar described by Big E, it has double courses. The one neck has octave courses and the other unison courses.
Here's a video of Pete Grant checking it out.
https://youtu.be/DVvbW4VAisE

Bill C. Buntin · Post by **Bill C. Buntin** » 31 Oct 2019 5:08 am

What ever became of the triple neck zum Johnny? Bruce told me about building it and I saw pictures of it.

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