Here's some pictures, sound files and comments on my new Williams keyless 12 string pedal steel guitar. It has 4 floor pedals and 6 knee levers. The basic tuning is an extended E9 with low G# and E strings.
- The fit and finish of all the metal and wood parts is awesome! The lacquer finish is stunning in person.
- Pedal pulls have even tension throughout the activation range and stops are very positive with good feedback when they bottom out. A definite improvement in feel over the model 400 I had a few years ago.
- It only took about an hour to bond with this guitar. I can pretty much love or hate the feel and quirks of a guitar in a few minutes. Nothing here to fight with or get in the way of your playing. The feel
of the pedals and knee levers is just great. The locations of the knee levers front to back and left to right including the tandem lever offset is perfect for me. No shifting in the seat or going through weird
contortions to operate the tandem knee levers. The compact body makes it look like a buff, it has 12 cylinders, uses them all and a overdrive that just won't stall! Actually the compact body provides a great platform
for spacing the knee levers the way I like them.
- This guitar is super compact and light! It weighs 26.9 pounds and the case weighs 31.1 pounds.
- You can see in the pics below that the case is extremely rugged. The guitar was shipped in the case surrounded by double wall cardboard with the retracted handle accesible and usable to transport the package. It arrived in perfect condition.
Two temporary hardwood spacers were added to the case's pedal board divider to strengthen it for shipping. A nice touch!
- The actual color is "burnt orange" and pretty much matches the color of the Jim Vest Sho-Bud I used to own. Wood is curly maple. The outdoor pictures show the true color.
- The guitar end plates are 8.25" wide, the distance from the floor to the lowest point on the back apron is 25.5" and the overall guitar length is 29"
- A nice set of tools was included and split tuning screws were provided to be added by the user as needed.
- The guitar was delivered a few weeks early. Bill Rudolph is a man of his word when it comes to delivering on time. This is my second Williams guitar and the first one was delivered exactly on the day
that Bill promised delivery. I gave Bill a deposit on May10,2016 and the guitar was delivered on September 29,2016
- Guitar is a model 700 single 12 wide body keyless with the following options: extra floor pedal, extra tandem knee lever, front ablaone inlay, ATA flight case.
- Pickup is a Wallace True Tone at 19.44 kohms.
- As much as possible Bill matched the tandem offset on my Sho-Bud knee levers based on pictures and measurements I provided.
Some useful links:
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