MEGALYRA, DRONE, AND NEWEL POST

Ivor Darreg

The Hawaiian or Steel Guitar has been around for about a century now. According to a dictionary of Hawaiian music, one Joseph Kekuku discovered how to slide the back of a knife-blade along the strings to get the gliding effect. However, there are other claimants to the invention, among whom James Hoa and Gabriel Davion were mentioned in that dictionary. Some writers have supposed that the idea was suggested by voyagers who had heard a similar effect in India. There is some plausibility to that.

During the Thirties, at its half-century mark, there was a surge of Hawaiian-guitar popularity, brought on largely by the development of magnetic pickups and amplification. Now this method of producing musical tones could compete in volume with the other instruments in a band, and in turn, the resulting popularity of steel guitars promoted the idea of amplifiers. Since then, the steel guitar and amplification have been closely associated in the public mind -- except for the Dobro and a few special instruments of that genre, steel guitars are always amplified.

The late Leopold Stokowski mentioned the advantages the flexible tone of the Hawaiian steel guitar would bring to the regular symphony orchestra if it were admitted there, but nobody ever took him up on that. Well, what would you expect from the hidebound Musical Establishment? Open Arms!? Now really. I bring this up because I want to explain my motivations in developing the Megalyra Group of Instruments--I was started on conventional musical training over 50 years ago--piano, organ, and cello-and took part in choruses, ensembles, and orchestras. I saw and heard the limitations of conventional instruments. Then and there I determined to do something about it, but that took decades, not just years.

"Find a need and fill it"--frequent advice to inventors. What does the conventional orchestra lack? Power in the bass. What's the matter with the pipe organ, and its successor, the electronic organ? They have power enough in the bass, but they are too rigid. All they can do is turn notes on and off. For you computer-buffs out there: Piano and organ and Spanish Guitar are DIGITAL; the steel guitar is supremely ANALOG--its sound is flexible, continuous. Nearly all keyboard and fretted instruments are rigidly tied to the 12-tone equal temperament tuning. The new synthesizers have it built into their vitals and I am earnestly trying to do something about that! The steel guitar, on the contrary, can play any gradation of pitch whatever, just like the human voice. Its frets are mere painted or inlaid lines on the board underneath the strings and function only as guides.

But we must be fair: What's wrong with the regular steel guitar? It hasn't progressed. It has been held back for decades--for a while, it almost faded out of the picture. Decade after decade went by, during which it was used for syrupy mawkish trivia. The older models were tuned to an A-major chord--no way to get an augmented triad or diminished-seventh tetrad out of that! You had to retune if you wanted minor scales. Then how would you play a major chord? A few models appeared with two or more necks to get around that. Then a while ago somebody thought up the Pedal Steel. Call in the bicycle-maker and a sewing-machine mechanic, and put in various gizmos to tighten and loosen the strings so that the tuning can be rapidly changed. Also put on more strings for variety. Ingenious; and it does work for country music and similar styles. But it's complicated and expensive. Relevant to the Megalyra Contrabass that I am about to describe, a considerable portion of the standard guitar strings' length is "eaten up" by the Pedal Steel's tightening and loosening mechanisms that the pedals and knee-levers operate on to change the tuning.

In particular, the bass strings do not have enough actual useful sounding-length, as compared with a conventional Spanish guitar. You can somewhat make up for this with amplification, but there is really no substitute for long bass strings, as anyone who hears a concert grand immediately realizes. Getting back~to the pipe organ mentioned above, what does it have that the ordinary steel guitar doesn't enjoy? Why, depth and dignity. Great depth but still ringing brilliance. So what did I do? Think Big. What if a steel guitar were made four times the size? I had a board 205 cm (6 ft 8 in) long.

I fitted it with pin-blocks, tuning-pins, bridges, pickups, and strings. Room for 15 strings on each side. Why both sides? To balance the tension so the long board wouldn't warp. Otherwise one would need a heavy metal beam and careful bracing: we are talking about tons of tension here. For the tones to sustain, the strings must be massive enough to store energy. But if they are thick enough, then they must be tightened till they behave as strings, rather than rods. The right size and tension were arrived at by examining various instruments, all the way from ukuleles to pianos. My 46 years of piano tuning, applying such tension, was a help too. Experiments determined the average breaking-point of the music wire used, and so the factor of safety to allow. That gave me the maximum sounding string-length on one of the instrument's sides. Both the Megalyra Contrabass and the full-size Drone instrument needed to have several strings in unison sounding Tenor C 132 Hz.

So the natural question was, what is the longest string that will sound Tenor C without breaking frequently? Experiment showed that for thin steel wire of the kind used for first or second strings, on guitars, that length was 160 cm or 5 ft 3 in. Some strings tested would withstand Tenor E-flat 156 Hz before breaking. Memorize this: it's useful to store in the back of your mind: Doubling the frequency, or taking the pitch of a string up an octave, requires QUADRUPLING the tension! Twice the tension raises the pitch half an octave. The minor-third factor of safety just considered, then, comes to about 1.4 times the tension to go from Tenor C to the E-flat above, about 1/4 octave. You might feel more comfortable playing safe and settling for a Tenor C 152 cm (5 ft) long. If the strings on a Megalyra or Drone are too loose, several disadvantages appear. They don't stay in tune as long, and they yield or give under the steel or wooden bar too much. Moreover they lack the snap, fire, and brilliance that sets these new instruments above the dull plane of trivia.

There are no stock strings suitable for the Megalyra--you will have to make them out of steel music wire. Sizes will be given at the end of this article. Similarly for the Drone if it is to have a wide compass and the timbre of long strings. The Newel Post can be designed with shorter strings, so that standard guitar strings will be long enough for it. On Megalyra and Drone I use loop ends rather like those used on harpsichords and banjos. These are easy to make and books on harpsichords usually tell how to.

Since we are using high string tension and many strings (a full size Megalyra needs about 30 strings, and a Drone 20 to 24), the gear heads used on guitars will not stand the tension and would cost a fortune. So I recommend regular piano tuning-pins which can be placed fairly close together, tuned with standard tools, and if a pin becomes loose, there are larger sizes for replacement. The much smaller tuning-pins used on zithers, harpsichords, and clavichords are not suitable for the heavy wire that will be used on a Megalyra, although you might use them on a Newel Post. Generally a Drone Instrument should have fairly heavy wire for some strings. The tuning-pin-blocks are traditionally made of five-ply maple or other hardwood, but this can be very expensive. We won't be using the very high tensions found in a piano, such as 170 lb (77 kg) but more like half that tension, so can get along with less expensive plywood. For the common fir plywood, the holes should be somewhat tighter than the standard-size holes for maple. About one-half the length of the threaded portion of the tuning-pins will traverse the pin-block--the rest goes into the main board. Drill the holes clear through.

To avoid weakening the board or beam, the pin-blocks should be at opposite ends of the board, even though this means having to tune one side at one end of the instrument and the other side at the other end. (In the case of the 4-sided Newel Post, of course~two sets of tuning-pins at right angles, not opposite each other, and the other two sets at the other end.) The hitch-pins or other fastenings must be staggered with respect to the tuning-pin-block opposite it, again not to weaken the board. If strings on opposite sides are of the same length, they must be offset considerably for similar reasons.

Many possible designs will require different string-lengths, which turns out to be more of a solution than a problem. For example, the usual Megalyra design will make the strings on the bass or accompaniment side much longer than those on the solo: or melody side. This automatically solves the problem of fittings on one side being opposite those on the other.

For the Megalyra Contrabass, there should be from three to five strings for the principal "courses" as some luthiers call groups of strings. The full array is: 5 strings on Contra C 33 Hz; 5 strings on Great C 66 Hz; 2 strings on Great G 99 Hz; 4 strings on Tenor C 132 Hz. This is for the solo or melody side. This is derived from the traditional appointments of the Pedal Organ in a large organ, so it has been tested out for some centuries. The steel is ordinarily laid across all these strings and they are strummed at once to produce a compound tone having 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th harmonics in suitable proportions. This is how you get both brilliance and depth. Also, you get a Chorus Effect, as you do with 3 strings to a note on the piano, or several ranks of pipes in an organ. On the Bass or Accompaniment side of the instrument, there should be 5 each of strings tuned to Contra C 33 Hz, Contra G 49.5 Hz, and Great C 66 Hz. There is a space left between the groups of course, so that the steel can be applied to one group at a time if desired, and so that one can play one group without sounding the others if desired. The steel can be a rod or thick-walled tube preferably somewhat longer than the width of the board. Also, you will need a pair of wooden bars about as big around as hammer-handles or broomsticks. When you do not want the gliding or sliding effect of the steel, take up a wooden bar in each hand and strike all the strings on the solo side simultaneously, using right and left hands in alternation for a clearcut articulation of the notes without sliding between them. One reason for using both hands is to prevent undesirable ringing of the open strings between notes. The wooden bars must be held down firmly while each note sustains. With practice you can play quite rapidly.

All these instruments require amplification with magnetic pickups. Each side of the Megalyra requires two pickups, placed at about one-twelfth and one-sixth of the open-string length respectively. The Drone Instrument can get along with one pickup for the melody strings and one for the drones. Each of the four sides of a Hobnailed Newel Post can have one pickup, which should be located near the bridge-say one-fifteenth of the open-string length, to pick up the high harmonics. On these instruments, when played with a steel, we have to take precautions not to pick up too much of the sound from the portions of the strings on the far side of the steel. A small amount of such tones will not matter, but they must be kept down. Muting with the hand or having a felt muting-strip glued to the steel might help. On the tenth anniversary of completing the first instrument, may I plead: Don't exasperate your audience by droning on the bottom note forever and ever Amen!

All these instruments in the Group have in common, a fret-line pattern. Before the bridges are fitted, the board should be painted with the ground-color of your choice. If you prefer a natural finish, it can be coated with the new heavy transparent finishes. On top of this, two sets of fret-lines are painted for two octaves each. For the Drone, only the melody side bears this pattern; for the Megalyra, both sides have it; for the Hobnailed Newel Post, all 4 sides. Tables for a variety of string-lengths will be available. Briefly:

A row of green lines (unless the ground color of the instrument is green) is laid down for the conventional 12-tone chromatic scale. A row of black lines (white in some cases) for the naturals, red lines for the sharps, and blue lines for the flats, is laid down alongside the first row for two octaves of an untempered just scale. Beyond these patterns extends a set of yellow or orange lines clear across the width of the board, showing harmonic nodes. The pickups may hide some of these markings, of course. To alleviate this problem, you might have the markings at the pickup area extended to the edge of the board and leave out the center portion where you know the pickup will be installed. On the Megalyra contrabass it is worth the trouble to carry the harmonic markings up to the 16th harmonic since the long strings will clearly sound them and with 4 or 5 strings to Great C you can do a chord of harmonics in your demos. On the Drone take them to the 10th, and there should be room on the Newel Post for up to the 8th. The fret-lines may be painted on with a sign-painter's brush. On the Newel Post where the lines have to be narrower, you can use the colored draftsmen's charting-tapes available in various widths. Another possibility is to~rule the lines on a plastic or special drafting sheet, which is later secured to the board. (It is recommended that you place the conventional 12-tone and the just markings in some permanent fashion; then if you want to have charts of other tunings such as 19- or 31-tone, they can be on overlay charts.)

Don't wear yourself out trying to be over-precise; these lines have to be much wider than the real frets on a guitar. The steel can't be placed with great accuracy -- correcting is done by ear.

Before the bridges are attached, you can rout channels for the wires to the pickups. Or if you like, do the wiring on the surface. I made my own pickups (details on request) but if you prefer commercial pickups, low-impedance types are recommended. Bring the wiring from where the pickups will be installed to a terminal strip at the end of the board, using different colored wirin~ to be able to trace connections later. The Megalyra strings should be one inch (25 mm) above the board, allowing for striking them with wooden or metal bars, and for playing with mallets if the regular steel is used. On the Newel Post, the strings can be much closer to the board, as with ordinary steel guitars. The Drone is an intermediate case. The tuning of the Drone will va?y with the user; my scheme is to have 8 very thin strings in unison to Tenor C 132 Hz and a slightly separated group of 4 thicker strings for Great C 66 Hz. next to them, in all 12 strings on the melody side for a rich chorus effect, and the ability to play in octaves when needed. These pitches are for a Drone 5 to 6 feet (say 150 to 180 cm) long. For a shorter Drone how about F or G above those C's. The drones themselves can be on the back side of the board or divided between the other two sides. For five drones, a pentatonic scale C D F G A would be suitable. For a sixth drone add a B-flat.

The tuning of the Newel Post's 4 sides becomes a very personal matter, just as the tuning and pedal layouts on the Pedal Steel are highly individual, so not much use giving details here. I have just-intonation chords and use major, minor, harmonic seventh, and minor seventh, as well as a harmonic-series or minor-ninth chord. Your choice will depend on whether you want a performance instrument or a Composer's and Arranger's Studio Harmonic Laboratory. Thousands of variations are possible, even with the same stringing. Twelve to sixteen strings will be on each of the four sides, spaced as you desire. All these instruments must have end-pieces so that when they are laid on the floor, a table, or a stand, the strings on the bottom side of the moment will be clear of the floor or table. I use square endpieces from 10 to 12 in. square (25 to 30 cm). This permits standing instruments on either end and provides a place for jacks or even an onboard preamp. One reason for treating these three instruments together is that hybrids are possible, as well as further variations of the basic idea.

# # #