Harlin Brothers Vintage Multi-Kord 6-String Pedal-Steel

Harlin Brothers Vintage Multi-Kord 6-String Pedal-Steel

Borrowed from another post.

The Multi-Kord is a significant guitar in the history of steel guitar. This was the first good working pedal steel guitar with a universal changer produced in significant numbers. This guitar remains the easiest steel guitar to change pedal setups on that has ever been made. The tuning possibilities on the Multi-Kord are limitless, unlike any guitar that has been made since. However, forget knee levers. The design of the body of this guitar does not allow for knee levers, not that anyone had them in that time period anyway. Remember, this is the birth of pedals. Knee levers didn’t come along for another 15 years.

Every pedal on the Multi-Kord could instantly be changed to raise or lower any or every string with just one pedal push. This means if you wanted to raise and lower every string in your tuning, you could make the change and tune it in less than a minute, almost as fast as you could think about it. Of course, the more strings you changed with the pedal, the harder the pedal was to push, but this rule applies to steel guitars today as well. I definitely consider the Multi-Kord to be the great-great-grandfather of today’s modern pedal steel guitar. Every design today is just a modification of this unique changer system built by these four brothers in Indianapolis.

Early example in good useable condition, i would suspect from the late 1940’s early 50’s time period. Currently tuned to C6, one of the pedal cables has a join in it but works as it should. Fabulous sounding pickup, sadly no case. 2 legs are removable whilst the other 2 fold flat making for easy transport.

Please contact us for all further details or an appointment to view

phil@philsvintageguitars.com