Melobar Family Steve (Sherm) Smith - son #3 passes away

Steven (Sherm) Smith pictured in tie on the left at Atlanta NAMM in the late '80s

passed away Wednesday from a battle with Brain Cancer at 62 years old.

He was involved in Melobar through the '70s on the Rosac models and the Acoustic Metal and Wood models. He was a great brother, great man and the world is a little lonelier without him.

Time to build

Here comes the fall - time to start working on the Steelgitr - actually changing the name to something like Mel-o-Tar for Melobar crossed with a Guitar. Partially because the new model is a true hybred using the existing Telecastor and modifying the bottom to a Melobar Skreemr

This is the working proto-type that got caught in the Hardway heat and smoke damage. Already have the Tele - just need the bottom part and like the old man...grab the saw and go crazy

Melobar Trade Mark

MELOBAR back in the family again!
Well - I guess I'm back into the frying pan. It's now official; I own the Melobar trademark again. I just couldn't let it get stolen like Peavey stole the Powerslide name. So I filed and here is the confirmation:
Order 22506. Your trademark application for MELOBAR -Word mark is now filed. Attached, please find the official government filing receipt for your trademark.
My wife is going to kill me...

Can't help it - have to build these

I have been working on a way to be able to build these again and it looks like we are going to get started.

Here is an email I just released to players that have been asking about it:

The stock model Steelgitr (changing the name to Melotar with these new ones I'll build) will have a inexpensive Fender Tele (complete, we buy the guitar retail with a receipt so we can legally resell it,  we just take it apart, work the upper part of the body over to fit the bottom and put it back together, it has been reshaped on the back to better fit the player and reduce the weight and paint the body with the new bottom - finished the entire guitar weighs less than a Les Paul) stock model will have a 6 - string bottom Melobar neck with Rattler components for $995. Case is extra and the choice is the Roadrunner gig bag or ATA keyboard case.

An 8-string on the bottom neck would be a custom and would cost more for the pickup and set up so depending on what pickup you wanted on the bottom (I'd probably go with Lollar for a D8 sound) you would add $450.

If you want a higher end upper neck Fender or something else you can purchase it and send it to us - it's about $785 to build with the client supplying the standard guitar portion.

This double neck design is my real passion and what is driving me to get back into building. It puts the Melobar lower neck in the right position and it's just an amazing guitar to get on stage with - people just go nuts when you strap it on. Of the first five Steelgitrs we built - 3 went on stage the day the players got them. That says a lot to how easy and friendly they are to adjust to and play. They just fit you and work.

The Real Melobar story

                                                 After giving so many years of my life to Melobar I finally hit a total burn out and tried to leave it behind me - but as you know, you can run but you can't hide. And after seven years I ventured back online and peeked at what people were saying about our 35 years of Melobar history and I was shocked at the things being said.
There's a blog claiming Dad lived in Sweet and has this ridiculous story of him leaving the farm in Sweet Idaho to join the Dobro brothers to learn how to build guitars. I lived in Sweet, Dad lived in Ojai California less than a hundred miles from L.A. and never put a foot in Sweet Idaho and would be rolling in his grave at such a story. So my family asked me to create a true Melobar blog so our history isn't so distorted.
What get's me is the guy won't correct his misinformation -
If you want facts they are very well documented in National magazines and books 
 Guitar Player Int. March of 1985 The Melobar Story Strap-On Steels pp47,48.49,50.
 Tom Wheelers book American Guitars by Harper and Row p275
 Guitar Player Int. again in Sept. 1991 The Melobar Basement Genius about Dad's death
 Lap Steel Guitar by Andy Volk p262
These are books and articles that are ACCURATE and not distorted into someones weird twist.
So we will try and have something available for the world to remember the real history of Melobar.
Ted