Appears in the upcoming January 2003 / Issue #105 of Total Guitar

Imagine a pedal steel guitar and a complex molecular structure getting jiggy in the pub car park after closing time. The resulting lovechild would look something like the Harmos Sacred Steel guitar. The carbon fibre struts that make the Sacred Steel look like it would be more at home in a science lab than a music room, are much lighter than the wooden body of your traditional lap steel, making it comfortable and well-balanced when sitting on your lap. These struts also contribute to its gorgeous tonal clarity and sustain.

Earlier models were hampered by tuning problems string tension caused the carbon fibre struts to sink slowly into the wooden endboards. Harmos' solution was to add a metal-tuning disc to the centre strut contact point. This spreads the string tension across more of the wood. Not only does it eliminate any tuning problems, it appears to enhance the tone of the Sacred Steel by bringing more of the wood into the sound.

The Sacred Steel doesn't have conventional tuning pegs, but what Harmos calls "tuning fingers". The string is tightened into a clamping screw with an Allen key, and then tuned by its own tuning screw, not unlike the method of tuning on a locking nut tremolo system. Being a bit of a traditionalist in these matters, I was surprised how easy it was use, and how accurately the guitar tuned.

The Harmos is powered by two pickups: a Tele bridge-style pickup in the front, and a P-90 sat not far behind it. These are operated by a four-way rotary knob situated on the endboard which enables the following tonal variations: neck pickup alone: bridge pickup alone: neck/bridge in parallel and neck/bridge in series. lt would be difficult not to be impressed by any one of these tones, but having four to choose from is a real treat. Putting the Harmos through its paces using my Fender Blues de Ville, with a little help from an NXR Dynal Comp, I was able to summon up limitless sustain and tonal nirvana. The tone control, which sits on the endboard near the four-way selector, has enough bass-to-treble sweep to muster up a convincing wah effect which sounds particularly nice when you hit a big fat chord.

This is a beautifully thought-out instrument and it's obvious that a lot of love and hard work has gone into its construction. If you're a devotee of lap steel or anything that slides, give it a try. You'll be impressed.

Rating 4/5 ( rated as an "excellent" product )