Is the Epiphone MD-100 Steel Guitar Right For You?

Epiphone MD-100 Steel Guitar: that was my old and humble dream to have a guitar with a steel body.
It has such a special captivating squeaky sound!
Honestly, I can not compare this sound with something else.
Probably except for the cooking pan equipped with strings.
And to be absolutely honest there are some personalities who really can not stand this sound.
I’m talking about my lovely wife for example… 🙂

Originally this model: the Epiphone MD-100 is purely an acoustic instrument.
But the one I’ve found on the Kijiji has a piezo pickup and pre-amp installed.
Some luthier has made this a bit strange upgrade.
At least I’ve never seen any steel guitar with the pre-amp equalizer on the side.
You have to get used to this pickup on the metal body as it amplifies all moving sounds excessively.

Sound:

“Squeaky” as expected. Not as loud as National.
But this only feels when you play with naked fingers.
It sounds great when you wear the metal picks.
Unfortunately, it might take some time to get used to these picks.
I prefer to play with my naked fingers.
Probably I have to start experimenting.

One more thing I’ve noticed is that the sound is a bit dull below the 12th fret, which means closer to the body.
I didn’t figure out what caused this effect.
Or is it probably a common thing?
I will let you know when I’ll find out.

Surface:

It’s shiny and bright!
…When it’s clean.
And to keep it clean is a great challenge.
It’s because its chromed brass body gets tarnished just by a slight touch.
I gave up cleaning it regularly after two attempts for about an hour each.
Well, I will do the cleaning on a regular basis but not after each and every play.
Stay tuned for the video sample.