UPDATE August 4, 2026:

Alan got together with Ross Shafer (of Six-Nine Design and designer and builder of Sierra pedal steel guitars) in early August, 2026. Together they finished the assembly of both Beta Prototypes. Refer to all the photos below.

Check a quick video of the Prototype:

Why two Betas?
First, it will be useful to have one instrument for continued testing while a second can be tested by several pedal steel players.

Secondly, the cabinets of the two instruments are built of different materials. One is curly maple because … of course it is.

The other? Well, remember that the acoustic pitches of the strings are not the same as the pitches from the amp.
Even though at low amp volume, those unamplified soundsare not heard, we wanted to ensure that as little as possible of the physical strings' energy is lost through the body (that is vibrational energy not making it into the pickup).

And so, we're using a different material on the second instrument to test if we can reduce that loss. The whole exercise is essentially an A/B test of cabinet material.