MSA Legend Amber D-10 Pedal Steel Review



Here's some pictures, sound files and comments on my new (to me) MSA Legend pedal steel guitar. It has 9 floor pedals and 9 knee levers, 411 gears, and an overdrive that just won't stall. There's a lot of pictures, two song recordings and some comments below. It came well packed, surrounded with rugged foam (no peanuts)! A lot of the really cool features are the same as on my previous MSA Legend reviewed here:

  • MSA Legend Red guitar review
    • This guitar has some very nice maple with what I would call fiddle back figuring on it. Some differences from my red MSA and other specs:

      1. Weight in shipping carton: 82.4 pounds
      2. Shipping container size: 46"L, 20.5"W, 12.5"H
      3. Guitar weight 45.7 pounds
      4. Guitar in case weight: 73.6 pounds
      5. Case Weight: 27.9 pounds (with leg bag)
      6. Fun fact!: Each leg weighs only 0.9 pounds!!!!!
      7. Leg bag is a deluxe unit made by Sharp Covers Nashville
      8. Guitar is standard height and measures 25.5" from floor to bottom of end castings
      9. Guitar height from floor to lowest hanginng horizontal knee lever is 24.5"
      10. The Aura lights and lighted fretboard are spectacular and really add a nice custom touch to this guitar
      11. Bill Lawrence L-705 pickups, E9th: 21.12 kohms, C6: 20.63 kohms

    Some useful links:



    Click here to listen to Settin' The Woods On Fire with the MSA steel guitar!

    Click here to listen to Just A Closer Walk With Thee with the MSA steel guitar!

    Copedant - subject to change!







    Sound Samples


    Fender Steel King amp, Goodrich L120 pot pedal, Hall Of Fame reverb, mic'd with a Shure SM-57. All samples recorded onto a Zoom R24 then ported to Reaper to convert them to mp3 files at 320 kbps.

    Sound sample 1 (E9th)
    Sound sample 2 (E9th)
    Sound sample 3 (E9th)
    Sound sample 4 (E9th)
    Sound sample 5 (E9th)
    Sound sample 6 (E9th)
    Sound sample 7 (C6)
    Sound sample 8 (C6)
    Sound sample 9 (C6)



    A Few Comments

    With almost every guitar I receive there's always a few issues to iron out like properly lubricating them (even new ones) and getting all the hardware aligned so that there no grinding sounds no matter how slow the pedals are activated. This guitar required none of that. Nothing rubbing anywhere and no messing around, just absolutely perfect from the factory (I am the second owner). The 705 pickups appear to be humbucking design but do not sound as fat and muddy as Gibson PAF pickups. With a little EQ adjustment in the amp I am getting a real nice tone out of them but still not exactly as clear as single coil units. The aura lights and lighted fretboard are not a gimmick! The fretboard remains clear and focused when backlit and even in fairly bright room I find myself leaving the light on just like Motel 6! In fact the guitar just looks better when playing it or just viewing it when the lights are on. Pedal and knee level pulls are not just precisely machined, they are properly designed and engineered. Actuation force is equal throughout the entire pedal travel range and stops are positive giving excellent feedback. As noted above the guitar is pretty light considering all the pedals and knee levers it has but with each leg weighing under a pound you can tell a lot of effort and expense was put into managing the total weight. As far as I can tell there are no dead spots anywhere up and down the neck and tone remains clear well beyond the 12th fret. Sustain is a tad less than an Emmons push pull but still excellent. I don't measure cabinet drop anymore because it's never affecting the playability of any steel I've ever owned. You can read the review of my first MSA Legend linked above and most of those comments apply as this guitar is very similar in design.


    Let's Change a few things! And some cool things I noticed....

    I changed a few things in the guitar's copedant after I got it. Just little things that make it fit my style and preferences. One was to add the 1st string half tone raise on C6 pedal 8. In places this acts a bit like the 1st string F# to G raise on E9th but it's also handy with both pedals 5 and 6. There's a few tabs on my web site showing its uses and it comes pretty much for free on pedal 8 without messing up any of my normal uses for pedal 8. I got some extra parts thrown in with the guitar when I bought it and was happy to find that the pull rods I got were threaded on both ends. That way I can use the same rod, cut to siz,e in two different places without rethreading anything. Anyhow here's a pic of the rod I shaped for that C6 1st string pull. I had to put some offset into it to go around a knee lever that was blocking access to the 1st string raise finger.



    Here's another picture showing that MSA used two different styles of pull cranks on this guitar as needed to simplify the setup. The oddball here is Excel (and others) style crank with a swivel and set screw that rotates as the crank moves.


    Here's another neat trick! Using a single pull crank with TWO pull rods attached to it. It's used to raise E9th strings 1 and 2 and it saves valuable space while eliminating the need for two cranks.




    There are quite a few pictures below. Click on them to see them full size or at least sized to a browser window. Click on the picture again if needed to zoom in even more!







    Comments? email webmaster Greg


    Home