Behold the “Observation Deck”—a new steel guitar for teaching

[Mike Neer]

Actually, I’ve decided to name the guitar “Slide Walk” in honor of the Skywalk at the Grand Canyon and because it sounds so cool.
Back in early 2025, I had a concept in mind for a steel guitar to be used a vehicle for teaching techniques that are not easily visible because of obstruction by the upper part of the hand. It was almost impossible to show moves happening underneath, especially the bar’s interaction with the strings. That is when I came up with the idea—it was one of those ideas that I thought was brilliant but in reality would never work. That is, until I called Bill Hatcher. While the concept is mine and the specs all mine, it would not have happened without the design and real world common sense of Bill. The guitar is really well made and plays and sounds great, which are the most important factors to be honest. I am so thrilled with this, and the fact that it will enable me to teach the technique of slanting with more clarity is a gamechanger for me. This will be put to great use in my Slant Guru series.
I must also thank George Piburn for his beautiful fretboard, and David Becker for his donation of the George L pickup. I really like the thick, darker tone I get from it.
It is going to take some time to figure out how best utilize this, but I am extremely motivated! steelinstruction.com is where these lessons and more will be available.

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[Bill Hatcher]

The pic from underneath showing you doing the slant…epic. Your idea is now a reality!

[Pete Martin]

Wow, how cool Mike!!!

[David DeLoach]

Really cool!

[Brad Bechtel]

That's awesome!

[Bill Ladd]

Nice!

[HowardR]

This sure puts a different slant on teaching........

How innovative is this!!.......

[Peter Jacobs]

One of those “that’s just crazy enough to work!” ideas. As someone who’s out-there idea (my blue standup steel) wouldn’t have worked without a great builder adding the elements that bring it to fruition, I can appreciate what went into making this happen. Nice going, Mike and beautiful build, Bill!

[Marshall Woodall]

What a great idea and useful teaching tool!

[Andy Volk]

Extremely cool, Mike! The underneath cam view of the hand is very similar to the way James Taylor does it for the lessons on his web site. A unique and unexpected view of what's going on. In his case, the picking hand, in yours, the bar hand.

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[Mike Neer]

A quick demo video. Still a lot of kinks to work out but it is pretty cool.
Demonstration/Test run of new teaching studio setup
https://youtu.be/sAqEZBGx9mw

[Tim Toberer]

Cool to see this come to fruition Mike! You hinted at it a while ago. I know how much thought time and energy goes into things like this. It seems you had some helpers on the way which is such a cool example of the forum at work. Nice Job!

[Scott Houston]

Absolutely brilliant, Mike!

Feedback: I think it would take me some time to get used to the orientation. Have you experimented with flipping the video, keeping the nut of the guitar to the left, but the bar hand coming from the bottom of the frame? A mirror view, if that makes sense. I think it might be more intuitive, but that could just be my particular wiring.

[Mike Neer]

Absolutely brilliant, Mike!

Feedback: I think it would take me some time to get used to the orientation. Have you experimented with flipping the video, keeping the nut of the guitar to the left, but the bar hand coming from the bottom of the frame? A mirror view, if that makes sense. I think it might be more intuitive, but that could just be my particular wiring.

Thanks, I appreciate the comments. I have been working on this all week and have made significant progress. I'll keep you all posted as I'm planning my first workshop.

[Andy Volk]

Mike, over the years, I've observed that you look at the way things are done by the crowd and somehow see something the rest of us missed but when it's unveiled, we say "Brilliant! Of course that's how to do it!

And you don't just dip a toe - you fully commit, whether it's playing jazz on Sol's Bakelite, writing a book of Bebop heads, or envisioning a new way to teach slant techniques on steel guitar. This relentless creative drive you've got is impressive and all of us are better for seeing the latest creation from "Mike Neer Labs."

[BJ Burbach]

Andy, you originally sent me here and Mike promptly rearranged my brain and my music. Priceless!
Thanks, guys,
BJ

[Chris Templeton]

Excellent, Mike!!

[Michael Kiese]

Well done Mike! Congratulations!

small suggestion: lower the intensity of that fretboard light. Looks a bit washed out on camera. Also consider adding a low intensity light on the treble side as well to reduce shadows. It may increase visual clarity on camera. Something worth thinking about.

[Michael Kiese]

A quick demo video. Still a lot of kinks to work out but it is pretty cool.
Demonstration/Test run of new teaching studio setup
https://youtu.be/sAqEZBGx9mw

Aloha Mike,

Great job with this! Just trying to help you figure out the orientation of your "basement" video angle.

PaulMcEvoyguitars made a great comment/suggestion in the YouTube comments.

Just vertically flip/mirror the orientation that you have in the video, and you'd have the player's perspective.

Not sure how you would achieve that in your video streaming software, but there has to be a way.

Btw, if you rotate an image 180º and then horizontally flip/mirror that image, it achieves the same result as a vertical flip/mirror.

As a viewer, I think I could get used to either perspective, but I'd prefer the orientation with bass strings on bottom. It would be like looking at the orientation of my own hand on my steel guitar, but the strings are visible.

Hope that helps! Great work on this, and great idea! You're a true steward of our instrument!

Mahalo!

[Mike Neer]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, that’s why I ask!

Since I made this video, I have made some dramatic changes to the presentation, addressing not only the viewing angle and lighting, but several other areas to heighten the experience. Still not 100% there but closer.

I also had to make an adjustment to the string spacing, which was an error that I made in giving Bill my specs. Instead of tapering the spacing from the nut to bridge, I asked him to make consistent 3/8” top to bottom: big mistake by me. I realized that I wasn’t able to execute several of many very wide slants on the lower frets bc the bar wasn’t long enough to accommodate the spacing. I kind of panicked but in a moment of clarity, I remembered that I know how to do a bunch of guitar maintenance and repairs. The great Ken Parker taught me everything I know just from hanging with him so much and watching. I was able to re-slot the nut perfectly and problem was solved!

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