New Shoji FIRST GIG REPORT (SEE NEW POST)!!

[Steve Lipsey]

I'm just blown away by my new S10 Shoji...here's a few of my initial impressions...I've played and owned a lot of different brands, and bottom line, I am truly blown away by this unique instrument, and overjoyed that I was able to get Shoji Number 1! I apologize in advance for my over-the-top reaction, but it is just how I feel...

-Before talking about the guitar, I want to tell you that working with Toshiyuki Shoji has easily been the best product design and purchase experience of my (all too long) life. He is conscientious, knowledgable, eager to please, a great listener, responsive to any and all design questions, capable of excellent workmanship, and a perfectionist. He won't rest until your every wish is granted, as much as humanly possible, and will offer alternatives you wouldn't have thought of. I don't think he ever sleeps - my emails usually resulted in a relatively immediate response, often including very helpful and understandable CAD diagrams of what we were talking about. Other makers can be responsive to customers, but this is a whole other level.

-It sounds great!! Initial bedroom impressions are pretty comparable to my Williams S10 with Telonics pickup, which has great tone. I can play up the neck all the way to the 24th fret and still get usable tone. More on that after my gig this weekend...I suspect that the metal body provides tonal advantages over metal plates screwed to a wooden body like my Williams...if you've ever played a solid metal frypan lap steel you know what I'm talking about...they have amazing sustain and tone.

-The design is an advance on typical keyless pedal steel design, that hasn't changed much in a very long time. It keeps all the good parts of traditional design, and of Excel's unique features, and adds some really nice new stuff. Toshiyuki's 13 years working at Excel, and doing Excel repairs, before starting Shoji made it possible for him to design it to just not break, and not break strings.

-I've been a Williams guy for a decade or so. The Williams is very light, compared to most others, but weighs almost 50% more than my Shoji, and the Shoji comes with a very light 4-wheel upright rolling case. I opted for the carbon fiber legs, pedal bar, pedals, and levers. Having Long Covid weakness for the past year, this makes it light enough for me to carry it and keep gigging. (I also finally gave up my 50 years of tube amps and switched to a Milkman "The Amp", which does have a Fender style tube preamp, and sounds great, and weighs only 2 ½ lbs.)

-Tuning is done with little thumbwheels (like the Sierra), not a wrench. It is much quicker and easier than my Williams - it has all the "staying in tune" advantages of keyless changers without the hassle. Levers and pedals are tuned with traditional nylon nuts at the changer end...that works great and didn't need updating.

-Another advance is the 2nd string half-stop. I spent a lot of time on my Williams syncing up the 9th and 2nd string bellcrank/changer positions to make the half stop work with my copedent. And now changing it would be another serious project. The Shoji has a little 2nd string device with a thumbwheel you can adjust from playing position that sets the half-stop position and feel, independent of everything else!

-I went for 10 strings to keep it light and small, but he can make 12, 12 with a locking lever to shift copedent, and double neck. He can make a clever double direction lever to use on a double neck.

-Action of pedals and levers is very smooth.

-Position of everything is infinitely adjustable - not just angle, like the Williams, but e.g., the space between the lever mounts can be set to your specs by Toshiyuki. This is truly a lovely custom-made guitar, not an "off the rack" one where only leg length is your choice. This is totally unique. We learn to live with standard models on other brands, but it sure is nice to have EVERYTHING set to your body and style...as they say, you only live once, and this is the way to do it...

-I thought that I'd miss the traditional look of my Williams, but actually, it is a lot of fun to play a space-age rocket that looks quite advanced.

-My price was a little higher than some other models, mostly because of all the optional carbon fiber. He has secured very reasonable shipping charges, and it arrived very quickly.

Here's a few pictures...check out the the Shoji website (https://www.shoji-workshop.com/en/) and the long Shoji thread here on the Forum for the whole story (viewtopic.php?t=403550), or, even better, start a conversation with Toshiyuki...you won't regret it (contact@shoji-workshop.com).

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[Joseph Carlson]

Wow, that steel looks amazing! I have been following that thread, there are some really innovative ideas incorporated into the design of these steels.

Definitely a top flight pro instrument. I would love to sit behind a Shoji one of these days.

[Stew Crookes]

Looks amazing!
Congratulations on your fantastic new guitar, and congratulations to Toshi as well

[Ross Shafer]

super cool Steve, congrats! Nice stuff Shoji! I was stoked to see you have a Steel Guitar Forum workstand that I made in your shop. I hope it's useful for you. Keep up the great work!

[Greg Cutshaw]

Both of my Excel guitars are among the smoothest, lightest, and best sounding steels I own. Shoji's modifications to my Excel S-10 have made it a perfect guitar as has the ease of communicating with him. I like some of the features of my MSA better like the backlit fretboard and the overall workmanship on my Sierra is incredible. It's nice to have multiple good choices and the Shoji guitars give us another good one. Thanks for posting about your guitar!

[Dennis Montgomery]

I've been watching the progress (and Guyan-Barre syndrome) setback he's gone through the past few months and I'm happy to read the first Shoji has reached a customer and it's a winner. I'll never replace my Mullen G2 (I went through too much sweat and tears to get it and have customized it to exactly what I want) but it's exciting so see a new builder emerge with such a high quality instrument. Congrats on serial #1

[Steve Lipsey]

Yes, I can vouch for the fact that Toshiyuki is over the Guillain-Barre thing, fully back in the saddle, and ready to build more!

[Toshiyuki Shoji]

Thank you all for your warm comments.
The reason SHOJI guitars have so many adjustable parts is because many pedal steel guitars imported from overseas are designed for larger-built men compared to the average Japanese physique.
I personally had a hard time adjusting those guitars to fit my smaller body, and wished it could be easier to make those adjustments.
By the way, even among Japanese people, I am quite slim and small-framed.

[Steve Lipsey]

OK, had an actual gig...a few observations:
-It sounded and played just magnificently. Not other word for it! My pedalboard fits under the steel, my amp is the 2 ½ lb. Milkman "The Amp 100", the Moyo volume pedal works great while being small. Easy setup!

-Having the thumbwheel tuners while retaining the keyless setup (no ghost notes, no going off pitch after a lever pull) was great, no wrench needed, touching up tuning didn't even require looking at the tuners, just zig-zag down them by touch while watching the tuner....

-The weight difference in actual life, going to a gig, was quite astounding...that 4-wheel case is great, the whole thing stands up and rolls on the wheels and you don't have to support ANY weight, unlike other steel cases, which have 2 wheels at most. The case actually is a standard Bibilab Japan suitcase...and the trick is that this steel is small enough to fit in it - the Shoji changer and tuner really shrink the steel down just a bit smaller than others, while keeping the scale length. So I put my pak-a-seat and speaker on a small cart, and it was a breeze to pull both and load/unload.

-It looks great, with the carbon fiber legs, pedals, and pedal rack,, pretty much all black....

-The bottom line was, after the gig, while hanging out at the bar in the brewpub where we played, people said that I should have been even louder, the pedal steel was the best thing going (and this band is quite good all around). The Shoji will motivate you to play better, it seems...

-Yes, I'm happy!

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[Toshiyuki Shoji]

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your impressions—and what a wonderful review!

I'm truly honored to hear that the guitar performed so well in a real gig setting, both in terms of sound and playability.
And to hear that audience members responded so positively to your playing is incredibly rewarding.

[Greg Cutshaw]

Nice report and a lot of people ignore the weight of the case when considering a new steel. The Excel cases I own are half the weight of other keyless steel cases besides being more compact.

[David Wren]

Nice to hear. I've been following the development of this PSG. Love the RKR lever help!

With that said, I'll be keeping my U 12 Williams 700

[Steve Lipsey]

A few more observations on the Shoji (sorry for some of the forum decisions on how to orient the pictures):
-That half-stop device is great...you can actually rest your leg against it while playing stuff and not have to worry about it going flat or sharp....

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-The knee levers adjust not only left and right, but also in and out...here two examples or deep under neath, and close to the back:

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The bellcranks and changer have a wealth of possible slots for the rods...none of this "one is too high and the next is too low" stuff, you can make it go EXCATLY as you want it to (diagram below). And the changer has alternating raise and lower sections, so you can make the rods go straight across and never have to cross, regardless of whether they are raise of lower...

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I decided not to have the plain metal panel on the rear....it doesn't really add anything. And all those holes, in addition to allowing cross-shaft placement exactly wherever you might want it for levers and pedals, also provide some nice places to hang extra picks, earplugs, and nylon tuner wrench...never lose them again or even have to pack/unpack them....

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And last, so you can visualize Toshiyuki when you are emailing him, he stepped in front of the camera while sending me a video of some construction decisions to make...and here he is!

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