Walt Smith of Sweet, Idaho, invented the Melobar in the 1960s so that steel guitarists – traditionally confined to a chair – could look as cool onstage as conventional guitarists.

The Melobar gave them an instrument that was designed to be played standing up. Smith took a steel guitar and rotated it 45 degrees along the axis of it’s strings, providing a more natural, comfortable playing position than that of a steel guitar played in the lap.

The rest of the instrument’s design was cosmetic but no less important. The steel guitar part was attached to a cool guitar body that ranged in shape from this generic double-cutaway Skreemr model to the angular lines of a Gibson Explorer.

Such prominent steel players as David Lindley with Jackson Browne, Rusty Young with Poco, and Cindy Cashdollar with Asleep at the Wheel have played them onstage occasionally, but Melobars never gained widespread acceptance.

Walt Smith’s son Ted carried on the company after Walt’s death in 1990, but they were struggling to stay in business by the end of 2007.