What about modifying sound qualities?

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

I'm new on this forum, and have over the last few weeks read many threads about customization of / modifications to steel guitars. Lots of interesting threads about how various people modify setups, mechanical details and look, but when it comes to tuning basic sound qualities I haven't found much.

Most that's mentioned about sound qualities are about new, old or home-made instruments, and not about modifying the sound in existing instruments.

I have been steeling for about 30 years now - on a Dekley S10 mostly, and although I've modified the setup a bit over the years I have focused more on getting the sound right. My Dekley sounded ok when I bought it back in 79, but I wouldn't exactly call the sound "great". Once I'd exhausted what could be done to its sound by simply picking it well, I still wasn't satisfied with its tone and sustain.

I'm wondering if most steelers just accept that a given instrument has a given sound, and only do minor things like changing strings, microphone or the electronics/amp combination - or buy another instrument, if they're not entirely satisfied with the sound they can get out of of the one they got..?

Roual Ranes · From: Atlanta, Texas, USA

Georg,
I am not a "pro" but keep in mind that you can hear differently because of your ears in any given instance. I am sure you have heard the change in sound when you have a cold. What your guitar sounds like to someone twenty feet away from you and what you hear on stage is something very different. The problem is getting a "sound" YOU can live with. I have had nights that everything sounded great and the next night it was bad and I didn't change a setting. I think a lot depends on whether or not the bald guy moved three feet to the left. Smile

ha

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Roual,
of course one doesn't "attack" an instrument for what one occasionally thinks about its sound. That would be madness, and a great way to destroy any instrument - especially since most of what comes out is the making of the musician and not the instrument.

However, there are good sounding steel guitars, ok sounding ones, and some far from optimal sounding ones - regardless of who's playing them, and I just wondered what people do if/when they find out that their instrument simply isn't capable of producing the sound they want.

I played and studied my "pretty ok" sounding steel guitar, and compared its qualities with that of other steel guitars - and my own preferences, over a ten years period, before doing anything substantial to its sound-producing qualities. Then I tested out various modifications for a couple of years, to make sure I got it right once finished.

I ended up being very satisfied with the result, and have been ever since - lucky me. The only problem I have now is that the inner mechanics of my old Dekley is a bit worn out and broken down, so it isn't really playable now. Am in the process of bringing it back to life with new parts, but that's a somewhat slow process for that brand.

Roual Ranes · From: Atlanta, Texas, USA

Georg,

About 20 years ago, I knew a guy that bolted a piece of soft wood..pine I think...to the back apron of his guitar. He said it took the tinney bite out and gave him a fuller sound. I am sure you will find everything from changing PUs to changing all rod materials as methods of tone improvement. Good luck in your search.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Many things can be done to change the basic sound and sustain of a steel. Of course, some of the sound is "locked in the wood", or in the basic design. But that doesn't preclude you from making changes and, if you're lucky, improvements. When people do mods, they'll change easy stuff first, carefully noting what effect it has on the sound. It's a slow process, but many guitars can be improved with the right adjustments or changes. Conversely, some guitars are pretty close to optimum just as they are, and these will likely see few or no improvements without actually changing or modifying some components.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Roual,
I used to tune out minute amounts of disturbing harmonics in both acoustic and electric guitars, by applying small amounts of windows putty or form wood at strategical places - usually where it wasn't visible. Any decent instrument can be improved that tiny bit this way.
I have also used windows putty mixed with heat-tolerant wax to tune loudspeaker membranes - change harmonic frequencies and reduce break-up etc., but that's another matter entirely. Probably wouldn't have dared to modify my steel without this experience though.

I am very interested in what others have actually achieved sound-wise through minor or major modifications of their own steel(s). I think "personal preferences" play a vital role, so it is also interesting to learn which steel brands/versions various people find to have the best overall built-in sound for their particular type(s) of music and playing styles.

My old Dekley is solid built - has an excellent frame, but its original sound and tonal stability depended too much on a not too well-built top board since all components that affected tone was assembled on that board. I wanted a more solid, pure, tone, improved sustain, and an end to any detuning caused by weaknesses around the changer-mount. All in all a sound closer to that of a good solid-body non-pedal steel.

I could more or less get the sound and stability I wanted by stiffening up the top board and lock it tightly to the frame, but then more noise from the mechanics got transferred to the strings. Also problems with mostly uncontrollable harmonics with this approach, and if I went all the way and tuned/dampened it to "perfection" the modification would be irreversible. Too much of I chance I wouldn't get the sound I wanted, and no way back. So, I abandoned this approach.

In the end I gave my Dekley a new 20 mm thick laminated aluminum, neck that carry the changer and microphone. I used the holes in the top board for the original neck, but only the ones around fret 11 and at the key-end. Thus, this new, extremely rigid, neck is floating 2 mm above the top board from fret 11 all the way to, and including, the changer. Also modified parts around the changer, effectively isolating "the steel guitar" acoustically from the body and mechanics, without losing pedal action.

I got the tone-purity, sustain, responsiveness to picking and stability I wanted, but it sure took a while - years - to get there. My solution involved extensive changes and modifications to basic parts of the instrument, so maybe I took it a bit further than most steelers would feel comfortable with and all steel brands can take.
However, after having read what kind of renovating and home-building jobs some manage to pull through, it sure would be interesting to know more about what they do to get the sound right, and not just what the finished instruments look like.

Mike Cass · Posted 6 Jun 2009 7:37 am

Donny hit in on the head. Most newer guitars are well built and capable of producing a pleasing tone in the hands of an experienced player.
As for mods done to guitars; Ive had several occassions to examine some of the methods applied and discussed on the forum, and I cant honestly say that I notice a positive difference. My experince with this subject has been in the form of customers purchasing one of these modded instruments and sending it to me to be put back to factory specs, per their request.
One mod job consisted of nothing more than cheap foam blocks glued to the underside of the necks(in front of the p/u area)and the addition of what appeared to be small pieces .005mm film which were situated between each neck screw hole and the top of the guitar, neck and headstock screws then way-overtightened, with 2 neck screws actually having been wrung off inside the necks during the mod process.
As a factory-authorized Emmons Repair Station since 1987 Ive had many guitars arrive at my shop with unbelievable things done to them. None of which IMHO added to said guitars playability, tone or value in any discernable way. I look at these efforts in light of what I like to call "re-inventing the wheel". I have several buckets of junk parts taken off of these abortions and may someday sell them for scrap metal. Thats all they're good for. If you have a guitar and you're unhappy with the tone, etc, I suggest contacting the original manufacturer if possible to have them help you sort out the problem. Not to mention that having a non-factory mod installed on a factory-warranteed instrument will, in most cases void said warranty.
thats it for me,

MC

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I've heard the the tightness of the screws that connect metal to wood affect the tone and sustain of a guitar. Too loose is an obvious problem, but several people have told me that over-tightening is also detrimental.
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David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I've built a number of six-strings and a few basses and sevens out of Warmoth and USA Custom Guitar wood, and of course there's an (over-?) abundant plethora of pickups, bridges, tuners etc. to choose from. Without getting into amplification, there's still a fair consensus among people I've talked to about this - the neck wood is most important, and the pickup then "chooses" which frequencies to emphasize.

What I really prefer is a flat sound with a wide frequency range, with a minimum of frequency peaks (and valleys!) coming out of the guitar - lots of highs, mids and bass, then I can use amplification & speaker choice to tune it to my preferences. In my opinion good tone is mostly subtractive... The "standardized" pedal steel guitar design that evolved through the efforts of Shot Jackson, Bud Carter and others pretty much does the trick for me. As with six-strings, if you look at what the greatest musicians in the world play, it's nothing radical - gee, why do they sound great, hmmm. Question

I just ordered an Alumitone pickup for my Carter, because it looks to be a real advancement in frequency transmission as opposed to a minorly-tweaky fine-tuning difference - but I can still get my George L to do what I like, I just get greedy for more. Mr. Green

If I built a steel, I'd want to use... maple, ummm, aluminum.... hmmm.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Mike, I agree with you and Donny. I wouldn't attempt to modify the tone of a new instrument. If a new instrument didn't sound right to me, I'd either bought the wrong instrument in the first place, or something is seriously wrong with my head Smile

As a new instrument grows on me, testing a few microphone options and string brands over time, would be about as far as I would go.

For an old instrument it's a bit different though. My Dekley was 12 years old when I modified it. No manufacturer left to contact, and the dealer was more or less "gone" too. It was either "dump it", "keep it as a collector's item" or "fix it yourself". I chose to "fix it" and gave myself all the time necessary - took 2-3 years. This was around 1990 - 93, and I kept the Dekley playable all along apart from the few days it took to dismantle old parts and put on and tune in the new ones at the end of that period.

In that time-period I got to listen to, and test, quite a few new steel guitars. Most of them had most of the sound qualities I was after, but neither had it all - so I didn't buy any. Once I'd finished the basic modification of my old Dekley, it had that little more of what I missed in other steels on the market at that time, while other, original, Dekleys seemed to be all over the second-hand market in my country - replaced because they didn't sound right mostly. Can't seem to find any on the market now though.

If I had been a bit more foresighted I would have bought a few used single and double neck Dekleys and modified them too, as, unlike most other steels I had access to back then, the old Dekley with its sturdy frame was as made for improvements. All it lacked was tone, and I had figured out how to give that particular brand all the tone qualities I wanted.
Don't think what I did would have worked well on steels made any other way, but the fact that better steels are developed and manufactured today indicates that there's still room for improvements.

The question is: what is an improvement and how can it be defined for a given steel guitar?
FWIW: I have always had problems defining sound qualities in any details in words, but I sure can hear when it's better, or worse.

FWIW: my old, heavily modified, Dekley is fine sound-wise - still sounds just as I want it to, so no help needed with that. May test out a few alternative pickups in order to capture more of its tonal qualities, but that's about it and I'm not in a hurry either.

It is my Dekley's inner mechanics that's a bit broken and worn down, keeping it, and me, out of action at the moment. With a bit of luck I'll have the necessary replacement parts at my place in a few weeks time and can start fixing it up. Not all American companies are willing to trade directly with us in the old world, which means some deliveries take a bit longer Smile

Now, I have studied acoustics, and acoustical and electrical string instruments, since back in the late 1960s. My profession was/is in electronics, and I know the entire amplification chain well - in pretty minute details. I use an electronic lab to analyze the sound, and a laser-rig and sensors to support my ear when I check for vibrations and dis/harmonics in the materials an instrument is made of. Less guesswork that way.

Over the years I have seen/heard my fair share of destroyed instruments and amp-chains caused by attempts on "improvements". I have also seen/heard a few real improvements made by people who know what they're doing, and why.

It is people who really know what they're talking about when it comes to details in what make up the sound characteristics of a pedal steel guitar, I am trying to connect to - share information with.

And, also those who think their own instrument should sound a little better one way or another, but become confused and risk doing irreversible damage to their instrument in the process. They need someone in the known to talk to about whatever problem they think they have, and help to sort out the causes.

Not always a helpful manufacturer or dealer within range, and resorting to some sort of "black magic" to solve physical and/or electrical deficiencies in an instrument that doesn't sound "right", is all too easy - as you and the others have described so well.

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

You might want search up "Chas Smith" and "ed packard" on the previous posts listings, and the Memberlist above - these guys are fanatics for this stuff, building up and testing from scratch with oscilloscopes and all. There's thousands if not hundreds of thousands of words in here already.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

The overall "feel" I get is that most players are looking for a prototypical "steel tone" and builders are trying to standardize the sound - hence the lack of volume/tone controls. There is FAR more emphasis on technique and mechanics than tone - and once a "good" toner is achieved, that's it. Done.

Some of us think differently (I know some are sick of hearing it - but it's influences from the 6-string world) and want to "tweak", modify, twist, fold, spindle and mutilate our tone.

Bobbe has sent out some excellent notes on tonewoods. There are also some incredible things being done with pickups (I heard a P-90 style Dean Park got from Jason Lollar that was outstanding, and NOT the typical-sounding steel pickup; a different, but very usable sound - fatter and gustsier, with enhanced mids.

You can change the tone of a modern guitar without screwing anything up - parts torquing, alignment, reduction of free play and several other things will change your tone and improve your guitar's playing qualities.

But there's no reason not to experiment with things like second pickups (on my Fenders the second pickup is the single most significant tonal improvement you can make, and there are TONS of options - and wiring schemes). Adding tone and volume controls could be done with an add-on box and will make quite a difference.

And, of course, judicious use of effects boxes can really enhance guitar tone and/or enhance particular songs.

One "tone tool" I stumbled on recently is the Electroharmonix "Knockout" pedal reissue. It *looks* like some kind of simple equalizer, but it provides a whole toolbox full of tonal variations once you learn how subtle the adjustments need to be...and how interactive the controls are.

A "simple" clean boost pedal also does not have to be used for solos - one can be on all the time to change the gain factor and/or the frequency response. Removing reverb and using delay instead removes "washout" - and if you can, try TWO delays - one as the first or second pedal in a chain, the other as the last one; you may find a richness in overtones you didn't know you had!

Hope that gives you a few ideas..

Jim
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Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Jim - In the Holy Grail thread you made the same comment about using two delay units. Perhaps you could start another thread about that and explain how you do it, how many milliseconds of delay, number of repeats, etc. I'm always experimenting with delays and reverbs and this sounds very interesting.

Lee

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Jim, I use a movable humbucker for now, suspended in a rubber ring on the neck surface and held in place by gravity only. Can be moved about an inch lengthwise for sharper or rounder tone. It's an efficient tone-control and I usually keep it in the middle, around where I tuned it all in for flat response with that pickup originally.

The suspension makes regulating pickup height/distance from strings a quick operation without tools. The suspension also makes the pickup pretty insensitive to vibrations, harmonics and pedal-noise transferred through the body, especially since the neck that holds it floats clear of the body from fret 11 all the way right.

A second pickup would have to be flat/low profile, as my floating neck obviously isn't supported from below at that end and I can't just "carve out" holes for more pickups in it. What doesn't fit in the existing opening has to stay on top.

The Alumitone pickup gave me an idea though, as I used 1, 2 and up to 10 turn coils to pick up vibrations in conducting material decades ago. No magnets involved, but I charged a small high frequency AC Voltage into the material and the coils backplate. Frequency response flat from DC to well above 500KHz, and no dynamic limitations, but sensitivity so low that only balanced lab instrument pre-amps would do back then and I never used it on instruments. New chips available today may make it possible to "electrify" my steel with a pickup that is less than a millimeter thick, charged strings, and a pre-amp/battery package in the body. Might be fun trying if nothing else Smile

On the more serious note, of effect units: has anyone tried using a guitar compressor/sustain unit on a steel? Not as replacement for the volume pedal but in addition to it?

I used one on a regular 6-string ages ago, just to sharpen the picking sound and even out the volume ever so slightly. With a fine-tuned compression attack and the sustain set so low that one could barely hear it, it gave my Les Paul copy a more acoustic sound that I wouldn't mind getting from my steel now and then, and I did actually pick the 6-string with same picks as I use on the steel now.

My old Ibanez sustain box is long gone, and I haven't had a chance to test what's on the market today. I'm all for effect units that don't really color the sound when set properly - even when used as direct boxes in a studio. I will mostly use them to fine-tune the instrument's inherent sound, and only occasionally make more heavy use of effects. So, I'm interested in what effect units anyone may think are worth testing at all when the main thing is clean sound, and which ones to avoid.

Thanks all for the input so far.

Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

Georg, hi and welcome to SGF. Nice to see yet one more Norwegian join.

I am sorry to say that I really don't have much to contribute from own experiences, which have been few.
I do, however, have an undying love for the pedal steel sound. So much so, that I built my own and right now, as you may know, am putting finishing touches on 2 and 3.

I find it fascinating , the amount of thinking, work and soul that us steel players are willing to put into improving the sound of our beloved instruments.

By the way, I have always liked the sound of the Dekley. To me they stand just a wee bit apart from the average steel sound(if there is such a thing)I should hasten to mention that this is to my ears only, seeing how sound in the steel world is so very individualistic.

I was talking to a re-builder just the other day where I told him that to my cardboard ears, there are Emmons Pushpulls, ZB's and all the rest when it comes to distinctiveness in sound. He readily agreed. (Please don't take this as a detrimental statement to all the fine builders of fine steels out there)

It would be interesting to connect. I am sure I could learn a lot from you, things that I could apply if there ever is a project #3 for me.

If you prefer to keep everything on this public forum, that is also fine with me.
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Mike Cass · Posted 7 Jun 2009 8:03 am

Ive found that the most effective way to make sure a guitar is operating at maximum tone, volume and sustain is:

#1. to make sure that all expansion joints are not touching(where the neck goes into keyhead and around the changers, etc.). If they touch in any of those spots they need to be milled out slightly to alleviate that. The negative reaction of a guitar to temp changes will be greatly helped by that procedure as well. In fact, when I cleaned up "The Blade" for Buddy Emmons he specifically requested that I check those spots and mill if necessary.

#2. As b0b said above, the correct tightness of the endplate, neck, keyhead, changer, cross shaft and bracket screws is also paramount to allowing a body to breathe and resonate correctly. Too tight and it sounds bound up; too loose and its bland and flat sounding.

#3. Having the right pickup in the guitar goes a long way towards reproducing what you hear accoustically in a guitar. This may require some experimentation, but with all the choices available today Im sure a p/u can be found that will reproduce electronically what you hear accoustically.

#4. (and this is a biggie) make sure that the string path from tuning gear through the roller, over the magnets and attaching to the finger is a straight as possible. This will help the guitar breathe and resonate, as any angle on that path will produce a pinching of the rollers in their milled slots thus throwing off excessive string vibrations into the keyhead which wont be then transmitted through the body at the changer as well.

#5. keeping the changer fingers clean and shiny.
If your string is resting on gunk or case fibers or you have excessive string digs in the fingers those things will diminsh your tone and sustain.

#6. Correct p/u height.
Ive seen a number of guitars over the years that had the p/u's too low, too high or angled, etc. It seems that using a $0.25 piece under the strings to get the right distance and level seems to work on most guitars regardless of the p/u installed. Humbuckers seem to still be able to work if the distance between p/u and string is slighty less that the quarter, but s/c p/u's need that distance.

Thats about all I have, but each guitar really comes with its own characteristics and the methods will vary from axe to axe.
good luck,

MC

Ken Byng · From: Southampton, England

Mike - your post above is excellent. What is your view on the amount of hardware (levers and pedals) screwed into the body? In other words, is a body loaded with screws, brackets and various other metalwork affected more in your opinion than one with minimal levers and pedals?
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

In response to Mike Cass' excellent post above, I'd like to add that pickup height really does depend on the pickup. The Bill Lawrence 710/712, for example, requires considerably more distance from the strings when compared to most other pickups.

Anyone envious of Jay Dee Maness' incredible push-pull Emmons tone should note that he uses Tonealigner pickups, which have a pole adjustment for each string. This allows him to perfectly balance the volume output of the various string gauges.
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Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Mike's list is indeed excellent. Will note that I actually angled the bridge/changer slightly when I modified my Dekley - string #10 is 3 millimeter longer than string #1. I did this for the same reason as bridges on most string instruments are angled or adjustable - thicker, wounded, strings bend slightly further in from the bridge when they vibrate and therefore tend to pitch up when shortened.
Of course, this shouldn't be necessary on a steel guitar since we can, and do, angle or push the bar. However, I found the slightly angled bridge to produce a cleaner sound, so that's how I kept it.

A regularly constructed steel spread vibrations from the strings into the body at the bridge/changer end, and the response - harmonics and noise, is transferred back to the strings in the same area and gets picked up as swing between the strings and the pickup's mounting.
Depending on how the frame is constructed and the top plate is connected to it in the bridge-area, any changes in hardware and how it is mounted in this sensitive area will affect what the instrument sounds like to some degree. Short, direct, way for any noise to travel back to the strings/pickup.

My modified steel doesn't use the body as resonance chamber the same way most steels do. It uses the neck and the area from the center of the top plate towards the keys as resonance chamber - I've mentioned the floating neck before. Besides, a Dekley has a very solid frame.
This changes everything, and testing revealed that there's almost no limit to what amount of hardware I can add, and how, without it having adverse effects on the tone. The real "timber" is in the neck, not the body, and harmonics and noise from the body-frame have a long way to travel and are well dampened out before they reach the strings/pickup.

Another factor is body-drop, which I think is a problem to many. As the strings pull on the bridge/changer, and pedal-pull changes the pull-forces from the strings on the topside and directly via the changer arms below, few steels are rigid enough in the bridge/changer area to take the changes in stress without moving/bending some. Even in some quite well built, new, steels the various pulling and twisting forces are putting load on a relative small area of the body, and it is in that very same area most of the "timber" is created.

My Dekley wasn't particularly good to begin with - I could measure the bending visually in the top board, end-supported changer shaft, neck and stop-plate at bottom of changer fingers, and as I modified the setup for even more pedal-pull it became a problem that I couldn't always tune out while playing.
This was one of the flaws that made me go for a rigid, floating, neck that carried all pull-load, instead of just spreading the load over a wider area at the bridge-end as is done in most steels.

I chose not to add support for the shaft between the individual changers, as that would make the changer construction heavier and affect the tone in a way I did not want in that most sensitive area. Instead I took the old shaft to a workshop specializing in engine parts, and they machined a new shaft that would break before bending at all, at loads more than 100 times the maximum load put on it by a steel guitar.

That just to mention a few problems I have noticed that some steelers experience with their instruments. How to solve them will differ from brand to brand, version to version. I'm sure many have ideas about and experience in how to solve them and improve on the instruments' performance.

Barry Hyman · From: upstate New York, USA

I am starting to think that ALL pedal steel guitarists are crazy, not just me. The guy who adds window putty at strategic places on his is TRULY crazy! 95% of the sound of any stringed instrument is in your fingers. People who deny this should think about how they pick, what they pick with, where they pick, what angle they pick at, what material their picks are made of, how hard they pick, what plane they get the strings vibrating in, etc. Any steel will sound good if you play it right. Maybe starter steels should come with meds for obsessive compulsive disorder?
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Pat Comeau · From: New Brunswick, Canada

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Barry, there's no window putty in my steel, only a couple of pounds extra aluminum - in very strategic places Smile

However, putty, and other materials that are easy to remove, have their uses when one is debugging an instrument and trying to isolate its weaknesses and flaws. The point is: solutions used temporarily during testing, must "come off" again so the instrument is returned to its previous state - completely.
Only when all testing is completed, problems are pin-pointed and permanent solutions are found and thoroughly tested, should one do any real modifications to an instrument.

So; the putty did its job - and left Smile

You can neither add sustain nor timbre to an instrument by playing it. You can only get out what's really there to begin with. A good instrument responds by giving you more of what you're after when you ask for it - play it right for a particular sound or whatever. A weaker instrument can give some - if you ask nicely, but its limitations and weaknesses will shine through no matter how good you are.

I have this personal preference for clean, slightly bright, sound, but I also wanted an instrument that can swell and scream a bit without having to use volume pedal, effect units and amp-settings, and become a little diffuse when that's called for. That's all in my hands.

Neither the Jackson or the GFI Ultra - which are the brands I know something about and which I think will outdo my old, converted, Dekley on most points, were around back then, and the other brands available at the time didn't quite convince me that they were all that much better - for me - than my unsupported Dekley. So instead of buying a new one and chase for "the right" sound, I gave my old Dekley more of what it already had of what I wanted, and took away some of its limitations and weaknesses in the process.

It still sings exactly as I want it to when I ask for it - even after having been left to rust on my local scrapheap for a few years when my interest in music were at an all time low. Even if I buy a new steel one of these days - of one of the above mentioned brands, my old Dekley will have its place and probably outlive the new one.

I've come to the conclusion that you really can't keep a good steel down - at least not for long...

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Donny, I do not disagree with anything you're saying. It's all in the musician's hands and feet, and most importantly: in the musician's mind.
The best musicians will will get most out of any instrument, simply because they know how to.

However, regardless of the musician; the instrument has to be able to deliver if it should ever be heard by others, and it is this ability of an instrument to "deliver on demand" I'm focusing on.

If I thought the ShoBud LDG would make me sound like Lloyd Green, I would have bought one back then. I didn't consider it, as I knew the model itself wouldn't make enough of a difference.

The pedal steel guitar is still very much "in development". One one hand I'm interested in what various manufacturers do to make new models better. On the other hand I'm interested in how we can take some of the progress made today and retrofit, modify and fix some of the old workhorses that have to deliver on stages and elsewhere almost daily so they can take advantage of new knowledge, become better instruments, and deliver more.

Some of this, like replacing the changer shaft in some of the old steels to a higher quality one that doesn't bend under stress - causing detuning when pedals are activated, might be useful for some. Other comments on this thread about what may affect the sound positively or negatively, may be useful to others.

I don't have many definite answers. I have after all only studied acoustic qualities in instruments as a hobby for 40 years, and the steel sound in only a few models/brands for 20 years or so. So I'm grateful for all input I get on the subject in this thread and can dig up elsewhere. Thanks all.

Paul Arntson · From: Washington, USA

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is a graphic equalizer. I have started experimenting with one and it gives a lot of flexibility in the sound.
I found it easier than modifying the guitar itself.
Mostly I was using it to compensate for the overwound pickups' rolling off the high end.
Also to slightly change the natural resonant point of the sound.

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