Keyless Steels Pros and Cons

[Joey Ace]

A Roller Nut is not necessary on keyless.
My GFI has a solid bar for the nut.

[John Billings]

Joey,
I've often thought that the reason Kline used rollers was so that he could "gauge" them for the different strings. A playability issue on the first few positions.

[Scott Howard]

I would have to that with gauged roller it is a plus at the lower frets. So far I have bought all keyless tuners with gauged rollers for my conversions .

I am in the middle of another MSA conversion to keyless and just have no desire for another keyed guitar. This one uses a Lamar tuner and I like it the best of what I have seen so far. With the compact design I will be able to extend the scale to 25" inch and still have a guitar over 5 inches shorter than it was new .

[Rick Winfield]

I like Chuck S. take on "sounding different"
I think we all need our own "fingerprint", no matter what our influences or aspirations.
Just IMHO
Rick

[b0b]

The problem with the Sierra Session uni is that unless you load the string as tight as can ( within a tone of the required note ) then you will run out of adjustment as the thumb screws are quite short.

I seem to remember that mine had longer screws in the back row to handle the full travel of the finger. Maybe they changed over the years. I bet Sierra's Tom Baker has some longer ones in a parts bin. Give him a call.

[George Kimery]

I have had a 1968 Emmons PP, then a Kline U-12 Keyless, now a 1974 Emmons Ext. E-9 PP. I liked the keyless tuning much better. I was able to tune down to a note as well as up to a note. You can't get any simpler in mechanics that just grabbing a string and pulling, like a tug of war. Going around a peg and having gears to deal with just complicates things, mechanically speaking. KISS Keep it simple stupid applies, I think. It is just what you get used to. I would never turn down a guitar because of whether it was keyed or keyless. Both work fine.

[Scott Howard]

George
I would not turn one down because it was keyed either. But it might be keyless before I got done with it.

I also think keyless is just easier to use .

[Gil Berry]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the fact that with a keyless guitar you are able to get a longer scale length while keeping the same string diameters and tuning. On my Sierra (a 25-inch scale) this means, at least to my ear, much greater sustain and ability to hit harmonics much easier than with my keyed Sierra (which I think is a 24 1/2 inch scale), MSA (I think it's a 24 1/4 inch scale), or Baggett Custom (same scale length as MSA). Of course, this isn't really apples-to-apples comparison, but I think the biggest difference in the guitars I own is that scale length, and the Keyless Sierra makes me sound better than I really am.

That Kline device looks really nice!

[Scott Howard]

Gil

Bill Stafford covered several of these point in a thread about scale length.


http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 5&start=25

I am going to a 25" on my MSA and shortened it over 5 inches . So I agree with you and hope the long scale does make a difference.