Why keyless?

[ed packard]

PB; I also change the rod from raising lowering the D# to D, to raising the C# to D.

[Bill Cutright]

My take on why 99% of the "pros" prefer a keyed steel: It's simple - There isn't a keyless that has the tone they're looking for. (Or, there's some other feature of an available model that they don't care for enough that keeps them from using one)
BE no longer plays his. I'd, also ask: Why didn't Reece put one on the Millenium?
(P.S. Thanks, Scott, for clearing up my misconceptions, surrounding axial defrostation and string length)

[Eric West]

Hysteresis.

That was my thought exactly. This from one of my "college" texts:

"Physicists in the US usually hear about hysteresis first in their sophomore or junior year. The magnetization of the tape lags behind the field from the tape head - so when the field drops to zero, the tape stays magnetized, storing the music.

[hysteresis loop]

In your thermodynamics course, you derive that the area inside the hysteresis loop equals the work done in the cycle. You also may have heard that supercooled water was another example of hysteresis: hysteresis is characteristic of first-order phase transitions.

You likely won't hear about hysteresis again in your courses. It was an unpopular subject for decades. Experimentalists generally tried to get rid of it, so they could get publishable equilibrium data. Theorists cringed from thinking about non-equilibrium, dirty materials with long-range elastic or magnetic forces. But styles change: dirt and non-equilibrium are now a major focus of research in physics. "

Yup. That would explain it..

BWAAHHAHAHAHAHA.

(Sorry, I jes' couldn't 'hep it )

I suppose one gets overtones, or perhaps undertones from the additional span, and indeed the middle strongs would take a longer pull.

I always thought it was a gimmick, but then like my Grandpa used to say. "You gotta have a gimmick."

I'm waiting for a quick connect hydraulic 8 tube wet line to eliminate the "behind bars" effect of the pedal rods. It's actually an idea that would make a "Git-Steel" a viable instrument. Bad part is that "we" would no longer be able to sit on our butts and check out the lead singers' panty line. ( Or in Larry's Case, with his mini bandstand, his/her rear hairline)

Graphite fiber is one thing. Keylessness is OK. I just hope it doesn't go too far.

Now those undertones have got me spooked..

[John Billings]

I used to have a Bud Pro double neck. My band was doing an audition for Ponderosa Park, and some guy walked in with a tenor sax case. I wondered what he was doing in a hardcore country band. He opened his sax case, and out came a Kline single 12! I was dumbfounded and intrigued. A month later I bought one, and have been very happy. Stays in tune forever, fast string changes, and wonderful tone. Felt like I got out of a Pinto and stepped into a Rolls.
Oh, yeah! Got the Ponderosa gig. Opened for Loretta. John Hughey was playing. I was in heaven. He was pretty interested in my guitar.

[Jim Bob Sedgwick]

Just a thought: If the palm of the left hand is lying on the string behind the bar, how can any so called overtones get past the damped part of the strings behind the bar. BTW, I play a Williams keyless (have for 18 years) This guitar detunes less than 1 cent. I can't even hear a one cent drop. No compensators. The guitar is shorter, therby stronger. Nuff said. Play what you like, Like what you play.

[Frank Parish]

Jim,
I'm playing an old 72 Sho-Bud and there is zero cabinet.

[Jim Bob Sedgwick]

Frank, Until the inception of this forum, I never worried about cabinet drop (still don't). I started on Sho-Bud (Pro-I). Since I had never heard of cabinet drop, I don't know if it had it or not, but it sure did Clank good (undercarriage noise).

[Frank Parish]

I started on a Pro-I as well. I never knew what cabinet drop was until I read about here.