Why do we have shaky steels?

Tommy Mc · Post by **Tommy Mc** » 23 Nov 2014 6:54 am

John Booth wrote: Here's the Fender PS-210 that does a similar thing

Anybody else looking at that photo and thinking "ouch"?

John Booth · Post by **John Booth** » 23 Nov 2014 7:22 am

Yea,
It occurred to me that could be dangerous

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 23 Nov 2014 10:40 am

It's not just pedal steels that have shakey bodies. Watch any video of Jerry Byrd playing a console steel on legs and you see the same thing. I've often wondered if the motion of the guitar body improves the tone of the playing, as it imparts an automatic tremolo into the playing.

I remember in the days when tape echo units were popular, one favourite trick was to slip a short length of rubber tube over the drive shaft. This introduced a slight wobble to the rotation and created a fast "wow" effect.

John Booth · Post by **John Booth** » 23 Nov 2014 1:51 pm

Alan Brookes wrote:It's not just pedal steels that have shakey bodies. Watch any video of Jerry Byrd playing a console steel on legs and you see the same thing. I've often wondered if the motion of the guitar body improves the tone of the playing, as it imparts an automatic tremolo into the playing.

I remember in the days when tape echo units were popular, one favourite trick was to slip a short length of rubber tube over the drive shaft. This introduced a slight wobble to the rotation and created a fast "wow" effect.

Yeah, In the old days we did a lot of cool stuff to record music.
I remember having an engineer wiggle his finger over the recording tape while I was being recorded,

gave a great Phase Shifter effect.

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 23 Nov 2014 4:14 pm

Some interesting ideas! I think the oversized pedal bar is the easiest fix that won't change the aesthetics. I should probably note that my Sierra steel legs do not screw in like the majority of steels but rather slip in and lock in place with a short cam type lever.
But I've experienced this on an Emmons and a Carter also.
And my original reason for this post was because I was noticing the same movement on several pro steelers youtube videos. Of course it didn't seem to bother them or interfere one bit!

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 23 Nov 2014 5:24 pm

Tony Palmer wrote:...I was noticing the same movement on several pro steelers youtube videos. Of course it didn't seem to bother them or interfere one bit!

No, it probably added to their tone.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 12 Dec 2014 9:36 am

I thought about the wobble problem for a bit and decided to try something. Here is my home-built guitar with conventional wing nuts. There is nothing to maintain the right angle except the friction between the pedal bar and the leg.

So I attached some pieces of channel. Aluminium has not gone metric over here yet (thank Goodness) so 1" channel fits snugly over 3/4" square.

It's made some difference, but mostly it's highlighted that the back legs are the weak link, as they have no bracing at all and take more force from the knees. Not too pretty, but not a total waste of an hour, either.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 12 Dec 2014 11:37 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yRdDnrB5kM
...now if we could design a fitting to induce shaking, maybe we would all have better tone.