How do PSGs work?

[Ray Minich]

Please don't be too hard on us b0b... it's a frustrating question to answer, satisfactorily, given that, like neuroscience or turbomachinery, a complex issue cannot be distilled down to a simple sentence yet be comprehensive.

For the easiest answer to the question asked, may I recommend searching for a copy of Winnie Winston's book on the pedal steel guitar. Pages 111 and 112 provide a great description. There are several images in the book that describe the basics of push-pull versus all-pull.

I will try to scan the images and post them if we can agree to the "fair use" doctrine...

[chris ivey]

thanks ray, that's what i should have said.

[Rex Thomas]

Hi, Jason.

Reading your reply, I'm going to take a swing at this since it appears like you're just trying to get a basic idea how the guitar works.

Having owned/played both all pull & push pull, here goes:

Your Super Pro is an all pull. Yes, press the pedal, string tightens. Now, for the guitar to lower the string, at the changer (behind the pickup, not known as a bridge, but same idea) the changer "finger" (that the string sits on) is more/less joined in the middle & acts sort of like a scissors for lack of better description. Looking where the rods have the nylon/plastic ends for tuning the pedals, push a pedal or knee lever to raise, top part of the finger pushes in to raise the string. Push a pedal/kl to lower, bottom part of the finger pulls out to lower the string. Though you're reading "push/pull" now, the reason yours is an "all pull" gtr is because looking up from the pedal at the cross rod where the bell cranks hold the pull rods, all the cranks pull. The lowering action happens at the changer finger.

Though push/pull is a little more complex as to how it gets the job done (IMO), the concept is similar only that each finger can be thought of as having like 2 "sub" fingers with one for raising & one for lowering. Then looking up from the pedal to the cross rod, you'll see this "double headed" bell crank. When the pedal/kl is pressed, one "head" pulls out to raise a changer finger, the other pushes in to lower a changer finger.

And if you've never owned a push/pull guitar, I'd say they tune up (almost) backwards compared to an all pull guitar like yours. Your gtr; tune the strings at the tuning keys, tune the pedals with the nylon nuts at the change end. Push/Pull; been a few years, but I know you tune the raises on the pedals/knees with the tuning keys, then go back & tune the open strings on the changer end. Yikes. Guys: Do the lowers tune like an all pull? (open strs with the keys, lowers at changer end?)

IMO, your guitar is easiest to understand, especially if you're looking at it for the 1st or so time as a guitar player.

Ray's right in that Winnie's book will nail it down for you.

Just trying to help/be a blessing/c.: both.

[Gil Berry]

On a very basic level, Jason, changes to the note of an individual string can be altered by moving the bar up and down a string (lengthening or shortening the effective length of the string)just like any other fretted instrument. The note can also be changed by tightening or loosening an individual string to change the tension on that string and thus the note it generates. The trick with pedal guitars is to effect multiple changes on multiple strings to change the chord when specific string groups are played. Unlike a piano, for instance, where there is only one place to play a "middle C"...or any other note for that matter, the pedal guitar may be able to hit a specific note in a dozen or more places by altering string selection, bar position, and/or string tension. It can be very confusing at first, but like any anything else, enough practice and much of the playing becomes muscle memory and you begin to think in terms of chord progression rather than how to make a specific chord...

[Tom Gorr]

I think I recall seeing San animation comparing all pull to push pull on the Carter website....more maintained by Steel Guitars of Canada

[Brint Hannay]

Here's a link to an animation of how an all-pull changer like that on your Super Pro works:

https://www.steelguitar.com/maps/changer.html#

Click on the "Riveted changer raising" and "Riveted changer lowering" links. When a pedal or lever is pushed, the part (called a "bell crank") underneath the guitar that is attached to the rod leading to the changer swings away from the changer, pulling on the rod. The way the changer parts are attached to each other means where that pull rod is attached--i.e. to which part--determines whether the pulling of the rod causes a raise of pitch (increase of string tension) or a lower (reduction of string tension). But whether raise or lower, the rod is always pulling on the changer. Hence, "all-pull".

Here's a link to an animation of how a push-pull changer works. Scroll down the page to see the animation:

http://www.melmusic.com/laceyj/guide.html

Note the sort of S-shaped part at the left that swivels. It swivels around its center when a pedal or lever is pushed, rather than just swinging away from the changer. The bottom of the S swivels away from the changer, and the top of the S swivels toward the changer. So the bottom of the S pulls a rod away from the changer, whereas the top of the S pushes toward the changer--hence, "push-pull".

[Charlie McDonald]

Instead of tightening the string with the tuner, the pedal tightens the string?

I think you have the basic idea, same as a pedal on a concert harp to raise or a guitar with a tremolo bar for a lower lever.
All-pull has double-acting (double jointed) finger that is easy to envision looking under your steel to verify that it works but is not so obvious how.

If I'm close, I would assume it is the opposite for a push mechanism?

It's the same principle, a compound action at the crosshaft rather than in the changer. It was easier to conceive originally;
the all-pull is more refined. To study Lane's all-pull changer finger diagram, you have to envision more than the drawing can show--
the separate planes of the two finger pieces joined side by side at an axle/pivot.
Bearing in mind that the finger is held by the spring at the bottom, pulling its lower joint moves its camshaft head at the axle,
allowing the raise finger to reverse its rotation and relax the string, which acts as the raise return spring.

'It's not rocket science, it's harder than rocket science.'--Steve Robinson, astronaut, in a video posted by John Booth
http://www.steelguitarmovie.com/preview

I personally like

They don't work, they are lazier than hell.

I'd explain why that's funny, but it wouldn't be as funny.

[Jason Bergeron]

Thank you all for the replies! I have a much better understanding now