Half Stop Feel Accuracy

Allen Merrell · Post by **Allen Merrell** » 30 Apr 2023 11:53 am

I am no professional or even close but l really like the setup Doug Earnest uses on the Encore to me it has a great positive feel.

Michael Hill · Post by **Michael Hill** » 4 May 2023 8:16 pm

Thanks to everyone who responded here!

Happy ending is, I discovered my pedal steel, a Ross Sierra, comes with one of those spring loaded adjusters. I was able to fiddle with this and get my half stop feel stiff enough to stop my overshooting problem. Awesome!!!

Here's a pic

Ross Shafer · Post by **Ross Shafer** » 5 May 2023 9:37 am

Glad you got it dialed Michael!

David Martin · Post by **David Martin** » 16 May 2023 5:56 pm

When I bought John Hughey's LeGrange III, he had the 2nd string lower to C# on RKL and D lower on L2KL. I found it to work very well as a split.. no 1/2 stop.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 17 May 2023 7:00 am

Pete Burak wrote:
Fred Treece wrote:The D#-C# change is the coolest thing ever.
My findings were different. I know there's a cool Emmons-split lick associated with it, but it's not worth the half-stop feel issue on the D, during my gigs.
I'd rather use a slant to get that note.
With that said, I would always like to see some vids of other cool string-2-C# licks if anyone has some!

My feelings were similar, a half-stop is difficult to do accurately on a quick move, so I have the “D” change on one lever and the “C#” change on another lever. Best of both worlds!

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 22 May 2023 4:49 pm

Over many years I've learned 2 things about half-stops. You can feel the halfway point better with the inside of your thigh than the outside. And secondly, it's much easier to fineness the halfway point on a half-stop raise than a half-stop lower. Therefore I layout my guitar accordingly and have my second string tuned open to C# and raise it to D# with a half-stop at D and I have it on inside RKL. I can do all the nornal stuff, its just a different impulse which took 2 weeks to get used to. It also gives you some moves you can't do smoothly and fast on a normal setup. I also pull my 6th string up a whole step with a half-stop on inside LKR (I play a U12 w/8p+9k) and that lever is quite useful in B6 mode.

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 22 May 2023 5:13 pm

Those are great ideas, Michael.
I have a whole step raise of strings 7 and 1 on LKR, and a half step raise of them on the vertical. Seems like a waste of hardware after reading your post, since I could just put a half stop on the LKL. That knee also raises string 2 D# to E, so I would have to time the half stop. Not sure about how that would work if open string 2 was to tuned C#.