70's MSA knee levers set up

Greg Moring · Post by **Greg Moring** » 7 May 2023 6:43 pm

Does anyone have suggestions for knee lever set up on this guitar. attached is a MSA set up page. I want to add left and right knee levers. I have a MSA semi classic 10 string. Thanks!Picture file

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 8 May 2023 5:51 am

Standard MSA E9 setup on levers in those days was this-

Right knee right > Lowers both E strings 1/2 tone

Right knee left <Raises> Lowers 2nd string /12 tone and then full tone in 2 steps with feel stop.

Left knee left < Raises strings 1 and 7 1/2 tone..

it doesn't matter what the factory put on it, not many use this setup these days.. I would put on what is best for you...

Greg Moring · Post by **Greg Moring** » 8 May 2023 12:13 pm

Thanks Bob for the info. What is " 2 stops with feel stop". Any recommends for the second LKL?
Greg

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 8 May 2023 6:35 pm

The second string on E9 is Eb.. On the old MSA guitars the lever that lowered that string was the left knee lever that moves to the right. It lowered in 2 steps.. You push the lever with your knee and it goes down to a D note, and hits what we refer to as a "feel stop".. This is the D note.. You press harder past the feel stop and the note lowers further down to Db/C#, where it meets a solid stop and lowers no further,,, Best way to figure out a feel stop is to activate the lever by hand and see how it operates.. First stop to D is not solid, as its done by spring and string tension but you can certainly feel it, thats how its designed.. Second stop is solid feeling as its a hard mechanical stop . You'll understand better once you feel and hear one...

Tommy Mc · Post by **Tommy Mc** » 9 May 2023 4:13 pm

Greg Moring wrote:Thanks Bob for the info. What is " 2 stops with feel stop". Any recommends for the second LKL?
Greg

It's pretty standard these days to have LKL raise your E's to F on strings 4 and 8. This makes ergonomic sense because it's so often combined with the A pedal, and your leg will already be somewhat leaning to the left.

The same reasoning applies to lowering your E's on LKR, but if you're used to that change on RKR, you might want to leave that the way it is. The other changes that Bob listed were pretty standard, and still make sense.