Who has the most stable mechanical design right now?

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 16 Oct 2023 3:38 pm

Bob is right that rigidity is not the answer unless you sacrifice tone, and who wants to do that? Besides, "cabinet drop" is a catch-all term that includes all the other components that determine the eventual pitch of the strings, and they're all elastic to some degree.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 16 Oct 2023 6:28 pm

William James wrote:
The essence of genius is knowing what to overlook.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 16 Oct 2023 11:47 pm

Sorting the wheat from the chaff, of which this topic produces plenty.

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 18 Oct 2023 7:51 am

Another crop for the combine’s separator is perfect pitch. Players with this affliction are no doubt more disturbed by smaller imperfections in pedal steel guitar tuning than those without it. One way of compensating for it may be more stylistic than mechanical. Just avoid the 5-note chords and play only single notes and dyads.

I have found my relatively new Williams 700 to be pretty darn stable. -3c in AB mode

Landon Johnson · Post by **Landon Johnson** » 22 Oct 2023 7:52 pm

Bob Hoffnar wrote: If you truly learn the neck and get your ears and hands together cabinet drop can act in your favor depending on your approach to tuning.

Agreed. When I was a bassoonist in a prior life, it was understood that intonation was all in the embouchure. It's the same with the steel - I find that as I play a specific instrument awhile, it almost seems to intonate all by itself! Nonsense, yes; it's my muscle memory adapting to the different set of math equations brough forth by the different physical characteristics of imperfections.

J D Sauser · Post by **J D Sauser** » 22 Oct 2023 10:44 pm

We experience “cabinet drop”-detuning not because of changing strin tension, but because the pedals stop somewhere in the cabinet and the player’s footbon the pedals thus pulls down on the body. It doesn’t mather wether it’s an AllPull, PP, keyed or keyless, all aluminum, part aluminum or all wood.

This is why, unless you have a real lousy contraption of a steel guitar, we don’t experience that undesirable phenomenon with knee levers, but exoerience it more with pedala closer to the center of the guitar.

Only if the frame holding the cross-shafts and pedal hook ups, was separated from the soundboard, so that it wouldn’t rely that down-defirmation to the sound board.

Some guitars have metal rails running from end plate to endplate, others bolted and few even welded frames supporting the sound-board, the stronger and more stable, the lesser the effect. Still, most PSG builders continue to bolt their sound board to the frame… the only current exception known to me would be the new Sierra.

… JD.

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 23 Oct 2023 6:04 am

JD said it. If you don't believe it, allow some knucklehead lean on your guitar to talk to you while you're trying to tune it. The structure of the chassis makes a big difference.

Michael Hill · Post by **Michael Hill** » 23 Oct 2023 8:42 pm

New Sierra has been extremely stable for me. I don't experience the same tuning issues I had with a GFI Ultra.

I've tried all the tuning schemes and compensators. I ended up using equal temperament on the New Sierra. No need for compensators or workarounds or chord voicings to avoid. It works great for me. YMMV