First Post - Need Advice (And plenty of it)

Kevin Cook · Post by **Kevin Cook** » 7 Jul 2005 11:15 pm

Greetings,

I decided to try to learn this pedal steel (MSA Sidekick) at least enough to try to put some simple tracks down occasionally here in the studio. I'm on my 3rd night of working on this. I have a beginner VHS tape (Tim McCasland I believe) that has me started fairly well) but I think I messed it up tonight.

I decided to tweek the tuning a little and now it sounds terrible. The more I work at it the worse it gets. I have the owners manual on this Sidekick and I tried to follow the instructions but it just gets worse. I can't seem to figure out where the pedal stop screw is. The diagram isn't detailed enough. Pedal 3 is not raising strings 4 and 5 a full step. The knee lever lowers the 8th string a half step (still out of tune though) but the 4th doesn't change.

I guess I will start the whole procedure again but I don't know where the pedal stop screw is. Anybody have a picture to point me to?

Thank you kindly for your help.

Best Regards,
Kevin Cook

Bill Beall · Post by **Bill Beall** » 8 Jul 2005 4:18 am

Welcome, Kevin,

Yoiu have just entered the best source of information for all things steel that there could ever possibly be. Great bunch of people here with no big I's and little you's.

Are you any relation to Hank Cook in Misssissippi? I used to know a Kevin Cook and lost track of him, just wondering if you are the same KC. He used to sing some with his brother, Lee.

Pat Dawson · Post by **Pat Dawson** » 8 Jul 2005 4:33 am

Though I'm not familiar with your PSG, Bill is right. You've come to the right place. Welcome. I'm still trying to understand the mechanics of my old Emmons P/P D10 after 4 years of learning. There are some real good threads here on tuning that will keep you from going completely loony and chasing your tail trying to get it right.

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1970 Emmons D10
Nashville 1000

Roy Ayres · Post by **Roy Ayres** » 8 Jul 2005 5:56 am

Are you sure it's the pedal stops you need to adjust? On most pedal steels, the long hexagonal nylon nuts at the right end of the guitar are used to tune the pedals. Look at the group of nylon nuts while you press a pedal or knee lever and see which one moves. Once you have all of the strings in tune with no pedals or knee levers engaged, locate the correct tuning nut, hold the pedal down and adjust the nut until the string is in tune with the pedal down. You should have a small "tuning wrench" which fits the hex nuts. If not, you can use a regular nut driver. I hope I am interpreting your problem correctly and have not confused the issur more. Perhaps someone else can give you some more authoritative advice.

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Dick Wood · Post by **Dick Wood** » 8 Jul 2005 6:07 am

Hi Kevin and welcome to the forum.

If you live near the Dallas/Ft.Worth area I would be glad to help you in whatever way, be it adjusting your guitar or a lesson or two.

Let me know.

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Cops aren't paid much so I steel at night.

Dave Grafe · Post by **Dave Grafe** » 8 Jul 2005 9:20 am

Hi Kevin,

The MSA Sidekick is a "student model" guitar and most of them have odd tuning procedures relative to the pro units. I am not familiar with this particular guitar, but until someone with knowledge of the Sidekick comes along you can try two things here on the forum that may get you the answers you seek:

First, do a couple of searches for posts in both the "Pedal Steel" and "Steel Players" forum archives for the text "Sidekick" and you should ba able to find any previous posts on the subject.

Second, re-post your query in the "Pedal Steel" forum (the right place for discussion of instruments, mechanical issues, tunings, techniques, etc.) with a topic such as "Sidekick Tuning Trouble" and you will attract the attention of someone who CAN help you much more quickly. There's lots of folks here who are ready to help with problems like this, most of us older pickers never had any help at all and know what it's like.

Good luck, keep it set up all the time and at least touch it every day and you are sure to enjoy your brave new world -- dg[This message was edited by Dave Grafe on 08 July 2005 at 10:27 AM.]

Kevin Cook · Post by **Kevin Cook** » 8 Jul 2005 1:01 pm

Thank you all so much for your replies and the hearty welcome to the forum. I suspect that I will be turning to this online community for guidance quite frequently.

My kinfolk in Mississippi are Kingsley's. I only remember playing once in Columbus, Mississippi and a miltary base somewhere along the coast.

I'll look at the mechanism some more tonight. Thanks for the heads up on posting in the right area for more responses. I got in a little hurry last night and did not scroll down far enough. The tip on searching is great. I'm in the process of doing the search right now.

Dick, I live about 3 1/2 hours drive from the DFW area. I have a new set of strings on order. When they come in in a few days maybe I should drive over when you get time. I feel that it would be a good start if I could spend a couple of hours with someone who knows what they are doing. Maybe you could help me put the strings on, check out the set up, and then give me some pointers to start me out right. This instrument can be frustrating enough to learn without mechanical tuning matters complicating matters. Email me if you are still interested and we can work out the details.

Thanks again. I appreciate all you wonderful folks and your willingness to help.

Best Regards,
Kevin

Roy Ayres · Post by **Roy Ayres** » 8 Jul 2005 3:35 pm

Kevin,

That's ironic. I was born in Columbus, Mississippi and played steel with a band called the "Midsouth Ramblers" on radio station WCBI in about 1944. Small world, eh?

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Visit my Web Site at RoysFootprints.com
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Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 8 Jul 2005 5:34 pm

Kevin. Welcome and the best to you in your learning endeavors on the pedal steel. I don't have any knowledge of the guitar you have but I just wanted to tell you that one of the most important things you can learn about your PSG is the adjustment of all the mechanics of it. This comes with the territory. The more you learn about how your guitar works the more music you can make with it as you will be able to set it up for the max it can give you in tuning and in playing ease.