The Steel Guitar Forum

The Denley used a cast aluminum pedal bar, with integral feet, 60 years ahead of its time

Stu Schulman wrote:New Desert Rose attachment

My EXCEL has a similar arrangement and I love it.

My Franklin had a sliding L shaped plate and wing nut. 38+ years and I never had a problem with that method.

I wouldn't want one with the fixed bolt thru leg hole method.

I could never tighten the L-plate on my old BMI to lock out all slippage. I always feared eventually snapping off the bolt or stripping the nut. My solution, finally, was effective -- I contact cemented a piece of 300 grit sandpaper to the flat surface of the plate. It has worked flawlessly. I have zero interest in whether it mars the lower leg.

That Denley may be a similar approach to the Marrs at the top of page 1 of this thread. Can't quite see.

The bolt thru the hole in the leg works fine if it is a two-piece leg. Any alignment problems with the hole and the bolt can be rectified by loosening the leg clutch and rotating the skinny leg piece. A GS-10 I recently worked on had a one-piece leg and the hole didn't line up if the leg was snugly screwed in. The only way to line it up was to unscrew the leg a hair, leaving it loose & wobbly. I don't know if this was the result of improperly drilled holes or of long term wear on the threads of the legs resulting in requiring that tiny bit of extra rotation (this is my suspicion). The root problem in this scenario is the one piece leg.

My only complaint about the otherwise-excellent Zum Encore was this very issue. Doug did find me some much nicer wing-nuts that had an ergonomic rubber grommet instead of the standard wing-nut. It was easier to attach but I still disliked locating the threaded part through the hole in the leg - it always seemed to be abusing the thread and I feared it would get damaged eventually. Someone else mentioned the tendency for the pedal-bar to swing out widly should you lose your grip on it during set-up.

That new MSA fitting looks the best of all to my eyes.

My Emmons has the standard flap-assembly that slides over the leg once it's in place. The problem with that method is that the only thing stopping the bar from descending to the floor (under pressure from my left foot) is the rubber ferrule on the bottom of the legs! These wear and eventually perish and I'm a bit lazy about looking for a new set as often as I should.

I'm mostly just noodling here at home these days so the problem isn't quite so pressing. I must say, though, that there seems to have been a great deal of clever thought in many of MSA's new features.

Can you guys post pictures of your leg to pedal bar attachment. Got a new Zum Encore and going to manufacture a better way to attach it. Don't need Emmons or the new MSA pictures.

Simple way I choose on my build.
Drill wholes in pedal board.
An while your at it make your pedals adjustable.

MSA probably the best system"!!

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Richard that's cool skeleton your right that guy was ahead of his time.

I now own the Marrs guitar pictured at the head of this post; it's a dream and Jon Light set it up really nice, before I got it.
The pedal bar arrangement definitely adds to the stability of the guitar; the trick is lining up the legs into the holes just right, to slide them all the way down, smoothly.
Before that, I had a very old MSA S10 Classic style with the more traditional screw-thru-the-leg attachment method; no comparison, and not as sturdy.

My 70's MSA Classic has the holes through the legs and wingnuts fasten it all together. Not the best/easiest to set up! I much prefer the sliding plate action on my old Fender 1000. Though, you really need to crank the plate down to keep it on there.

I sold my ETS but always liked how the pedal bar attached to the legs . Similar to the standard sliding plate on Emmons etc but a nylon block slid inside an aluminium extrusion .

Stu S, how does Chuck Backs way actually clamp? By screwing the rubber foot up against the bottom of the pedal bar? Ron

Johnie King wrote:MSA probably the best system"!!

Yes...until one of those tiny screws breaks! One other thing I'll note here is that my own MSA developed a squeak, which I was certain came from underneath. After hours and hours of checking and oiling, it turned out the screws on the leg-clamps had worked loose, and the noise was telegraphing up the leg into the cabinet. That was an infuriating lesson, for sure.

As for ease of use, the old Fender rounded "swinging plate" was the best; hands down.