The Steel Guitar Forum

I've had some luck with a simple modification to my changer tubes that some here might find useful. The mod appears to have increased both tuning stability and change smoothness (on my mica MSA S-10 Classic).

I chucked the tubes in a lathe and turned them while putting a radius on the outer edge that goes closest to the changer with a hand file. Then I reinstalled the tubes (with a little grease at the changer end). Now as the rod is pulled against the changer fingers the area of contact between the changer tube and the finger moves smoothly around the end of the tube rather than teetering on the squarish outside edge as it otherwise would. This makes the changer end of the tube work more like a bearing than an edge.


(Drawing not to scale)

I'm a newb. Perhaps this is a standard feature on modern PSGs. All I know is my MSA and this seems to have improved it for very little effort.

You hit on a good thing here. The 'square' corners will mush over in time and you'll find yourself re-tuning pulls for no apparent reason probably thinking something else is wrong with the guitar. A .015"/.020" radius on those bushings is the answer.
PRR