The Steel Guitar Forum

Anybody got any suggestions for adding a momentary switch on a double 8 Stringmaster? My Stringmaster is the version with the push button switches for neck selection, so I can't get the Speedy West skittering sound that you can get by jiggling the neck selector switch on a Dual Professional. I've heard that Speedy used a door bell button to get that effect, and there is a Dual Professional on Ebay right now that has a door bell button installed, so I figure someone out there has got to know how to do it. I love the sound of my Stringmaster and would rather modify it than sell it and get a Dual Professional. Help me out guys, thanks!

I put one on a guitar once; very simple. Just wire the "doorbell" switch (SPST normally open) so that when it's pressed it connects the "hot" output to the ground. Don't wire it so it intermittently breaks the hot connection unless you want a staticky, noisy sound.

For a non-invasive mod,replace your volume pot with a push/push(not a push/pull)switching pot and remove the latching spring which keeps the pot down until the 2nd push.With no latching spring,the pot won't stay down and will pop back up as soon as you remove downward pressure - just like a doorbell button. Then wire it up do short out the output jack when pushed down and throw the stock Stringmaster knob on there.For the Speedy West gag just hit a 6th chord gliss and tap the volume knob with the side of your hand. I have it on both my Stringmasters and it works real well and looks totally stock.

The Boo~Wah Box on this site can be custom~redesigned to work on a stringmaster with it's recessed output-jack, at a slight extra cost.

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“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
Current Equipment

Michael, I love the idea of using a push push pot instead of a doorbell button. Any Ideas on who carries them? It seems like the only ones I've been able to locate don't have the latching spring you speak of.

You're thinking of the more common push/pull which has no spring and that wouldn't work for this application cause you couldn't work it up and down fast enough or easy enough.They have to have the spring and latching clip or they're not a push/push switching pot.You push it down and it stays down - you push it again and it unlatches and comes up. By taking out the clip it wants to stay up and becomes a spring loaded momentary on or off depending on how you wire it up. The last time I bought one of those was about a year ago.I got it from Performance Guitars in Hollywood and Kenny said then they were getting hard to come by.I think it was about $15. Yamaha also makes them and I have one of those in my G&L ASAT but I left the clip in that one so it stays down and use it to split my SD mini humbuckers. The push/push works better in that configuration too than a push/pull because you don't have to stop picking to grip it and pull it up - you just tap it each time w/the heel of your hand.

Its, funny that this effect, is always linked to Speedy, he never used it,what he did was bar crash at a very rapid speed up and down the neck.
Al Petty and, Vance Terry did use the interupter button and if you listen to there 50s recordings, its a very exciting and valid effect.
By the way if you try this and, find your hearing a pop when the signal is engaged, get a non polarised electralitic cap, 50mfd or so and put that inline with the ground that will soak up the discharge pop that your hearing.
I was messing around with this for along time wondering why i couldnt make it noiseless, then one day I was at Paul Warnicks, house checking out Vances Bigsby and there it was the answer, PA had this big old film and foil cap in there.
Lee

Hey everyone, this is great! Thanks for all the info, I'm going to go with installing a push push pot in the volume pot, that seems like the best idea. Ordered one yesterday, hopefully will have it some time next week and will have it up and running soon after. Michael I may email you if I have trouble wiring it up correctly, although I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to do it correctly. And lee, thanks for the tip on the Cap, I was slightly aware of that, but didn't know what value should be used. Ok, thanks guys!

If you're using a volume~pedal, it makes perfect sense to me to replace the Volume~Pot with a Push~Button!

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“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
Current Equipment