The Steel Guitar Forum

On my C6 neck I have an up lever which raises the third string c half a tone. The open string sounds normal. As soon as I push the lever the sring starts to make a strange noise like a sitar. I replaced the string, replaced rods, bell cranks, nuts, I removed the roller to lubricate it,the sitarsound remains. I need some help.
Emmons LeGrande II
Sigi

Sigi, when you press the leaver hold it in position and with your finger press the string down pretty hard about 1 inch in front of the changer,, if the noise has gone then you have a problem with the top of the changer , maybe a flat spot....John

You also may have a groove in the changer finger, or the string is getting thin and ready to break. These are just some of the possibilities.

change the string, see if it goes away. generally a worn older string can give you this. Every now and them I will get a "sitar" sounding string which gets fixed just by replacing it.

Change the 50 cent part first.

I had the same problem on my Williams on two different occasions and after polishing the finger radius with simichrome it disappeared.

Get some good strong reading glasses and you'll most likely see a small groove right where the string sits.

Sigi,
Push the string off to the side from where it sits on the changer finger, just enough to move it off the groove (if there is one) on the finger. If that changes/fixes it, carefully polish/buff the top of the finger.

Bill