The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi all....I'm looking at getting the underside of my '81 BMI SD-10 gone through/rebuilt. Does anybody know of somebody in Portland, OR area that can do this for me?

Brian it seems to me that you would have to find a ZB guy.

Actually the ZB's and the BMI's are totally different even though logic would seem that Zane's work would be similar. The BMI's are a piece of cake and the ZB's are, well- let's just say- not a piece of cake. Not sure anyone in the Portland area does it but Tom Baker from Sierra is well qualified if he'd take it on.

Recommend you call Lynn Stafford in Damascus,Or. He Just finished putting knee levers on my S-10 Emmons. Then Lynn Tweaked my guitar. It has never Played or sounded so good. The under carriage of this guitar, in Lynns hands has become a work of ART. absolutely Gorgeous. One of the nicest people to deal with also.

Brian, there's really not too much that can go wrong with a BMI as they're so well made. I found mine much easier to work on or change pulls than my old ShoBud as on the 'bud I had to take the cross rods completely loose and slide the bell crank off the end of the thing. On the BMI you just unscrew it and place it where you want it and screw it back into the flat cross rod. The only thing you have to watch out for is when you're pulling a rod out of the changer end. Unlike most steels, the BMI has three pieces on the tuning end of the rod. First the nylon hex piece which the tuning wrench fit on, next there's a white hard round hollow spacer, and lastly there's a small metal piece which is rounded on one end and rests upon the changer finger.

On most steels you'd just take the nylon hex piece off and pull the rod right out of the changer. On the BMI you have to take it loose from the bellcrank and then "slowly" push it toward and through the end plate until all three pieces are visible outside of the steel and then take them loose. Be careful though, as sometimes for a different length pull there might be a couple of the metal pieces instead of the normal one so after you've taken all three off, look inside the hole in the endplate and see if there's any thing else on the rod before you pull it out of the changer. If you lose one of those metal pieces inside the changer they're a bear to get out as a BMI changer isn't open at the bottom like most steels...........JH in Va.

Thanks guys. I've met Tom at Sierra and he's great. I'll call him and ask if he would be willing to take it on.

You can always talk to Don at BMI if you need parts. He is a good guy and builds a great steel.

Yah....Don is great to talk to. I may need to contact him again as I think I'm going to need at least one, maybe 2, bell cranks for a couple of additional changes.

I once converted a BMI S12U from S12U E9/B6 to a Sacred Steel copedant, requiering a complete re-rodding of the undercarrige.
Feel free to give me a ring if you need some help.
Pete B.
cell:503-621-8209

I have introduced numerous innovations over the years to BMI's that have had a positive effect on them. I was a service center for them in the Chicago area before moving out of the region in the 1980's. If you check out the posts of my keyless conversion S-10 Custom on this Forum, you'll see some of the improvements I've done on that S-10. One of the main ones is doing away with the inherent excessive clearance between the screw that retains the flat cross-shafts in their respective bores in the rear frame rail. I used hardened sleeves to accomplish this, along with Lo-Head socket screws. This has led to near-100% repetition on KL pulls.
If you can stand the shipping charges, I would be most happy to do the work for you. Send a private email to ---prairiewindmusic@gmail.com.
PRR