The Steel Guitar Forum

I recently bought a one of a kind lap steel from a fellow forumite that has unique feature of a knee lever that raises the 3rd string, along with palm levers that raise string 2 and lowers string 4. I've been experimenting with tunings and think I found what I was looking for.

A
E raise to F# palm lever
B raise to C# Knee lever
A lower to G# palm lever
G
E

Its a sort of A9th, but what I really like about it is that I can play A7 with just the knee lever engaged, and once I fabricate a half stop, I also have the upper 5 strings of C6. I've played it half-pedal style, but I can't do that reliably so i need to fabricate the half stop. It it quite hi, but it relates to a pedal E9 and my lap c6 both quite well.

I do find that it is very hard for me to engage palm levers while picking, while the knee lever works very well and leaves both hands free.

I'm just pleased with setup and thought I would share. The same intervals in E would look alot like the standard E9 B D E F# B E.

Sounds interesting. I'd love to see some photos of the knee lever setup.
Carl Leyland.

Here is a picture of the guitar

The knee lever is not so visible, but it goes over the front and attaches to and pivots around the bolt you can see under the springs. There is a threaded inert on the peg head end of the guitar for a bolt that rides on the outside of your left leg to keep the lap in place. I can try to take another picture of just the knee when I find my camera.[/img]

I set up a tele with raised nut, top loader bridge, graphtech saddles and two palm pedals. Tuning is lo to hi AC#EGBD. The G-G#-A pedal and B-C-C# pedal give me great sus licks and blues scale possibilities. Just getting started now!

Interesting set up, for sure. Thanks for post in the pic.
Carl.

Can you lock the knee lever in place?