The Steel Guitar Forum

I am unable to get the 2nd string drop(RKR) to go a whole tone. It will get close to the whole tone drop and then go back up in pitch. There are no other pulls on this knee lever. A push pull, I can figure out, this I could use some help with. Thanks

I have seen some Shobud fingers that couldn't handle a full tone drop, it was always the second string, and it was always the pull-rod binding in the hole (because RKR is so close to the changer)

I simply ease out the hole with a round needle file, until the rod has enough movement to make the drop without binding.

I've arrowed the troublesome hole in the following picture, courtesy of the Carter website.

Thanks Richard, I'll give it a try. I'm also going to try a .016 string, it's got a .015 on it now.

Richard B probably has your answer, but in case that doesn't work, you could try a slightly weaker lower-return spring. That's the big spring at the bottom of Richard's illustration. Look at the picture and you can see how that spring could pull the raise bar away from its stop if the spring is too strong. The rasie bar should not pull away as you lower!

I too have a Pro-1.
Mine is a 3-raise 2-lower changer, and D# to C# is a long way for those changers.
If you can get it to do it, I think you will find the knee-lever motion requiered is too long to enguage/disenguage fluently.
You might hang with the more common D# to D.
It should do that no problem.

Well, I got it pretty close. The guitar is a two hole pull and barrel style. The fingers are different than Richard's drawing. I did "hog out" the lower hole and that did help some. I also had to take off the washer that was between the lower rod and changer finger so that the lower rod could utilize the space that I filed out. I guess to properly do it, one would need to disassemble the changer to see if a modification of the finger could be done to allow the whole tone lower. Using a .016 gauge string helped to get it closer. Thanks all for your help.

Does the raise bar move when you lower? If so, try holding the raise bar against its stop while you lower. Does that make it easy to lower all the way to C#?

All 3 of my Sho~Buds will make that change..... I use a .015. My guitars are '74-'75 era, either barrels behind 2 hole pullers or 2 hole pullers with nylon tuners. As Ernest said, check that lower return spring.... cause that is probably the problem.

The raise bar did move, that was the cause of the pitch coming back up. I adjusted the lower return spring and that did not help.

You could try removing the lowering rod and operating the lower by hand.

If the raise portion lifts off its resting point, then that would indicate that the spring is too strong, as Earnest and Mike have pointed out.

If it achieves the full tone drop (and more) then that would indicate that the lowering rod is fouling in the hole in the finger, as per my drawing.

Jerry, try unhooking the raise helper spring, the one directly under the top deck of the guitar. Since string 2 is not raised there is no need for it. You might want to do the same for string 9.

The raise helper spring pre-loads the raise section of the 1R/1L changer, causing it to move at the slightest "provocation" like a little binding in the lower section. If you want to lower string 6 a whole tone on a lever, unhooking its raise helper spring is a must. It should work on string 2, as well. It does on my Sho-Buds with the same changer.

I hope you can get it to work.
Rainer

Rainer,
John Coop told me the same thing a few years ago, when I told him I was going to try an experimental tuning on my '67 Shobud.

Everybody is partially right, as there are several setup issues to address to get this change. Richard is right in a round-about way with his diagram, which is of a finger that is the wrong era changer.

Jerry has single/single fingers which are constructed different.

I get that change easily with your style changer, Jerry. I also can lower string 6 a whole tone with a wound .22 Jagwire.

To fix your problem, Jerry, will require disassembling your changer. Shoot me an email if you'd like.