The Steel Guitar Forum

Okay, I've only had one lesson in my life, and I've been playing for about 12 years now-somebody throw me a bone here-does anyone slope the guitar neck away from themselves (by raising the rear legs)to lessen the bend of the wrist? Also, I watched a pro play once (of course he was too drunk to play at the time) and he used a pot holder as a pad on the C6 neck to keep from getting string impressions on the right wrist. I sometimes use a longsleeve sweatshirt, as the pot holder sometimes slides sideways or off. Words?

I've seen people that slope the front down. I don't do it and if you look at people like John Hughey, Buddy Emmons, Lloyd Green, Paul Franklin, etc I've never seen them do it. Some that do it actually are raising the rear legs because they are tall and need more space, rather than buy leg and pedal rod extensions to raise the steel height.

I have a towel that I put over the C6th strings at times, but it is just to protect the strings from sweat from my arm, nothing else (I'm in Florida). If I'm wearing long sleeves I don't use the towel.

thanks Jack, that helps. Love your name, by the way

Look for some pics of John Heinrich, fine player with some great recordings. Does a bang up job on Brubeck's Take 5 among others. He has a severe rake on his Excel guitars and he's a shorter guy. Whatever works, I guess.

Personally, I like them to be dead level.

One of the steels that I've owned in the past was sloped like that, it must have been custom built for a very short person and I had to raise the rear legs in order to get my legs under it (I'm only about medium height myself). I hated to play like that, it didn't make it easier on the wrist at all and also made it harder to see the fretboard. I also had to grip my bar tightly all the time or else it would rocket to the floor. I eventually bought pedal rod extensions.
As for the pad, I wouldn't even think of that because I frequently play my C6 neck.

Hi Aaron, I tilt my steels about 3/4" to get to the KL's; I guess my legs are a bit longer than the standard. This varies from gig to gig: footwear, stage condition, etc.

It has the unintended advantage of relieving some wrist angle. This is nice for comfort, and also because it makes it a little easier to flatpick some stuff.

That small of a tilt does not appreciably affect holding on to the bar for me. When it feels like the bar will roll off, I reduce the angle.

I have seen steelers tilt it way more than I do. YMMV

I knew a guy that did it because he had trouble keeping his hand flat and couldn't block the lower string very well. This helped get the lower strings in contact with his palm. He had some sort of problem with his wrist and couldn't get his palm to sit flat on all strings (without pain).

Check out Billy Phelps at "Full Circle Sound" I think.
Billy is a super player as well as a super person.
Also, if you check out some the the old Carter Guitar archives(spelling?) you may find some pictures of Billy playing his personal guitars.
He can and does play guitars that are more of less level. But his personal guitars are tilted down a great deal from back to front,,,the back or rear apron being pretty much standard heigth and the front apron of the guitar is probably 2 or 3 inches shorter than normal. Billy told me that it relieves his neck, back, arms, wrist and finger tensions when he has to play long sets and such.
I tried for a while on his guitar a couple of times and it seemed to me to do just that.
My Emmons push pull D-10 is about standard heigth and instead of lowering the front, I raised the back about 3/4" or maybe 1" and found out that all of my knee levers had a much better feel and smoothness to them. I did need to lower my floor pedals a little to keep my feet from being tilted at too much of an up angle.
Try it,,,you might like it too.
BB

I'm 6'2" tall, and I tilt my Kline slightly. First time I did it, I was instantly more comfortable, with better positioning, straighter wrist, and more comfort, for my right hand. When Ricky did my Shobud S-10, he put in a lift kit. I'm actually more comfortable on the Kline. It's not tilted very much though.