The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm playing around with raising the 6th string the B woth my LKV, but I'm having trouble with it returning sharp, with the B pedal engaged. It returns perfectly in tune to an open G# without the B pedal down. The guitar is an MSA Millennium M3. Have tried different changer/bellcrank hole combitiations as well as lightly lubricating the changer. Any suggestions?

/Niklas

Put guitar upside down in the case, work pedal and knee at the same time, look to see if one pull rod isn't binding or dragging against the other.
Also look to see that both pulls are straight (perfectly longitudinal).
Generally a problem like that doesn't happen in the changer, but in the rods.

This phenomenon occurs on every pedal steel where a raise is raised again, and then released to the original raise.
One of the causes is minute flexing of the cross-shaft (in your case, the B pedal cross-shaft), and it's something most steelers live with.

One other thing to check for: See if the B pedal pull rod isn't binding or snagging as it passed by/through the LKV bellcrank

Lane--exactly what happened to me. I also have a Millennium and had problems with the 6th string G# returning sharp. Looking at the undercarriage, there were binding pull rods. The clarification helps!

Glad to have helped; the fault is usually something simple¹
Niklas, is yours taken care of yet?

¹That said, I wish I could figure out why my LKV is binding: the shaft is stiff in the bushings. Michael Yahl gave me some things to look at Sunday

Niklas, you might inquire of Reece or David Wright et al, about that condition of raising, re-raising then returning to the middle raised position. They can tell you whether they think it's a characteristic of the guitar or if there's another cause.

I know it's a problem with lowering twice on some Universal guitars. However, I've not experienced it on double raises like that. My Sierras raised the 9th string B, to C#, then on to D. I never had any problem with the return to the middle position.

Same thing on my old Emmons push/pull. Raise B to C# and to D on the same string.

Something else, quite obvious and I'm sure your aware, but be sure there is adequate slack to allow proper movement/return for all positions.