The Steel Guitar Forum

Just getting in to my first steel, which i may or may not have mistakenly purchased, and i'm having issues with knee lever tuning. it's a 1970 Fender Sho-Bud with three pedals and one knee lever. my problem, with the exception of the guitar generally staying in tune, is that when i tune the knee lever on 8 to E, i can't get to E-flat on the lever with the nylon hex nuts at the end. i've tried shortening the throw of the lever to no avail. and when i tune the nylon hex, it actually tunes the string, even though when i press the knee lever i can hear it lower, just can't get to that half step and keep the string in tune with the tuning peg. any thoughts for a new guy?

thanks for the help.

Wow, long time between posts, Patrick.

yes, i guess it has. time flies when you're not playing steel. :-\

you know, i made a CD, started playing guitar in a band, and it sort of slipped away. and now i have the bug again. i just hope i didn't buy a stinker.

The open note is held in place by a spring located at the knee lever. The lever lowers, until stopped by the screw behind the changer. Loosen the screw, tune the open note to E. Actuate the lever. If you lower past Eb, turn in the screw until the note is Eb. If it won't lower enough, it could be that the changer finger is not being held forward far enough. Tighten the nylon tuner to bring it more forward, then try again. If you have shortened the travel of the lever, you might need to add more travel.

Thanks for tip. I'll try that tonight. Appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Well, I tried that and still couldn't get it to work. I don't know if you know Dick Meis out here in Denver (pedalsteelguitar.net) , but I'm going to bring it to Dick this weekend and see if he can suss it out. Again, I do appreciate you taking the time to comment.