The Steel Guitar Forum

Howdy
Im experiencing some significant cabinet drop with my guitar. Are certain guitars known for more severe cabinet drop? Particularly on string 6 with the A pedal and F lever engaged.

That's common on all guitars.You need to pull you open 6th string tuning in to -10 cents. Even more on some guitars.

...all guitars detune somewhat, with the exception of a correctly adjusted Emmons LLG-III, and just about any Carter.
Try tightening all of the endplate and keyhead screws for starters. Check all neck screws, but don't tighten them unless they are loose, and then only snug enough so as not to mute the guitar...a quick check for sustain through your amp will tell you if you went too much on those. If so, back 'em off half a turn and recheck through your amp.
hope this helps.

MC

The steel guitar is caught in a engineering delima. First having to be made of non magnetic material so it will not interfere with the magnets on the pickups and tone. Second is portability. Keeping the weight down till it can be transported. A guitar set up Day System leverage wise puts more stress on the guitar by having the A & B pedal out more toward the center of the guitar. This gives the A&B more leverage against the center of the cabinet of the guitar. The strings are tightening above the body and the A&B pedals are pulling down on the body. The Emmons Set Up puts the A&B pedals closer to the leg with a little less stress on the center of the body. Some steels have a built in compinsaitors to help off set this pull on the body. Also with the pedal stops have being on the body of the guitar for solid precise stopping, Excess pressure on the pedals once the stop is hit, can cause more stress on the cabinet and detuning. Seems all steels have a little cabinet drop, Just some are worse than others. Another thing to make us pull our hair.

If You Don't Like Cabinet Drop Get A D-10 Fender 2000.


Roger

if you want to study the phenomena :
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=164485

You don't have to live with it , but you do have to learn to compensate for it. I do this by learning my guitar and where my problem exists. In using a good source of trac that shows to be spot on , you can learn to position your bar in relation to your frets and after awhile it will become natural to find that on the particular fret. I think we all do this to some degree, that is why we sound our best on our guitars and find others a little uncomfortable to play at first. Some would say that the Pros sound good on anything and I agree to some point but also I think that we are mesmerized by who they are and our ears are more forgiving to their playing. JMHO

I didn't know there was such a thing as "cabinet drop" (string detuning) until I saw it mentioned on the forum and then saw it on a tuner.

My guitar has some but its not an issue when playing.

Add to the list of guitars with no "cabinet drop" is the Zum steel's with a system similar to the Emmons Legrande III. I played a friend's Zum with that on in Kansas City at one of their club jams in May.

Jack Stoner wrote:I didn't know there was such a thing as "cabinet drop" (string detuning) until I saw it mentioned on the forum and then saw it on a tuner.

My guitar has some but its not an issue when playing.

Jack is right, it can be noticed on most guitars, but it's not really an issue once you learn to tune and play properly. Practically all stringed instruments have the same issue, and it's especially bad on straight guitars, whose pencil-thin necks are even affected by gravity. Straight guitars players don't obsess over it, though, and they learn to ignore it after compensating as best they can by how they tune.

I have a friend who is a left hander but plays right handed guitars. We noticed long ago that when he sits in and picks up my tele, which is in tune (more or less), the first and second strings are out of tune, due simply to the weight of the neck falling a different way (yes, the neck screws are tight).