The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a friend who doesn't have a computer but is having a problem with his left knee right lever. He has diabetes and has hurt his left leg inside where it contacts the LKR lever. His doctor has told him to stop doing that but we all know he can't so I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem and what your solution was. He has tried a bandage on his leg to no avail and there isn't a lot of room for modification to the knee lever on his Zum D-10 itself. Any help would be certainly appreciated !!

Regards, Paul

I think that Al Brisco has installed some kind of a rubber-type sleeve on Carter knee levers to make them more comfortable. Perhaps contact Al.

They make a kind of sponge-rubber tubing that's used to insulate refrigeration lines called "Armaflex". It's black, and the type used for 1/2" lines should work quite nicely as a knee-lever pad (it would slide right over the lever, and could be taped or glued in place). Any AC serviceman would probably give you a short piece! That's about all I can think of, other than changing the side-knee lever to a vertical type.

I would suggest your friend try attaching a piece of plastic, or cardboard, or whatever, around the sensitive area with elastic or perhaps velcro. A hard enough piece of plexiglass bent around that sore knee and held in place with velcro would be ideal - kinda like knee pads for skaters or hockey players - would be unsightly, but what the heck...it would solve the soreness problem.

Oh, yea, and as for "padding" the lever - I had a similar problem for a while and to solve it I put some foam pipe insulation over my knee levers. It's available almost anywhere - like home depot or lowe's. But it would still hurt unless that pressure is spread out more. Think a hard pad on the leg is the better solution.

Why not move that change over to the right knee?

I understand the Zum´s knee levers are square and quite narrow (as most of them), so the pressure when pushing them is concentrated in that one spot. I would consider manufacturing a rectangular plate, could be of metal or even plastic, maybe put some kind of pad on it to make it softer and fix it to the original lever. In that way the pressure should be alleviated. And, of course, adjust the lever to be as smooth as possible. Just an idea.

Joe Henry's rectangle sounds like the best so far.It could be made of 1/8" aluminum
and the edges rolled to relieve the sharp corners and then padded with a soft foam.
It could be made as long/wide as space permits.
A machine shop could weld tabs on it so that it could be removed if it would not fit the case with it attached,also allow adjustment up/down.......

Bill Ford

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<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bill Ford on 20 June 2002 at 12:58 PM.]</p></FONT>

All good ideas.When I was helping Joaquin Murphey to get started playing again after a long layoff,he had the same problem.He had never used knee levers and found them uncomfortable so I used the foam rubber sleeving used on bicycle handlebars.
Now in my own case,because of an old hang glider injury,I have bolts and pins on the left side of my left knee right under the skin and if I catch the edge of a stock knee lever just right,it can cut my knee open right down to the bolt/bone.I've done it a couple of times and it's a bloody mess and takes forever to heal,so after that I replaced my stock LKL(E to F)lever w/a custom made extra wide lever w/a 3/32" neoprene rubber pad.It's smooth sailin' now. -MJ-

<SMALL>if I catch the edge of a stock knee lever just right,it can cut my knee open right down to the bolt/bone.I've done it a couple of times and it's a bloody mess </SMALL>

ick

My sincere thanks to each of you for your concern and input. I've made a copy of this thread and will see that my (OUR !!) friend gets to see each of your posts. I know he is going to like this. This is what makes the Forum such a neat place to come and visit. Now if I can get my sense of humor back, I get into the Humor section and post some jokes. I got wrapped up in my own problems and things just didn't seem funny anymore. I'm thinking the best cure for that is to help someone else and forget your own stuff for a change !!

Warmest Regards To All You All !! Paul

This link looks like it might be a viable solution - hand crafted knee pads made especially for steel guitar knee levers...

click here