The Steel Guitar Forum

I changed my tuning and copedant recently. When I initally mounted the rods in the bellcranks, I chose the hole in the bell crank that corresponded to the changer hole (approximately). In the places where I had multiple raises or lowers, I adjusted the holes so it made sense. On a couple of strings, the rods were not in the same holes as the same rods on matching strings (octaves). I ended up having a hard time tuning my changes and my pedal travel was inconsistent. Some pedals were stiff and some were like butter.
I went back and moved the pods to the holes nearest the cross-shafts and leveled out the rods on the same pulls. I now have consistentently smooth and soft pedals and knee levers. The problem I have now is that the amount of pedal travel is large and quick raises and lowers are more difficult.

What is the best practice? Soft with long pedal throw? Hard with short pedal throw? Or Middle of the road? I know that hard with short throws on the knees give me sore thighs.

Karlis

Carter's rodding chart seems to me to be a good starting point for any steel set up. I personally like "soft" knees, but you can't
have the throw too long & still get the job done. Maurice gave me a lesson in bell cranks
very early on when I mentioned a knee being too stiff...."Move the rod closer to the shaft on the bell crank!" Never forgot that one!

Doug, Thanks for pointing me to the Carter site. I will use their examples as a starting point.

Karlis

Karlis,
I don't know if other mechanics/builders do it this way or not.
When I'm setting up a guitar, especially one I'm not familiar or well acquainted with, on pedals or levers that are changing more than one string (which is prety normal these days) I always set the change (string) that requires the most travel first. Get it to my likeing and then set the other string/s to be compatible with that string. Example: on E-9, 3'rd string G# usually takes a lot more travel than 6'th string G#. (both being a plain string,,,,,a wound 6'th would be somewhat different from my example).
I'll use a Fessenden 5 slotted bell crank in this case. Slot one being the closest to the cross rod and slot 5 being the most away from the crossrod. I'll also use a triple raise/lower changer. We'll designate the holes in the changer as A, B, C for the raises,,,D, E and F for the lowers, top to bottom. In this case we are only dealing with A, B and C in the changer.
On the third string I'd try slot 3 or 4 in the bell crank and hole C in the changer. If this is too long and soft (as in travel and action) then I'd move the rod into hole B and see if I liked that beter. Actually, you have 15 different options to chose from in this example.....3 (holes) X 5 (slots)= 15. I'd then place the 6'th string rod in slot 1 and hole C. Nine times out of ten this combination will satisfy what the person is looking for on the "B" pedal. Then I will use the same principle (probably not the same slots and holes) for the "A" pedal and get the two pedals to feel good and compatible with each other.
This is just an example, but the principle will usually work on all of the "modern" all pull guitars, say from the '70's on, even some of the guitars earlier than that.
What you are dealing with here is leverages and ratios. You have to understand a little about those two things when setting up a guitar.
Of course it gets a lot more involved than just that, but that is the very "foundation" that most everything else is built and designed around.
I, or anyone else, would just about have to write a book to explain all of the details, circumstances and situations that come up in guitar building, design and set up. But this will at least get you started toward a good playing guitar.......I hope.....
Email or call me if you need too. 281-856-9453
BB

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If you play 'em, play 'em good!
If you build 'em, build 'em good!

Bobby, Thank you for the detailed explanation. This is just what I need to get oriented.

Karlis