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Fitting knee levers to a Fender 2000
Posted: 5 Jan 2003 10:41 am
by Ted Nesbitt
I,m sure someone out there has successfully fitted knee levers to the cable action Fender steel guitar. I have just purchased a beautiful Fender 2000 (D10), and would like to fit 2 levers to raise and lower the Es. Can anyone give me some advise on how to do this job? I know some guys who have done this job, but the problem is, there is too much travel. Any help would be welcome.
Ted Nesbitt
Carrickfergus
Northern Ireland
Posted: 5 Jan 2003 10:51 am
by chas smith
You want to talk to Mike Johnstone. He successfully added 4 knees and he is a master at building things with a bare minimum of tools. A minimum master of aluminum for the millenium.
Posted: 5 Jan 2003 11:26 am
by Ted Nesbitt
If Mike Johnstone see,s my post, I hope he responds, as I dont have his e-mail address
Posted: 5 Jan 2003 1:29 pm
by Jerry Hayes
Hey Ted,
Contact Blackie Taylor in California. He's on the net at:
Btmusic@earthlink.net. Ol' Blackie is an undisputed king of cable guitar modification. He once had a fender 400 single 8 which was converted to a single 12 with knee levers and all and it looked just like it came from the factory like that.
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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.
Posted: 6 Jan 2003 2:42 am
by basilh
Posted: 6 Jan 2003 5:38 am
by CrowBear Schmitt
Hi Ted
Finding Mike Johnson's email should'nt be difficult if you look in "SEARCH" sektion.
or on the page i sent you about the Nash 1000 titled "question for Mike Johson"
when you find his post, his email can be found above it under "send email"
Best of Luck to ya' !
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Steel what?
Posted: 6 Jan 2003 5:57 am
by Jim Smith
Here's the address I have for Michael Johnstone:
tcassalc@pacbell.net
Posted: 6 Jan 2003 12:13 pm
by Michael Johnstone
Yeah actually I added 6 knee levers to a Fender 800 S-10 and it took some doin' I'll tell ya. But basically five of the levers (LKL,LKV,LKR,RKL and RKR) plus the reversing mechanisms for two of the levers and a half-stop gadget for RKL are all mounted to a rail which mounts across the entire back side of the almag frame - from dip to dip. The sixth lever(RKL inside)is mounted on it's own short sub rail towards the front of the guitar - and is bolted to the underside of the frame.The biggest problem was locating additional stock Fender cable/pully harnesses since I wanted to stay with cables and keep it as "Fender" as possible.I had to call in a bunch of favors from a lot of old friends to get those parts I might add.I also had to devise a way to have all the levers fold up neatly and since they're all mounted in the same plane,they couldn't fold up from side to side without hitting each other so I ended up having them fold up front-to-back like a Sierra. I finally got everything hooked up and it works pretty good with the exception of the 2 levers that lower strings 4&8 and 3&6 which have pretty long throws and there's not much you can do about that due to the lack of leverage adjustments in the basic Fender design.The raises feel just like any modern guitar,though.And the half-stop gadget I devised is probably the best one I've ever played - if I do say so myself. I ended up with pretty much what I expected and it's a real playable ax. Plus to top it off,I got Jason Lollar to make me a pair of single coil Stringmaster replica pickups in a 10 string version complete with blend control and then had Chas create a new chrome mounting plate for them and then mount 'em in the 800.Now it's basically a 10-string Stringmaster with 6+6 that comes across as some long lost one-of-a-kind 1965 Fender custom shop guitar. Still,when I go from my new Excel to the Fender it's like going from a new Ferrari to an old pickup truck.But it sure is a great sounding pickup truck. -MJ-
Posted: 7 Jan 2003 11:15 pm
by Alvin Blaine
Hey Michael, if you have any pictures I would love to see them. I just picked up a Fender 1000 a few months ago and its in bad shape. Someone took off one of the foot pedals and screwed it to the body as a knee lever. The top is covered with cigarette burns and most of the cable are broke. I want to fix it up and I like your idea of using cables with knee levers.
