The Steel Guitar Forum

I have been experimenting with 1/2 pedalling on pedal 4, and wondered about making a 1/2 stop on this pedal.
Does anyone do this ?
Is it easy to do on a Sierra Session U12 ?
(I know I could use the B pedal to get the same raise, but its nice to be able to do it in conjunction with pedal 5 on one foot)

Half stops on pedals are pretty hard to feel. If you get it strong enough to really feel it, you lose the smoothness of the full step change.

Does your P4 raise both G#'s (6 and 10) to A#? If so, would you expect the half-stop to stop both notes in tune?

You can add a half-stop to any pedal or lever on a Sierra Session. You can do it with secondary pulls, or with the special rods that Sierra uses, that include a spring at the tuning end.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6), Roland Handsonic

Mickd,

I feel you would like a knee lever to get that "half note" rather than trying to put a "half-stop" on a pedal. Not saying it couldn't be done. Not saying some haven't done it and like it. I am saying most would rather have it on a knee lever. There is more than one reason for this.

Having it on a knee levers makes it availalbe with other pedals (non adjacent) AND other knee levers. IMO, this is always a better idea. Also 'tis true, a pedal "half-stop" is even more difficult to "feel than a knee lever half-stop.

Some trivia. I had the standard 2nd string "half-stop" for over 30 yrs. I never did get used to it. Because no matter how much I practiced, I would ocassionally under or over shoot it. And backing into it was dang near impossible.

Jeff Newman said, "It is not a good idea".

So when I bought my last PSG, I had it built with 2 knee levers taking care of the full and half-stop each. I can tell you there is no way from Sunday I would EVER go back to a half stop again. The comfort of knowing it is rock solid dead on, is just too much to ever even consider it again.

Having said that, I am not you. And it could very well be that you could install it and LIKE it. In the end, it is up to what works for you.

God bless you in your quests,

carl

B0b
I was just thinking really of the string 6 change. When you say 'secondary pulls', I guess thats what they call 'tandem' pulls in the Sierra 'Technical Manual'. I thought this was just for when you wanted to add a change to a string which already had all 5 (3 raise 2 lower) slots used up..I haven't come across that problem yet
Carl
great to have you back . I don't have any half-stops at the moment, and from what you and B0b say, I think I'll keep it that way.
Do I read you correctly - are you saying Jeff is against 1/2 stops 'period' ?

If you lower the 4th string 1/2 step (A to Ab) with a knee lever, you can use a split (knee lever and pedal 4) to get the 1/2 step raise (Bb). You'll also find a lot of use for the Ab.

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Bob Carden 66 Emmons P/P 8/9
BMI 13 string 7/7

Mickd asked,

"Do I read you correctly - are you saying Jeff is against 1/2 stops 'period'"

All I heard him say was half stops are not a good idea. In one of his news letters featuring his tuning setups, he even has it printed next to the half-stop,

"Not a good idea".

carl

Bob Carden, has a good thought there. Get two for one. Raise A to B on 4th pedal and lower knee A to Ab and you get a split Bb the 7th chord. Also if you play P4 and P5 together and push knee A to Ab , you get a nice D7th Augmented chord. More yet, Knee A to Ab with P5, then add P4 A to B a nice movement there. Pretty good, I'd say...al

Thanks for the ideas
I already have 5 levers on my Session..I've heard that RKV isn't a good idea as it interferes with the volume pedal (which I don't use yet, but I plan to get round to it one of these days), so where could I put a 6th lever ?

Mickd,

The next logical place and the place most PSG players 'opt for; is a second LKL. This extra LKL is placed forward (and usually) a little to the right of the standard LKL. I can tell you from personal experience, it will warp your mind at first. But if you are patient and stay with it, there WILL come a time when it will be just as natural as any other knee lever.

I too feel that a RKV is unwise because of the volume pedal. Interesting bit of trivia. One of the smoothest and greatest PSG players ever, is Bob White. He was best known for his time with Hank Thompson. He cut a steel guitar album once. And clearly shown on the cover of this album, is a RKV lever.

So intrigued by this lever, I believed he used it to create additional pulls like you are wanting to do. Such was NOT the case however. I know this because I asked him about it once at the ISGC. I will paraphrase his reply,

"I was using a Leslie* speaker at the time I played that PSG. And I had that lever installed so it would turn the Leslie on and off."

Moral of the story is, "things ain't always what they appear to be!"

God bless you all,

carl

* For those of you who do not know what a "Leslie Speaker" is, it was devoloped and made by the Hammond Organ Co. It was a "horn" type speaker that was attached to a motor that wound turn it around and around at a variable speed. It gave a perfect tremelo affect.

Interestingly, Hammond was also the people who came up with the first mechanical "reverb" unit often called the "spring unit". Very creative folks must have been employed by this great company.

nice story Carl