The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm very excited about the idea of the halfstop. I would like to have 4 kneelevers
(instead of 1) which raises/lowers 1 wholetone including a smooth resistance along the half way. Has anybody worked out a system to get this without installing the costly standard halfstop construction? I've experimented with the half of a pin of a pen which was
pushed the 2nd half of the tone. But for faster pushings it was to much resistance and to slow.
I'm shure I'm not the first one coming up with this idea, so let me know your ideas.
Thnx
Shoe-Bud LDG, Mullen D10 8&6, Nash 400

What is your steel guitar?

With no extra costly hardware, it is best to pull two strings with one knee lever. For example on E9: <font face="monospace" size="3"><pre>
knee
2 D# D,C#
..
9 D (D),C#</pre></font>

When you push the knee lever to the halfstop, only string 2 is lowered. At that point you can feel string 9.

Jeff Newman said,

"A half-stop is not a good idea."

I must agree totally. After having one for almost 40 yrs, I still never got completely comfortable with it. I understand some have no problem with them.

For them, and possibly you, I say go with it. But for me I will use discrete levers and/or pedals to get half tone versus whole tone or tone and a half changes.

Carl