The Steel Guitar Forum

hi, i'm a complete newbie and i have a new pedal steel.
when i press pedal A, string six goes down a little, let say 4-5 cent of halftone.
this happens on other strings/pedals. Is this normal?
thanks in advance

Sounds to me like you are experiencing cabinet drop. Most all steels have around 2 cents drop. What is steel brand?

hi, Henry, thanks for the reply, the psg is a WBS basic S10.....i wasn't aware of cabinet drop. So it's a pretty common situation? no need to worry about that?

Damiano, it's fairly common, but not universal. One probable cause is pushing the pedals firmly, like beyond the stop. Then the force starts pulling the cabinet.
A wound 6th string will do this less.

Damiano, cabinet drop is caused by the pedals applying pressure to the cabinet which in turn causes the strings to go slightly flat. You can do the same thing by just pressing in middle of cabinet with you hand. Some steels have more or less than others. As Lane said, too much pressure after pedal has hit stop can cause an excess of it. As you progress in your playing, you will start to feel just where stops are on pedals and not use as much pressure. Changing the string to a wound 6th may have to have some adjustment under guitar if you go that route but since you stated that all strings do it, I would just live with it. You will learn to compensate with bar or other means as your playing progresses. Good luck my friend in your challenge.

Damiano, In building a steel guitar light enough to be portable, There is a limit to the stiffness of the body. Like Lane posted, Once the pedal is against the stop it does put stress on the body of the guitar, Which can cause the de-tuning. Work on shoving the pedals till they hit the stop without extra pressure. Good Luck and Happy Steelin.

I suspect that my MSA has little cabinet drop because the pedal axles go to the rails rather than the cabinet.

thanks everyone for the infos and advices, my psg definitely have some cabinet drop, i've pressed in the center of the body as Henry suggested and intonation goes down 4-5 cents. In the last hours i've practised a little on not to apply extra pressure after pedals reach the stop, and drop is a little better, 2 cents or so.....
i suppose is better to consider cabinet drop when tuning? for example when i tune string five is better to have pedal B pressed?
Damiano

Damiano Missiroli wrote:hi, i'm a complete newbie and i have a new pedal steel.
when i press pedal A, string six goes down a little, let say 4-5 cent of halftone.
this happens on other strings/pedals. Is this normal?
thanks in advance

If you search for "cabinet drop" here on the forum you will find a lot of relevant discussions. One that I initiated a couple of years ago is at http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=235127. In one of the comments John McClung talks about seeing a 30 cent drop. That seems quite excessive.

The thing can never be 100% in tune in all positions and all keys. Compromise is the name of the game I think. During the first few weeks of playing the thing I was frustrated with the inability to figure out how to make reasonable sounding chords up and down the neck with various pedal/lever combinations. A lot of that improves with technique but having the guitar setup optimally is a big help too. Sweetened tunings are part of that. What works well for me is described at http://tinyurl.com/jeffscopedent. I didn't come up with that, I just found that it works well for me. I think that might be Newman's creation but I am not 100% sure.

Damiano Missiroli wrote: i suppose is better to consider cabinet drop when tuning? for example when i tune string five is better to have pedal B pressed?
Damiano

Not quite THAT combination, but I tune my E to F raises with the A pedal pressed, and I tune the A pedal with the B pedal pressed and vice versa. Tune your often used combinations IN combination.
If you drop 6 to F#, tune it while dropping the Es.

I find on my steel the cabinet drop happens progressively during pressing of the pedal and not particularly when it hits the stop.

What kind of guitar? I suspect something is wrong. Tighten all the screws. ALL the screws.

No.
Don't tighten all the screws, especially the neck screws, you might choke the vibrations of the instrument.

Tighten the headstock and changer housing screws, but go careful on the neck screws. I've even had steels where tightening of the endplate screws caused a loss in tone.

Snug them up, and play, then tighten them up one at a time, playing after each screw is tightened.

At some point, you may notice a deterioration in the tone, so slacken off the last screw and see if the tone returns.

Not eveyone will agree with me, but these are my observations over many years of steel playing/tinkering.

Good point, Richard. But I do think that cabinet drop early in the pedal throw is either a CHEAP steel like a Little Buddy or something wrong

Hi Lane,
If you were referring to me, I was generalising about cabinet drop as most, if not all steels have this to some degree. In my case I accept it as such.
My steels are a '74 Push Pull and a Franklin.
I am now a retired Engineer, so at least I am qualified to talk rubbish.

As far as neck screws go, I tried all this years ago when it was a hot topic on here. Buddy advocated it but I found it didn't make a blind bit of difference to my ears.

However that just says I'm not Buddy Emmons.

Tony, I was responding to you. I don't doubt you observe it when you do. But I DO think the cabinet shouldn't flex in mid-stroke.
Maybe Reece and Bud Carter were onto something when they put the cross shafts on rails instead of the aprons.

Take your point Lane, it may indeed be something to do with the changer.

I don't think anyone's come up with a finite reason or solution. If they have, they're keeping it to themselves.

I've just had a thought as I'm writing this,(no, a clean one) - if Emmons came out with the counterforce mechanism, it must mean they weren't able to find a cure or indeed isolate the cause.

Anyone like to comment?

well, they isolated the problem enough to determine that a counterforce mechanism would remedy the problem.