The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello everybody. I have a couple questions. Firstly, the guitar is a 1979 Sho-Bud Super Pro D-10. I've been mostly focusing on the E9 neck, but I started to play the C6 more. So the other day I did some maintenence on the guitar (changed both sets of strings, lubricated everything, took the pedal bar apart and cleaned and lubed it) and now I want to go through and check all the pedal/lever travel. I've had tuning problems with some strings where they don't return to pitch after a raise or lower. I've read that the lower the gauge of the string, the more it travels, but on the C6 neck, pedal 8 raises 7th C to C#, lowers 9th string F to E and lowers 10th string C to A. Does the 7th string still travel the most? The 10th string always comes back sharp. I want to check the pedal travel but I'm not sure where to start. And also, if a pedal or lever moves strings on both necks, do you check the pedal travel on both necks at the same time or just one or the other? Thanks.

Is there slack in the 10th string pull? If you gave the finger rivets a drop of oil, I'd check for slack. Also check that P5 isn't overtuned.
On levers that work both necks, I set it for the pull that needs the longest throw.

One other thing to check, is the spring that is on the lever that the pedal rod hooks to. It might not be pulling the pedal all the way back up, which causes the bell crank to go back to the start position. Some do get weak.

I also discovered that after the 10th string C comes back sharp, I can pull on the string with my hand and it will lower the note. It's like the string can't return on its own. I'll check the return helper spring.

And would the 10th string C to A lower travel more because of how many notes it covers or does the 7th string C to C# raise travel more because it is a smaller string gauge? Is it always the smaller the gauge, the more the travel?