The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello folks, I was hoping some kind soul could give me a bit of advice on adding a couple knee levers to my pro-1. I haven't been playing my steel much for the last 7-8 years as I ended up starting a band that i had to sing in and singing and playing guitar is way easier than singing and playing the steel. I'm looking to get back into playing steel and I would like to add a few knee levers as most of my educational material calls for one. Plus I'm working on "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" and doing the bend on the first string with my finger is kind of tough.

Does anyone have a parts list of what I would need and an active site that I could order the parts from? If anyone has instructions on how to do this it would be much appreciated as well. Here are some pics of my steel in case that helps. Thank you!

Michael Yahl at www.psgparts.com has knee lever kits.

what you have is a two hole puller system. Easy to add levers .

Each Knee lever kit should contain: slotted cross shaft, two mounting brackets, one or two "two hole pullers" with the brass swivels, knee lever (of course) with the appropriate hardware to attach to the cross shaft, one or two rods to connect the changer fingers to the pullers, with hex nuts of course. Rod length will be based on where you desire to mount the knee lever. And yes, Michael can help you with all of the items.

If you are going to go thru the exercise, add two pulls to each lever, not one. Best bang for the buck!

Thanks for the replies Lane and Tony, I really appreciate it. I looked at the site but I didn't see a full knee lever kit. I'll shoot Mr. Yahl an email for more info. Thanks again fellas!

Well I bought my knee lever and recieved them in the mail, now I just have to install them. Does anyone know where I might find instructions for doing this? I did call Williams guitar and they said they'ed have time to install them at the end of the month but I thought I'd put a feeler out there to see if I could find instructions to try it myself. Thanks!

Well shoot Steven, I just added lever 4 or (G) Friday night, I wish I would have taken step by step pics. I had gotten my levers from James Moorehead and he had given me a few tips even though it was a while before I got around to it. I added the 3rd lever (D) 2and 9 th string, and practiced a while getting used to it. It probably would have been longer before I got-around to tye 4th. But I had broke a crank and had to get it up on the bench anyway. Thank you Ian Worley for the crank. I've come to the conclusion I would always rather play the Bud than work on it.butvadding a lever is a great way to become intimately familiar with the workings of our 'Buds and officially send the woman in our life in to raging jealousy.
Your 'Bud is a little older model than mine Steven but procedure should still be pretty close to same.
Per the suggestion of bOb and a few others on the forum, I moved the (F) lever 4 and 8 string raise from RKR to LKL where it is convenient to use with the A pedal.
The first (LKL) lever I added was a little to far to the left so I ended up relocating inboard another inch or so which meant at least one more unnecessary hole. Try to avoid drilling any more holes than you have to in your vintage 'Bud. Put all of your parts in position logically as to how they work before drilling any holes. I used a 1/8 size drill for the screw holes with a stop on it. Please don't drill all the way through your 'Bud. While speaking of drill holes I filled them with beeswax to help lube them for the screw and keep moisture out, a tip I learned from an old luthier.
Also per the suggestion of bOb I only set the 2 string up for a half step lower to get acquainted with it for a while.
The threaded connecting rod between the LKL and crank arm mechanism had to be shortened and re threaded. Also the pull rods had to be shortened and re-bent. I'll post more and take some photos later and pm my phone #. Though I spent most of the evening Friday getting the 4th lever on I still have some fine tuning to do. Take your screwdriver and check all of your other screws while you have it up on the bench. I was surprised how many screws had started to work loose, especially on the pedal mechanism. ...

Thanks for the reply Don! Any pics of what you did might be helpful if you have the time. I'm not an expert on putting these things together so I'm a bit nervous about it. I can do pickup and pot swaps on my guitars no problem but this seems a little more difficult. Luckily I have a father in law who can fix just about anything so getting pics to show him might be helpful. Cheers!

To avoid drilling too many holes, decide where on your leg you like the lever to touch...I like mine back up towards the thigh but you have less sensitivity the further you go back I believe (rear apron MSA style) Sho bud put's theirs out there near the knee cap which I never liked, so yes my bud had a few holes filled. Just an added thought.

Thanks for the reply Larry, I'll keep that in mind when I'm deciding were to place my knee levers. Cheers!

You might get some ideas on lever positions from my '74 that Ricky did for me with parts from Coop. He even managed to get a 6th lever in there!



It didn't post as large as I thought it would. Use your Zoom.

John Billings wrote:You might get some ideas on lever positions from my '74 that Ricky did for me with parts from Coop. He even managed to get a 6th lever in there!



It didn't post as large as I thought it would. Use your Zoom.

Wow, look at that shine - gorgeous!

Thanks Tim! Bought it from Seymore, and only because Ricky agreed to work on it. It was a 3 and 1, now it's 3 and 6. I looks like a brand new guitar.

That is quite beautiful John and thanks for the pics!

Well, I hope they will help you place your levers. Didja see the vertical? I don't know how Ricky and Coop figured that out! RIP John!

These are good starting points:

RKR about 3 inches from end
RKL about 5 inches from RKR
LKL somewhere between location of pedal 2 and 3
LKR about 5 inches from LKL

On my Emmons LKL lines up with pedal 2.

Before you go drilling the guitar into Swiss cheese, try some sticky back velcro (or double stick tape) on the knee brackets and on the guitar so you can check the location. Just the lever and bracket. Once it's in a good spot you can work from that to get the location of the cross shafts. The above numbers are what James Morehead had sent me to get me going. If the knees have a small set screw stop when you swing them down, so much the better! As long as you can use the left levers in any combination of pedal 1,2,3 that you need.

And here is something to check and learn from my trial and error. Make sure your levers will fold down without interfering with each other. I'm 5'8" and my LKL lines up with pedal c or 3.

Thanks for all the replies fellas. I have decided to take it to Williams Steel Guitar on Saturday. I talked to Bill on the phone and they seemed really nice. He said it should take about a week. I'll let you guys know how it turns out. Thanks again everyone for taking the time to try to help a noob!

Good call. Bill knows what he's doing.

For anyone else reading this thread and thinking about adding levers, I thought it good to mention the importance of keeping the shaft that your cranks go on perpendicular to the neck.

I picked my steel up from Williams Guitars this morning. Bill did excellent work and had the job done in three days! Bill spent time talking with me and answering my questions and is an all around class act, I'm definitely looking forward to doing business with him again.

I'm gonna have to get used to the new knee levers. Here are a couple pics-