The Steel Guitar Forum

New member here.have a question I have a Bmi s-10 I took in on a trade for a guitar amp.i cannot get the c pedal to raise the e to f# I have tried everything I can think of and no matter what the finger on the changer will move forward before it will get to the right pitch.i bought and installed new nylon tuning nuts as the old ones were fairly chewed up.it is set up standard Emmons on the pedals.the steel has a double lower double raise changer.i have switched the rods in the holes on the changer and on the crossbar and doesn't seem to make any difference also took a little out of the return spring on the changer and still didn't make a difference.this is the only change I cannot get to work.anybody that could give me some advice I would greatly appreciate it,I am fairly new at this only been playing steel for a very short time and am going to take some lessons and would like to be able to use this guitar to take the lessons as it is fairly light for a steel.thanks in advance for any help.chris

BMI is a wonderful pro guitar, see if there is a stop anywhere that needs to be adjusted.... somewhere something is stopping the pull ....

back the nylon off completely, then in the cross bar, there's a screw. back that off and give yourself as much slack as you can. then adjust the nylon so its touching the changer finger and engage the pedal to see how close you are.
Damir, the BMI has no pedal or lever stops. you adjust the nylon for its maximum travel stop, then take up the slack before the nylon engages, an unusual system to be sure.

some BMI's I owned had adjustment screw in the cross bar, for travel adjusting , not sure if that was factory or added by someone else....

Thanks for the comments guys any suggestions are greatly appreciated as I am close to pulling my hair out on this one.there are no adjustment screws that I can see in the cross bar except maybe the one holding it into the side of the guitar.any suggestions?thanks in advance chris

This one, circled in white. There should get one on every crossbar. No?

No just has those on the cross bars for the knee levers.only thing on the cross bars for the pedals looks like a roll pin with a small spring hooked to it to make it return.thanks chris

No just has those on the cross bars for the knee levers.only thing on the cross bars for the pedals looks like a roll pin with a small spring hooked to it to make it return.thanks chris

I rebuilt an old bmi for a friend of mine that had the same problem on the 2/nd string. The problem was the changer itself. I had don at bmi make a new changer,fixed the problem....thanks jack

Most puzzling---this is a 1983 guitar and you can see the stop screws. Seeing them in my picture doesn't do you a damned bit of good though, does it?

Just for my own clarity--you are saying that the pitch raises, raises, raises, but then starts to lower again before reaching pitch, on both the 4 & 5 strings?

Sorry I am new at this.thanks again to all who have replied.if you tune the high e string to pitch at the tuners and then begin to adjust the raise at the nylon tuner before you get it to f# it will then be sharp when you pluck the string open.i cannot seem to get the f# on the c pedal and once it pushes the finger forward on the changer I cannot get the f on the knee lever.maybe I am just doing something wrong I am not sure.thanks chris

1) Back off the nylon tuner for the C pedal until it has released all tension from the rod, at rest.

2) Put the pull rod in the top hole of the bell crank, as in this pic (also, as seen in my picture of my guitar, above).




3) the pull rod should also go in the hole of the changer finger closer to the guitar's top.


4) Now tune the open string to E. Then tune the nylon nut. The moment the open string is affected by tuning the nylon nut, you have problems. All rods, with no pedals down, MUST have slack in them and not be pulling at the changer.

If the above procedure does not solve the proble, the problem runs deeper than I can figure without having my hands-on.

What gauge string are you using? It needs to be no smaller than a .014.

There has to be something somewhere that takes up the slack. Nothing on the pedal or pedal rack?

Try backing out the nylon tuner for the E to F raise on the knee-lever. Get it out of the equation and see if you can get the E to F# to work properly on the pedal.

If that works, then start adjusting the pulls on the E to F raise. If that is the E to F knee-lever puller bar next to the A pedal, you may want to move the pull rod out to the middle hole on the puller.

Three things...move the pull rod to the bell crank hole farther away from the cabinet. 2. Turn the travel adjustment screw (as shown by the pictures counterclockwise to give more travel and last, 3.make sure the lower finger on the changer is not pulling away from the stop. (If it is, cut about two rounds off the return spring.

Eddie - It appears that there is no travel adjustment screw on the third pedal of his guitar.

Chris,
Don Fritsche is the builder of BMI. Here is his phone number: 1-479-264-1457 just give him a call, that is his cell. If you are not far from Greenfield, Tn. you could bring it to the house and I can take a look at it,
Dan

All good comments. You said that you took a few coils from the return spring but didn't say if that was enough to keep the lower return scissor in place when the string is raised. If the lower return spring is moving when you raise the note, see if you can push it back to the stop- if so continue to take more spring coils until the lower return spring stays put. Also there have been occasions that I've had to drill another hole in the bell crank toward the top.

I had two BMI's but it's been a while, but it seems I remember there being some little metal "spacers" somewhere around the changer / adjustments? Anyone else remember what I'm talking about? Possible someone could have left one of these off or changed it somehow?

BTW, these are very good guitars...almost bought another one recently before deciding to go with a new guitar.

Those small spacers go between the tuning nuts and the changer scissors and I doubt that they are the culprits.

It is unfortunately that the OP has ditched this discussion. I feel like time and resources have been wasted.
It remains unclear to me if the finger is pulling away from the stop, indicating a spring issue. Unless I've skimmed right over it, this has not been clearly described.
If this is NOT in play, then with a missing spacer 'bullet', if the nylon nut is not open ended, then it could be bottoming out, trying to make up the extra length that the spacer would be filling. Can the raise be achieved by manually pushing the finger with a pencil or screw driver?
Too many ifs, without some input from the OP.

Yeah Jim, I couldn't remember exactly where they went or what they did. I should remember as I spent more time on my back up under that particular guitar than I ever did playing it lol.

I totally know the feeling. Years ago way b4 I opened the shop when I first met JayDee he said I really needed a "creeper" .