The Steel Guitar Forum

Greetings!
I have decided to turn my LeGrande III into a SD. I am stuck on removing the tuning keys as 2 of the screws are directly under a cross rod.I have nothing in the way of a low profile offset screwdriver to get them out. I was thinking of trying to pull that cross rod, but am Leary of damaging the bushing. any thoughts. I'm kinda stuck at the moment.
thanks all!

That's God's way of telling you not to do it.

possibly, but your reply is of no help.

There is a spring loaded dowel pin holding the crossbar in place. Push in on it with needle nose plyers and pull it straight up.

Thanks Doug.
I can see the one on the first cross rod for the A pedal, after that they go up under the lip where the pedal springs are and I'm not sure how to even get to it.

No need to worry about the front apron. Just get pin in the rear apron out and the whole piece will come out.

Eddie, converting a d10 to sd10 ? If so, I would be interested in the extra parts you are removing if you decide to sell them.

Thanks Doug. At first, I thought the cross rod was one solid rod with machined ends, but yes now I see the dowel moving into the rod. I have had no luck getting enough clearance to pull it up. Just found another thread here where they just mention cutting the pin and replacing it.

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... od+bushing

what Jack Stanton said.

So, Bill C. Buntin I offer the same reply to you. Why bother to respond at all if you offer nothing useful to on the subject while other people are actually trying to be helpful?

Eddie,
Not trying to be a smart ass, but they're not making any more of those. You have something in your possession that will never be duplicated. Why not sell it intact and by a Legrand SD? They come up fairly frequently on the forum.

Jack, I had been looking for a SD like my D10(same era) but thought I would try to do the mod on this guitar and if I ever decided to sell it, just reinstall the parts. The two screws under the crossrod was a roadblock I did not really expect. I will more than likely just turn back and re-rod this and keep my eyes open for one. I wasn't trying to be a smart ass either so I apologize if it came off that way. Just got very frustrated with this obvious design issue. Two machine bolts would have make this guitar easy to take apart. Thanks for your input.

Just sell it and buy a new SD. Don't ruin it. Too many great new singles to buy out there.

http://www.justicesteelguitars.com/Pro%20Lite.html

Hi Eddie. I've done this a few times on a Derby. They are designed about the same as the Emmons.

It's a somewhat tedious task, but one can use a small pick like this one. Keeping a bit of upward pressure on the shaft, use the pick, or a small flat blade pocket screwdriver, to work the dowel back up into the shaft a little at a time over and over. You just have to be patient and repeat the procedure, moving the pin a little bit each time.

Cheap pick sets can be found at Harbor Freight or perhaps the home centers in your area.


Here's another suggestion from Willie. Just stop drilling when you reach the pin to prevent burring. You can use the same picks pictured above.

Willie Sims wrote:Try drilling a small hole in the spring loaded pin as close to the rear of the guitar as you can. Then put something like a ice pick in the hole and compress the pin. Never tried it but it might work. Willie SIMS.

Something else you might try, use a small flat blade screwdriver at an angle and see if you can loosen the screw. If it's not too tight and you can get it moving you might be able to let the part come off the screw as you keep turning the screw. Then, worry about getting the screw out of the guitar later, or just leave it in there.

Good luck. I support your doing whatever you want with your equipment to have it suit your needs.

Thanks Jerry, I may give that a try, but if not , it wasn't meant to be and I will just put it all back.
On the subject of re-sale value, it is good to see these old guitars are still holding their value. I have been out of the loop for a while.

No judgment - just curious. Are you planning to remove all the lower neck cross shafts too? If so, that seems like a daunting task as often they must be cut to be removed.

This is my major pet peeve with LeGrandes.

Before I knew those pins were spring loaded, I wanted to add a 9th pedal to my Carter. I ended up removing the back apron. It was really not that difficult to put it back on. Wasn't much worse than trying to get that pin pushed back in the cross shaft. Although now I would remove the back apron as a last resort.

Hi Tony. My plan was to leave all cross rods and bell cranks in place. Just pull neck/changer and tuning key rack. The only reason I was trying to temporarily pull this rod was to get to the two screws that hold the machine heads. My plan was to put everything back if I decided to sell or found the right SD 10. I really want to just test drive this setup and I really play very little C6th.

Unbelievable! I can't believe they built these (supposedly great?) guitars this way. Common sense says that if you're going to have something fastened in by a spring-loaded pin, there should be a simple and quick way to undo things. Two easy ways to do this with a cross shaft in a hole would be a slot in the end of the shaft, or a tiny hole in the rear apron. Either would allow disassembly with something as simple as a paper clip.

I agree Donny. Just doesn't make sense. And two machine bolts holding the tuner mechanism would have solved the immediate problem. Reassembling it now. E clip hell.. here we go!

Maybe a trade?

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... highlight=

Eddie, It is bad luck to remove the inside neck from a LeGrande or any Emmons. If you are looking to lose weight this is not the answer. Removing the working parts on the inside neck will not amount to hardly any weight loss. Sell it and buy you an S-10 or a SD-10, you will be much happier. J.R. Rose

Somewhere in the archives is an in depth discussion on how to do this. It's fairly easy to do once you get the hang of it. The main thing is to pry up on the cross shaft with a screw driver or similar tool as you slide the pin in to the shaft using a thin sharp tool. (slide the pin, pull up on the shaft, repeat until the shaft is free) Ron Jr. showed me how to do this on my Lashley Legrand and I have removed and reinstalled several cross shafts. Hope this helps.

I tried to remove one of these on my LLII and couldn't get enough purchase on the dowel to slide it free, the spring behind was too stiff.

If you own or can borrow one of these gadgets with a fine metal blade it makes very short work of it though. Just mask all around the shaft, slip in a couple of putty knives or whatever you have to protect the inside of the body and the brass bushing in case you slip, and stick the vacuum in there. Let the blade pass through the dowel then slide the shaft up with the blade still there. If you pull the blade out the spring might push what's left of the dowel over and you'd have to cut it again.

It will take 5 minutes to mask everything off, and about 20-30 seconds to actually cut the dowel. The dowel is a 3/16" x 7/8" steel rod, if you don't have any you can just cut off the un-threaded portion of a generic hardware store #10 lag screw to make a replacement for ~$0.30.