The Steel Guitar Forum

Lately I came across some tuning problems. Yesterday right before the gig this happened: I was tuning the pedals and noticed F#-->G# (string 1) was slightly off. I sharpened it but instead of raising in tone it dropped!! The more I turned the peg (in the right direction off course) the more it went flat... How is this possible?? Today I tried again and this time it came back in place (a G# perfectly in tune on the 1 st string using LKR). Out of curiosity I continued turning the peg just a little more and again it happened: it became flat. I solved it for now by doing this: I released the KL and turned the peg until - after engaging the KL again - the G# sounded right again.

A couple of months ago I came across another problem: I couldn't get the RKR lower the Eb to C# anymore. It didn't drop further then D . If I continued turning the peg, the finger started to be pushed inside the changer which caused the 2nd string to sound too sharp. I didn't try to solve it for several months and then suddenly today I tried again and tuning the peg to C# was perfectly possible. . . . . . .

What could possibly be wrong? I noticed that the cross shafts of both F#-G# and Eb-C# are a bit loose. Should they be fix? If yes, how should I do that: just turning the screw so that the bottom of it touches the wood?

What I also noticed: the tuning peg of F#-G# touches the finger completely, whereas with the tuning peg of Eb-C# there is a space between the nylon of the peg and the metal of finger. Should there always be movement possible (space)?

Please advice.

Than you!

Bart

Bart, post this in the Pedal Steel section - you'll do better. This section is for queries about the forum itself.

I'm going to guess that you have an all pull guitar. If that's the case then it sounds like you are overtuning the changer.

Look for the sticky above entitled "Overtuning and undertuning an all pull guitar", and you'll probably see your very problem described, and what to do about it.

I suspect the spring for string 1 is not tight enough.
This has caused you to overtune the F# to G# (the tuner should have a little distance before it contacts the finger).
When you raise string 1 to G#, the spring is too loose to hold the Lowering finger in place, so it goes flat. It is just a little too loose, so as you say, sometimes it works, but touch it again, and it goes flat.
Look at the spring while you engage the F# to G#. I bet you will see the spring is barely tight enough to hold the Lowering finger in place.
This is also why sometimes it won't go to C#... the Lowering finger is too loose, so you are not starting from D#, even though you tuned it to D# at the Keyhead.
Just tighten it a quarter turn at a time until it stabalizes.
If there is no spring adjustmet, you will need to make the spring a little shorter, which I have done before using a vice, a needle nose plyer, and a good wire cutter or hack saw, to make the spring look exaclty the same, just shorter.

A good thing to remember whenever you're tuning pedals or levers on an all pull guitar is to always immediately reference the open tuning (no pedals or levers activated) when you're tuning a pedal. For instance, if you're tuning the 5th string raise, you first check and adjust the open string tuning. Then, you mash the pedal and crank away on the tuning nut to get the pedal in tune. And if, when you release the pedal, the open string is now out tune, you have screwed up! Further cranking away will only make the problem worse, and it can sometimes even damage the changer.

I won't go into the "fix" as it's already outlined very well in the sticky about "overturning and undertuning".

Back the nylon tuning nuts all the way off for that levers functions and start again, draw them back in slowly.