The Steel Guitar Forum

Do any of you lower strings 2&9 only a half instead of half/whole/half on same knee lever? Tell me about it.MD

Normally,

You lower the 2nd from D# to D then to C# but the 9th string only gets lowered to C# from D.

Some guys prefer to split the 2nd string changing to hit the middle note more precisely. I don't have a problem going to D on the 2nd string. Coming from C# back to D can be problematic for some people.

Lloyd is the master of doing 2nd string work since he does not lower is 4th string to D#. What he does IMHO is just amazing with the 2nd string.

YMMV

Mark T.

On my Mullen I have a half stop on the second string and lower it a half and then a whole tone. My 9th string is only half tone when lowered. YES THEY ARE BOTH ON THE SAME KNEE LEVER. LKR BUT WITH A HALF STOP!!!!!

are you reading the question?MD

I have a Carter that was set up to lower 2 and 9 each a half-step on RKR. Didn’t make any sense to me that they would always be 1/2 step dissonant, so I changed string 2 to a feel stop at -1/2 and full stop at -1 to match up with string 9.

I have set up guitars for beginners with either old and limited steels or student guitars on which there was not a lot of ability to finesse the feeler stop for the 2nd string -- no adjustable return spring on 9, for instance, and just all around, not a good positive feel -- and I have opted to give them a simple D# > D on 2. I've explained that if in the course of their development they encounter lessons or tabs that demand the full step lower on 2, we can talk, but until then they are better off not fighting to find a vague half-stop.