posted 16 February 2001 01:04 PM         

Cool cats, too! >^..^<

posted 18 February 2001 03:01 AM         

Congradulations of your acquisition of the Williams crossover D10 pedal steel guitar. I hope this instrument gives you years of enjoyment.

On one of your earlier postings under this subject thread, you said:

"There's nothing to compare the crossover with, except the old Sho-Buds. Actually there's no comparison - the Williams 400x is smooth working, modern machine. The Sho-Bud crossover never came close."

You failed to mention the crossover designed for the Fender PS 210 by Gene Fields (now of GFI).

On my PS 210, once I adjusted the pedal linkage between both necks, I find that this very simple mechanical crossover device works very well; and while playing the instruent, it's almost transparent when you move the lever to change the pedals and knee levers from one neck to another.

The failure of the PS 210 in the steel guitar music world, I believe had to do more with Gene's choice of a pedal changer (that operates like the ones in the Harlin Brothers Multi-Kords and the 1st generation 1939 Gibson Electraharp) than any other aspect of the instrument.

I just wanted to give credit to Gene for his effort. The PS 210 came out in 1970 and only 15 were commercially sold by Fender. What year did the Sho-Bud Crossover model come out?

Finally, I glanced as some of the photos you took of your new Williams and I'm courious about the location of the right knee levers.
If they are way over to the right side on the instument, doesn't that make it difficult to use you right foot to press, say pedals 3, 4 or 5?

I hope that you see my point here. Some players probably never use their right foot to press any pedals (I don't do it that often) but if the knee levers are too far to the right, you're going to have to be a minor contortionist (you have to be one of these anyway to pay most pedal steels) to reach these above listed pedals.

I look forward to yours and other SGF member comments on the points I made with my posting.

Have a very good weekend and have lots of fun with your new guitar.

------------------
Regards,
Al Gershen
Grants Pass, Oregon. USA
Fender 1000 (1957),
Fender PS 210 (1972) &
Gibson Electraharp EH-820
(1962)
Pictures of PS 210 &
EH-820 at http://www.rvi.net/~aldg

posted 18 February 2001 11:56 PM         

Thanks for your reply.

I noticed on the Fender PS 210, when configured with 5 pedals and 4 knee levers, that it allows you to put the volume pedal to the right of floor pedal 5. This way, you don't have to move your right foot very far to reach pedals 4 or 5, if that's desired.

As I can remember when I saw Buddy Emmons playing his C6th tuning in live performances, he often used his right foot on the far right pedals. Even Red Rhodes did the same thing and I was able to observe him many times while I lived in Los Angeles.

I'm not necessarily an advocate of this type of playing but there are chord combinations available that can't otherwise be made with the left foot on the pedals and knee levers alone.

For myself, I find the general playing position to be very confortable on the Fender PS 210, as I suspect you will or have on your new Williams PSG.

On my Fender 1000, with its 10 floor pedals, it's very diffcult for me to hit pedals 9 and 10 with my left foot. I can get to pedal 9 most of the time but pedal 10 is partially blocked by my volume pedal. I don't have long legs and it's a real stretch to get those outer pedals.

Well, enough discussion on this matter. Go back and enjoy your new Williams PSG.

Regards,
Al Gershen

posted 19 February 2001 01:13 AM         

I had Bill custom make a few of the extenders with slots in them on the flat face of the extender. This allows the extender to not only be moved up and down, but also forward and back. I have 2 right
knees almost in line with one another, so as to miss one and not hit the other, the front to rear adjustment allows better access to both knees.

My U-12 [8 x 6] came thru with a natural
blonde lacquer finish. It's ironic, but the color I had in mind [8 years ago] was exactly the color of your new axe. I've been toying with the notion over the past year of
adding an amber shellac coating [old 3lb Orange] to darken up the finish, but like many things, is still on the backburner.

You've got yourself one great instrument there. Play the dickens out of it.

posted 19 February 2001 04:46 PM         

Anyway, I think you and I are roughly the same demensions, and I know you'll really love and favor those extenders.