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Fender 800 - Changer Springs Adjust? (Page 2)
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The Steel Guitar Forum
Pedal Steel Archive
Fender 800 - Changer Springs Adjust? (Page 2)
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| This topic is 2 pages long: 1 2 This topic was originally posted in this forum: Pedal Steel |
| Author | Topic: Fender 800 - Changer Springs Adjust? |
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Stan Townsend Member Posts: 219 |
posted 26 October 2001 01:07 PM
Fender 800, 10-string, double raise/double lower, sunburst, circa '65. Does anyone know if the spring tension on this guitar changer is adjustable and how to? The flatting levers on strings 8 and 4 are very tight and hard to pull, although everything is well oiled. There is a row of ten holes on the endplate with ten screws that look like they may be connected to the tension springs. ?? |
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Herb Steiner Member Posts: 6119 |
posted 26 October 2001 02:45 PM
I've had two Fender 800s and a 2000 in my career. The raises were beautiful, the lowers were from either Hell or Nazi Germany. I tinkered and tinkered till my screwdrivers broke and my hands bled, and could never get them to play right. Those guitars were where I learned my slant bar technique.  ------------------ |
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Donny Hinson Member Posts: 9192 |
posted 26 October 2001 02:56 PM
The easiest way to do this (without trying to stretch the whole spring at once) is to insert a wide blade screwdriver between the turns of the spring (while they're in place), and just "twist" them open a little. (So that there's a gap about the width of the spring wire between the coils.) You might have to do this in 2-4 different places on the spring (a couple of coils apart) before it's suitably stretched. (Check the feel of the pedal between each "twist" that you do...so you don't "overdo" it.) [This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 26 October 2001 at 03:03 PM.] |
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Stan Townsend Member Posts: 219 |
posted 26 October 2001 03:40 PM
Herb, thanks for the sympathy. My hands are raw and sore, but no blood yet. You used a screwdriver? No wonder the pipe wrench didn't work. You're right, the raises are beautiful. Perhap I can just raise all the strings except for the ones I'm trying to lower and modulate into another key! I've got this blow torch... |
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Michael Johnstone Member Posts: 2535 |
posted 26 October 2001 08:45 PM
I don't see why the return springs couldn't be tweaked like any other guitar - I'm about to find out,as I also am tackling a nice Fender 800 which I got off E-Bay.I've been collecting parts from hither and yon so I can put 4 knee levers on it with as many stock cable yokes as I can find before I start building my own(I still lack 3).My plan for adding knee levers is to build a more or less self-contained pair of shallow rails/w knee levers,cross shafts and bell cranks like a modern steel but use cables instead of pull rods from the bell cranks to the changer - and bolt the whole thing to the cross members of the guitars' metal frame.I'm gonna leave enough space between the cross shafts and the bottom of the guitar for the existing cables/yokes from the 6 stock pedals to run free as before.Reversing levers will use a second pulley next to the existing one down at the left end of the guitar to change cable direction while the other levers will pull directly.The challenge(besides getting all this $h!+ to operate smoothly w/out snagging on itself)is gonna be to make the rig look like it belongs on the guitar.I think I'll adnodize the rails black.I'm also gonna put a second stock Fender 800 pickup on it w/a Stringmaster type blender pot and lose the mute doo-dad. A new custom made chrome top plate will accommidate the 2 pickups and it too,shall look like a stock Fender part.And I've got a lean/mean 10 string E9/B6 w/6+4 copedant which looks pretty good on paper....Now I gotta go out to the shop and actually DO it.My plan is to have it up and twangin' by Thanksgiving - at which time I'll try to post some pix of the beast. -MJ- |
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KENNY FORBESS Member Posts: 792 |
posted 27 October 2001 07:44 AM
Michael,sounds like you've done some homework, unlike myself back WHEN the Fender 2000 was around, I put 4 levers on mine with what ever I could rake and scrape, I used some alluminum bar stock i got from John Hughey (left-overs when he was building his own guitars,) I got some pulleys and small cable like was used on a small aircraft, put it all together ,but not as elaborate as you describe, they all worked fine, but everytime I took it out of the case, I had to untangle it before i played it. I don't remember having a problem with hard pulling lowers. But I'd rather jump out of a plane with it rather than a parachute,, cause I KNEW it was gonna snag on something before it hit the ground. ------------------ |
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Stan Townsend Member Posts: 219 |
posted 09 November 2001 09:26 AM
OK Guys, I got it figured out. Yes, those 10 holes on the endplate do adjust the spring tension on the lowers, although it is very hard to see what's going on in there. If anyone is having similar trouble, e-mail me and I can explain what to do. Solution: Buy an Emmons. |
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Roger Shackelton Member Posts: 929 |
posted 09 November 2001 11:59 AM
Stan, buying an Emmons might work for some people. Everyone knows that you just can't get that lush, sought after tone of a Fender on another brand of PSG. he he he. Roger |
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