I having been trying out several different guitars brands with the thought of making a purchase at the ISGC. One particular brand I have tried I really liked the tone of, but the pedal travel is too short for my tastes. The pedals on this guitar are fairly short, and the rod connects pretty far out from the pedal axle center line, so obviously this gives a short stiff pedal action.

Let us assume that the bell crank / changer rodding is alread set for the longest travel for a given pull (ie close to the cross shaft and in lowest row of raise holes). The given pull requires the pedal rod to travel downward by a given dimension, between the at rest position and the pedal stop on the cross shaft.

One easy way to get a longer pedal travel is to move the pivot point closer to axle center line. My Sierra has 3 different holes for the rod ball joint making this easy to adjust, most others have only one connection. The other easy way is make the pedal longer.

Looked at from a statics perspective, when the pedal is depressed a certain force applied through the pedal rod is required to hold the pedal down, and this does not change regardless of pedal length or connection point. The pedal length and connection point do determine the opposing force required to hold the pedal down however. To calculate the force required to hold the pedal down you would sum the moments about pedal axle and you can solve for the force required to hold the pedal down.

Assume

P = the force required through the pedal rod
L1 = the distance from the axle center line to pedal rod connection point
L2 = the distance from the axle center line to the point where the foot is pushing down on the pedal
F = the force the foot has to supply

The formula simplifies to

L1 * P
--------- = F
L2

So the feel of the pedal, ie "how hard is it to push" depends on both L1 and L2. The amount of rotation around the axle is also determined by L1 and L2.

So if I wanted to mod the guitar I mentioned above to make the travel longer and softer, I could

1. Use the existing pedal and mod the pedal so the pedal rod attaches closer to the axle
2. Install different pedals onto the pedal bar that are longer, and/or have a shorter L1

Questions

1. Has anyone machined their existing pedals to shorten L1? For side mount ball joints, this is as simple as drilling and tapping a new hole. For top mount ala old MSA, Carter there would be machining.

2. Has anyone installed different pedals onto their steel? Not necessarily only from other steels, there is industrial equipment that uses pedals that could work.

3. Which brand of steel has the longest pedals? Sierra pedals are pretty long I know.

[This message was edited by Scott Swartz on 02 July 2004 at 12:25 PM.]

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If the pedals travel too much, they'll be uncomfortable due to their height, or they'll bottom out on padded carpet. As in everything else, each player's physiology will be a little different, and they will prefer diferent heights, but the actual "tolerance" for the pedals being too high or too low is surprisingly small (just over an inch, for most players).

As far as the sound and feel are concerned, find a guitar that "feels" right to you...one that is comfortable to play! There's dozens of things that can be done to change the sound of any guitar, but the mechanics and ergonomics of them are pretty well set in stone with their design.

No matter how good a guitar sounds, if it feels "clumsy" to you, it will not be a pleasant experience to play it! Buying a particular brand of guitar for only it's "sound" is like buying a pair of shoes only because they look good, and then limping around in them for the next couple of years.

The pros sound distinctive, and good, regardless of what brand they're playing, and most of them play different brands from time to time! Do I think that oughta tell you something? Yep.

Sure, thousands of players have bought Emmons guitars (thinking they'd sound just like Buddy), and hundreds bought ZB's (thinking they'd sound just like Tom), and hundreds bought Fenders (thinking they'd sound just like Mooney). How many were successful?

The problem is I like a LOT longer pedal travel than the vast majority of players, judging by the steels I have tried - Emmons LeGrande, Derby, BMI, Carter, a few others, all too short for me. I am shooting for about 3/4-1" movement downward at the pedal pad through the pitch change from pedal up to down as my midpoint, without maxing out the rodding selection (ie not in the 3rd row of raise holes and closest to the cross shaft).

On the guitar that I mentioned I liked everything else, knee levers felt great, tone is good, and based on the other guitars I tried (all too short), I will likely have to mod whatever I get.

Changing the leverage at the pedal is the easy way to make a global change in the feel of the guitar, so I was thinking if I just mount some different pedals on the pedal bar its taken care of in one step. The mod would not have to be permanent either, I could save the original pedals and install the new ones with appropriate brackets, spacers, etc.