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Author
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Topic: Fender PS 210
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Paul Redmond
Member From: Illinois, USA
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posted 31 July 2006 07:25 PM
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I bought serial #11 from Gene Fields while in Knoxville TN in 1988. He told me at the time that it was the last NEW (as yet unsold) PS210 of the 15 "production" models made before the "plug was Pulled on the project. Mine has 5FP, 4KL . . not uncommon, but it does contain 2 pieces that are VERY uncommon. Under each neck is a somewhat V-shaped steel stamping with #8-32
tapped holes - one hole for each of the 9 available pulls - in each of the faces of the stamping. The PS210 normally stopped at the endplate when the tuner bar for each pull bottomed out on the endplate. This stamping allows you to put long #8-32 stop screws in each one of the holes to stop the pull WITHOUT the bar bottoming out on the endplate. The delta-shaped drawplates and the tuner bars can then be "floated". I made up some of these screws and installed them on the rear neck (my rear neck is E9) and it definitely takes most of the spongy feel out of the pedals and knees. Gene explained that only 1 or 2 of the guitars made had these stops. You can stop @ the endplate a la Kline, ZB, etc., OR stop the linkage a la most every guitar made today. These were complex stampings and, as toolmaker, I can't imagine what the tooling cost for this could have been. There are 18 holes in each stop that are tapped!! That's 36 altogether. The stampings were obviously black oxided or anodized when completed. anyone out there have these on their PS210's? |
Jody Sanders
Member From: Magnolia,Texas
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posted 31 July 2006 10:18 PM
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As I have said before, Gene Fields is a master designer and a master builder of steel guitars. That is why he is so successful in this business. Jody. |
basilh
Member From: United Kingdom
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posted 01 August 2006 01:45 AM
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Paul, yours is number 11, mine is 'PS-12' and DOESN'T have the stops you describe !!
I've seen pictures of the assembly with the stops but having set up mine and using it at every gig since, I find that the mechanism isn't spongy but quite firm (Compared to my other guitars)The link below is to pictures of the mods on mine.
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/012905.html |
Paul Redmond
Member From: Illinois, USA
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posted 01 August 2006 09:15 PM
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basilh - Perhaps I should have elaborated a bit re: "sponginess" in the pedal feel on my guitar. I must sheepishly admit that I have not yet taken the time see that the "bars" are bottoming out on the endplate in a parallel manner. That's what will give the PS210 a spongy feel . . . if the bars bottom first at one end then the other. By using the mysterious stop underneath, parallelism becomes less critical because the bars are still "floating". Ed Bierly sent me the pics of your PS210 snail mail after you posted them. I'm very impressed at the neatness and the workmanship. Soon I'll take the time to finish tweaking my guitar in. I moved my E9 tuning to the rear neck and C6 to the front because I only have seven pull possibilties on the front neck. Gene explained to me that the levers that pull on the wide delta plates on the front neck originally had a stepped-up offset formed into them. He said that those levers always tried to twist because the pull was not inline but rather above the line of pull. Therefore when mine was assembled, they used rear-neck levers on the front neck. The amount of offset was the same as two slot spacings in their guide plates. Hence seven instead of nine on the front neck. The rear neck has, of course, the standard nine. I don't often get the time or take the to play it as often as I'd like to, but even after all these years I sometimes just sit and stare at that little jewel and marvel at the brilliant design. As far as I'm concerned, Gene Fields rank right up there with Preston Tucker when it comes to ingenuity. Do you realize how few alterations to the original Tucker would have to be made to make it a very viable car today almost six decades after the fact? that's the way I feel about the PS210. What a phenomenal instrument. | |
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