Never broke the .011's or .013's (depending on my mood) that I used on my B-Bender Telecasters, either. I used to use sewing machine oil, now Teflon lube.

I really am convinced the breakage "back in the day" may have partially been string quality...nowdays, breakage would likely be a defect (burr or something) on the bridge piece.

quote:

---

Donny, I understand you aren't *interested* in "regular" guitar.

---

Jim, nothing could be further from the truth. I started my "professional" music career playing lead guitar in an all-instrumental band (Ventures-type music) in about '60. I progressed into playing lead in about 4 different Brittish music bands, and I closed out my straight-guitar career playing for motown and soul music bands in the late '60s. I have a small collection of guitars, among them a pre civil-war Martin guitar (probably one of the best examples in the country, if not the world). I also have a just about every collectors' book there is on straight guitars, and continue to follow prices and market trends on collector guitars.

However...

We're on a steel guitar forum, discussing pedal steel characteristics in a pedal steel category, and I think that bringing up anecdotal theories about straight-guitars is counter-productive...to this discussion.

If you want to talk straight guitars, go over to the "Music" category, and I'll continue to argue with you.

I apologize for misconstruing your desire not to include "regular" guitars in the discussion as disinterest. but I certainly think as "machines" there are far more similarities than differences, and it's surprising to me and some other veteran guitar players "new" to the steel world that some of these things are even thought of as issues. So it's perfectly valid to bring the comparisons up.

Take a look and see what you think it might need.

Input is greatly appreciated.

I enjoyed reading about your activities consisting of making adjustments on the Fender 400. I've sold a few early models in the past. A lady purchased one from me, and she mentioned having problems with the spacing of the A&B pedals of the 9th neck. After some thought I installed a wedge shaped piece of hardwood between the rack & pedal.The add on facilitated a change that resulted in better positioning of her small foot. She married and moved on, not leaving a trace of her progress on the F.400.
I became attracted to the E9th chromatic tuning, featuring the "inside out" tone of the second string. Someone had a penchant for a good thing. The need for a 10 string steel guitar culminated into a homemade model, with my initials beneath. After years of pleasure,
trying to gain new ground on the instrument, I realized that fretboards on a steel guitar could be improved upon. My ease of playing was markedly improved with the inception of the upright fretboard located at the "nose of the bar". I feel strongly that this concept will win out in the future.

Great work on Ed's guitar! It looks like a real beauty.

October 31st, we went to a party and she had woven and curled the strings into a Halloween costume. She was wearing ALL strings. She won the contest.

Phred

[This message was edited by Fred Shannon on 12 August 2006 at 04:56 AM.]

I had to modify the E9 tuning somewhat to compenste, but I did it and even played in D6 for some of those big modern chords. It workd pretty good and the Fender did well, but broke a lot of G# strings, like a lot of other guys did. But it played in tune pretty darn good and stayed there too. I was impressed by the little bugger, but glad to get my MSA D12...al

------------------
My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Thanks for your input. It is very much appreciated. I sure would like to review the old clips of your performance at the opry. The camera work was great on many of the earlier performances, quite often allowing a good view of the steel guitarist. The earlier recordings (including yours) are treasures of the best in steel guitar entertainment. Thanks again for the Fender 1000 information.

It appears that your diversified accomplishments are unmatched in the world of steel guitar. Among the photos, is one showing you sitting at a pedal steel with knee levers. Could you elaborate by offering information on that particular sequence of events. Curses for father time for curbing your wide expanse of steel guitar activities. Santo and Johnny seem to fit into your heyday experience.
"Sleepwalk", the 1959 huge hit, must have created much excitement in your studies of Fender guitar magic. I'm convinced that cables are superior to rods, and the Fender 1000 proves the point in many instances. Quick fix adaptability, less undesirable noise beneath the instrument, flexability in durably winding on a spool 360 degrees, supplanting the rigidity of straight on rods incapable of changing designated direction without add-ons. Further, I don't recall reading printed material illustrating or alluding to the destructive set screws that "bite" into the smooth surfaces of the rods, resulting in damages. The resultant usage of those sloppy little wires on famous brand names, adds more credence to cables as a preferred choice in construction of changer mechanisms.

[This message was edited by Bill Hankey on 09 August 2006 at 06:33 AM.]

Maybe that is what Donny means?

I've experimented with many different options including the type that you've suggested as an alternative to pulleys. I tried using 1/4 " key stock instead of the narrow strips of flat stock seen under the Maverick. In each case it's a poor setup. One big disadvantage is the sensitive differences in string tension. The thin strings pull up to pitch with less pedal pressure, due to the string gauges. In order to have both pitches moving together accurately, leverage must be considered beforehand. Once that quirky issue is resolved, the unstable arrangement evolves into additional uncertainties. It is called obstructing by way of taking up excessive space, and interfering with a lack of clearance for changes necessary for the E9th chromatic setup. Fender's pulleys are streamlined, and respond to the force exerted; no matter how little. I've found that balky, and troublesome setups can be reworked to better measures of satisfaction.
One of the reasons for the interest that steel guitars produce, along with their unduplicated tonal qualities, is the categories of related maintenances in getting the best sounds.

I'm sure that offsetting the center hole in a yoke could even up the pulls some, but it might be really hard to find that perfect spot...and you'd have to make each yoke different to account for the different string sizes being pulled....sounds like it would take more physics and math knowledge than I'm equipped with.

Am I correct or am I missing something here...like a degree in physics?

I'm using most of Sneaky Pete's tuning and copedant. I set it up like Tommy Spurlock's 400, which is the Sneaky setup minus the 8th string pull on the 1st pedal. I have not added the knee levers yet, but plan to. I've made up a yoke for adding the 8th string pull, just haven't set it up yet.

I recently sold a later model 400 that Tommy had modified by Duane Marrs. He used cross-rods and pulleys and it worked well. It was tuned to the bottom 8 of the E9th chromatic tuning. It had 3 pedals, but no knees. I played it some and it seemed to work fine.

I'm just not understanding why the yokes would not function the same as a pulley does when you're considering the uneven resistance of the strings being pulled. The resistance is the same in both cases. All I can see that might be different is possibly a bit more friction from the 3 pivot points on the yoke than the axle of the pulley and maybe the distance between the outer pivot points compared to the short distance between the 2 points that the cable joins the pulley. My yokes are considerably wider than a pulley, so that may or may not make much difference.

I may have just luckily hit on the right distances on the first try.

I tried pasting Sneaky's copedant in, but it didn't come out right. It's on the forum in several threads.

GP

[This message was edited by Gerald Pierce on 09 August 2006 at 04:03 PM.]