Standard E9th setup....and changes

If it has Pedals...
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mac639
Posts: 208
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:06 pm
Location: Carleton Place, ON
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Standard E9th setup....and changes

Post by mac639 »

I don't want to start some great discussion on this, but you folks that have built pedal steels to sell, I'd just like some comments. The vast majority of new guitars out there are either 3 or 4 floors and 4 or 5 knees assuming they are E9th instruments. Of course I read on the Forum often that many players like to change things.....add changes etc. True some guitars are easier to change pulls on than others. But you have to have the parts if you want to add anything. On all the guitars I've sold, the setup, although changeable to a degree, was pretty much fixed to the copedent built into it. It's pretty easy to change a raise to a lower or the reverse on the same string, or change the pull from one string to another on the same bellcrank. Anything more involved than that requires more bellcranks, rods, tuners etc. My point in all this is.......should I really worry that the guitar I sell to someone is essentially built with a certain setup in mind, constructed like that, and forget about whether I should really be providing extra bits and pieces with it in case the new owner wants to change things around sometime down the road. Just curious!
Cheers,
Mac
ljs
Posts: 101
Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2010 1:30 pm
Location: North East(the town) PA

Re: Standard E9th setup....and changes

Post by ljs »

I don't want to open a can of worms either but as far as I'm concerned as a person who has purchased several, but not built any pedal steels, a guitar with an easily changed copedent is worth a great deal more than a guitar with a fixed copedent. That being said I also realize that to make a guitar easier to change requires much more machining and fore thought, thus more costly to build and purchase.

I guess it all comes down to the individual who is purchasing the guitar. I for one am a rather short person and most of the other pedal steels I've sat down to don't fit me comfortably. That is why I had Don Burrows build my S-10 BSG to my specs, thus it is actually a custom built guitar. On the other hand my GFI is very easily changed from one persons preference to another's wanting different pedal and lever locations. It has cross-shaft holes pre-drilled all down the length of the under body, the pedals and pedal bar are designed to be easily moved left or right as needed. I enjoy playing both guitars but that is because Don was able to build to my specs, and the GFI is able to be modified to fit me. I am sure there are many other factors that need to be considered also, but in my limited experience, I think ease of adjustability is important.

LaVern

P.S. As I go back and re-read the above post I realize that I didn't address the part about providing more bellcranks, rods, tuners etc. I feel it is more important to provide a guitar that can be modified, than to provide extra parts to make the changes. You can only use so many extra bellcranks and pullrods per the amount of positions provided. Does that make sense? In my limited experience most of the changes that people would make would require added cross-shafts, levers and pedals. If there aren't any places to add the cross-shafts only so many extra bellcranks would be needed. Extra places to go then extra parts to go there :)
LJS
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