I never considered how temperature would affect the metal, as opposed to if it is constructed of wood. In the future I'll comment on how well it stays in tune, or if I have difficulty. Mostly I'll use it at home. I might cart it around to friends houses, maybe not.Bent wrote:Hi Elektro and welcome! You came to the right place...here we are not lacking in advice and opinions!
I must say that is going to be one solid piece of steel guitar! The one piece changer housing/neck/keyhead should pretty well eliminate the need for the 3/4" wood (oak?) for a body, as those solid aluminum pieces will carry the whole load. If built to this method, all you really need is wood for decoration purposes ie 1/4" thick to make the whole unit that much lighter.
It sounds like this guitar will be mostly in your home? If so, you won't have much of a problem with expansion/contraction due to temperature changes.
The old Bigsby pedal steels were built like yours and also partly the Emmons PP. With those methods there have been reports of tuning difficulties with temp. variations. But like I said, if yours will be sitting in the same temperature, you should be ok.
Good luck with your build and I am sure you will keep us posted!
My idea is, a simple to play guitar. From what I've read, playing a 10 string pedal steel guitar in the manner most play, is not easy. But if all you have to do is strum, push the pedal for the type of chord you want (minor, 7th, etc), move the slide to the fret to get the chord, this is very easy (to me, anyway). I have a lap steel guitar and use it this way all the time. But the limitation to major chords is my inspiration to build something that has more flexibility.azureskys wrote:Hi and welcome , your build looks pretty good and i like the idea of something different not another clone , you ll find alot of pretty good guys on the forum and loads of know how any questions you might have im sure you ll get a good answer, is that oak wood your useing ? i use it alot in my builds its a great wood not only for strength but also great tone wood.Keep us posted as to your build .Russ
The idea of playing chords seems more interesting to me, and more usable to me for my use. Of course, individual notes can be played.Eldon wrote:Boy do I ever like what I see there. I originally toyed with the idea of using pedals to get the chords as you describe in your first post, I did in the end go with a standard C6 copedant with 6 pedals. Now that I have 2 guitars I can fool around with the other one as much as I like. You'll like the heavy neck should give you lots of sustain. Are you considering a pull-release changer. Not that difficult to do and far fewer parts to make.
Code: Select all
Open P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6
---- -- -- -- -- -- --
G +G# -F#
D ++E
B -Bb +C
G +G# -F#
G --F
D ++E
B -Bb +C
G
Yes, sounds like we have similar interests. I'd prefer to play a regular guitar, if I could, but my fingers no longer bend, and it's quite impossible. I also cannot hold the slide for the pedal guitar in a normal manner, but I am quite able to hold it. I dampen the strings with my right hand. I plan on making a string damper on a custom slide I'll be making soon. To dampen the strings I will lean the slide to the left. I notice steel guitar players use their fingers along side the slide to do this, but it's not possible for me to do so. I think my idea will work well, just need to get around to making it. I suppose if there is a will there is a way.michaelm wrote:It looks like you are off to a good start, Elektro. Strumable is good. It sounds like we have some similar ideals. No building tips here, but some ideas on tuning. I came to pedals, not because I wanted to play Nashville E9 or Swing C6 -- that's been done before and far better than I ever could -- but to expand what I want to do with my lap steel and dobro playing. I want minors, sevenths and strumability. Although I play out once in awhile, electric and acoustic, I am basically a back porch acoustic picker, so that's where I'm coming from with most of what I do. I have a Fender 400 with 8 strings and 6 pedals set up in an open G tuning. I started out thinking I would set up a tuning on my 400 in E, but the strings that were on it when I got it lent themselves better for G, so that is what I started with. It turns out that I like that, so I stuck with it. Here it is:
[/size]Code: Select all
Open P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- G +G# -F# D ++E B -Bb +C G +G# -F# G --F D ++E B -Bb +C G
The two Gs in the middle, strings 4 and 5, are tuned in unison. As you can see, P1 switches the whole tuning to minor and P4 gives one big fat seventh chord. P2 and P3 are like the A and B pedals in E9 and P5 and P6 are like the F and E levers. Listen to a sample of this tuning here: http://picosong.com/Yst
I also have a pretty funky 6-string tuned in Spanish (Open G - L2H): D G D G B D
I have had various pedal and lever configurations on that one. Currently one pedal raises the 2 higher Ds to E; one pedal raises the B to C; and one pedal drops the B to Bb. There is also LKL knee lever to raise the Gs to G#. I have been collecting parts and making sketches to build a new version. If I can ever get back to it, I will be starting a thread here.
HTH. Good luck with your project. I like it.