Changer axle

[Pat Comeau]

Interesting changer for sure but...how are you gonna tune the lowers cause it looks in your picture that they connect on the side , and also like Mac said...what is the reason to have a slot for the top finger to slide onto the shaft rather than just the hole?...the more contact the finger has with the shaft the more sustain in my opinion, can you explain more in detail how this changer is setup?...and did you test the changer first to see if it works and can be tune with somekind of nuts at the changer with strings on it? , just wanna make sure you know it works before going any further with that design.


Pat C

[Georg]

Interesting construction! It reminds me of a Jackson "broken finger" changer I saw in Dallas last March ... is it intended to work in a similar way?

Years ago I envisioned a "changer axle" somewhat like that. Major difference is that my design didn't have an axle at all, just a knife-edge going into a "pacman" cutout for zero friction.

[azureskys]

thats enteresting i think i see how it might work , does anyone know how many different changer setups there is. it this would really work you could say that changer shaft wont bend in the middle lol . Russ

[Ray Moonraker]

Hi Mac

Thank you for taking an interest in my axle I have never seen one like this before, I don't know if it is a first, I decided to post more pics as this will help to understand how it works,you connect the pull rods to the top and bottom holes in the lower bar to effect raise or lower when you pull the bottom pull rod it rocks the bar against the top what I call neutral bar making the string lower I hope this helps you understand

all the best Ray

[mac639]

Thanks Ray....now I see how it works. Looking through my scrap box I find some fingers I made like that one time. I kind of gave up on it though, couldn't seem to get the right places for the horizontal crossrods and the springs at the right tension for each string. Clever idea though. Those hex screws, are they sort of fine tuners/stops? There's a changer being made now that's something like that, maybe a bit more complex. Can't recall who's doing it. Good luck with your project!
Cheers,
Mac

[Ray Moonraker]

Hello
this is a pic of the front side of the changer,you can see there are holes in the bottom part of the changer, the front holes take the pull rods that raise and lower the strings, the hole just above the bottom hole and at the back takes the tension spring that connects to the spring tension bar, 4mm Hex bolts are screwed through a threaded hole in the finger and come in contact with a piece of angle iron that is the raise stop, a 7mm square bar with 4mm threaded holes in line with the finger is screwed to the underside of the body behind the changer with hex bolts used to tune the lower stops,I used a digital tuner to check for axle bend by tuning one string and raising the string next to it and there as no sign of any movement in the string I
tuned,The sustain and tone on this guitar is very good.

cheers Ray

[Pat Comeau]

Hi Ray,

one thing is still bugging me about that changer design as you say is an all-pull changer...where is the tuning nuts and how you're gonna keep it in tune? , i see holes on the side meaning you're gonna hook the pull rods there right?...is the tuning nuts underneath by the keyhead?, or am i missing something here .

Pat C.

[burt]

Pat, the bolts in the raise section of the finger are the tuners for the raises.
The lowers are tuned by bolts (not shown) similar to a pull-release mechanism, if I'm understanding Ray's explanation correctly.

[burt]

Ray, I think you should make the neutral bars out of larger diameter stock, they could be the weakest link.

[Pat Comeau]

Pat, the bolts in the raise section of the finger are the tuners for the raises.
The lowers are tuned by bolts (not shown) similar to a pull-release mechanism, if I'm understanding Ray's explanation correctly.

Hi Richard,
yes i see the bolts for the raise but...what about the lowers?

Pat