Me just thinking out loud here ... it's a habit of mine
I'm looking at various ways in which pedal/lever stoppers can be "displaced" on-the-fly, as another way for introducing mutually controlled JI tunable variable-pitch pedal action in PSGs. Although the movable bellcrank axle is likely to work just fine, quite a few parts have to be redesigned to
make it work. I'd like to reduce the complexity and number of parts, while keeping the advantage of JI tunable pedals.
A few positive points:
• There's only one stopper pr. pedal/lever to control, while, obviously, there are two bellcrank axle ends that must be controlled simultaneously. This means I only need half the number of tunable push/pull rods to "displace" stoppers compared to "displacing" bellcrank axles. Fewer parts means simpler assembling and lower weight. Good.
• I already have two "displaced" stoppers on my steel, and they have worked fine for over 22 years. So although I'm looking at ways to upgrade the existing ones, at least I know such "displacement" really works after it has left the drawing board. Good.
• A small stopper "displacement" goes a long way, so the leverage problem is easier to solve. My variant of Allan's "bent control rod" will on my Dekley give me something like 2 to 4 times the leverage for the same pitch-shift when used to "displace" stoppers compared to "displacing" bellcrank axles, which obviously is a good thing.
I will probably come up with more positive points later...
Some negative points:
• Although all foot pedal stoppers are arranged along the front side of the body frame on most PSGs and therefore are relative easy to design a solution for, levers are, or can be, "everywhere". So new "variable-pitch stop" lever mechanisms must be designed.
• Spring-loaded control rods can only hold back so much even if leverage is increased, so it will be technically possible to push a 2 position pedal/lever stopper to its ultimate position by using extreme force on the pedal/lever that "displaced" stopper is on. Since by "extreme force" I mean
really extreme, I'm not sure if this is such a bad thing.
• Along the same line: the effect of a "displaced" stopper will be felt in the relevant pedal/lever, so may take a short while getting used to. I've listed this as a negative point, but I'll probably see this "action-feel" as an advantage while playing.
• The regular pullrods for several strings changed by same bellcrank axle must be timed well, since there will be only one variable-pitch control for each bellcrank axle. Not much of a problem on most PSGs, IMO.
I will probably come up with more negative points later...
I hope to be back with sketches for "displaced" stoppers later, presumably after Bent and I have turned a couple of Dekley and BenRom steels upside down and looked at options. Sometime next week, maybe.
In the mean time: shoot! I do need some resistance in order to perform optimally
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)