Pedal Steel Guitar ( Project #2 )

[Pat Comeau]

Hi Guy's,

I've been busy building my new PSG project#2, got the cabinet almost done except of the front apron that is not glued yet only screwed until i get some inlays, you can see on pics #5 how i routed the end of the top plate to fit the endplates, now i gotta order some aluminums to start working on the undercarriage, i'm gonna use steel round cross shaft instead of aluminum cause i find that aluminum is a little to soft for round cross shaft to hold the bellcranks tight.

[Pat Comeau]

pics #4 & 5

[Allan]

Mighty fine start Pat. It would be really great if you could keep the pics coming at each stage. I know that I, for one, would be waiting for the next chapter to open up.

Thanks for sharing, Allan.....

[Bent]

Hey Pat, That's looking great so far! Say, how did you end up putting the top deck together? I see some screws there but not sure what kinda joint you ended up with.
Looking forward to the next batch of pics!

[Pat Comeau]

Hey Bent ...here's an example of how i butt the two deck together

[Scott Howard]

Moving right along. Glad to see the endplates went into use . I still have the wood I had bought and saved for that project . I just can't get rid of it yet. I still may build one , who knows .

Have you thought about using square crossrods ? It is not much harder to make everything work and I think far better in the long run. I have been using Fessenden bell cranks for sometime and they work great. I have replaced the 3/8" round with 5/16" square on all my MSA's . I have even worked around the having to turn the ends down. So it would not be bad to do at home without a lathe.

Not trying to be negative , but just offering a suggestion . Looks Great so far.

[Pat Comeau]

Hi Scott, the only reason i'm gonna use round cross shaft is because i already have 16 bellcranks with a 3/8" holes , i'm gonna use square shaft in the other project i'm also gonna start soon, i want to make a Emmons D all pull clone for my next project and when i'm done with those 2 project i'm already thinking of making a Sho-Bud 1 1/2 body clone .

thanks everyone for the encouragements i really appreciate that, i will post pictures as i go with different stages of the build...................Pat C

[Scott Howard]

I have used a 5/16 square broach on the factory MSA pedal connecters that had a 3/8" round hole and never had any problems . It leaves 4 little corners and not a full square but I have never had one slip or give any problems. Just a thought and you could still use what you have and get square cross rods .

[Bill Ford]

Pat,
Looking good, I like how you joined the decks for the 1/4" step. Are you planning to glue the neck to the body? With all the discussion about screw tension/torque, I sorta wish I would have just used screws on mine. All other joints need to be glued for sure.

Scott,
Measure the broach at the entry point and drill the hole for a snug fit, looks like you are drilling too large.
(not a criticism,just an observation) There may be a chart for this dimension.

Bill
Found it !!!!!
http://www.dumont.com/prod3c.html

[Steve W]

It looks really good. I'm kind of a sucker for not doing inlay.

Side question for everyone or a thought. My triple neck is constructed so that the individual necks do not attach to each other. I thought that was strange at first but I can see a positive. From my experience a good amount of cabinet drop can come from downward pedal presure on the underside of the cabinet which bows the cabinet. On my D-10's there are signs of cabinet drop on the C6th neck as well since the pedals in the middle of the guitar seem to cause more of a problem because the necks are attached to each other. I think the downward presure on the front neck gets transfered to the back neck. This triple neck seems to not transfer this bowing to the other necks because it seems to stay in the front neck. I don't know if anyone else has noticed that. I also wonder if the individual necks are allowed to vibrate more when they aren't glued and screwed to the other neck.

I can see how attaching the two necks to each other might add some stability against this drop but I doubt it is very much. Take a long 3/4 piece of wood, lay it flat and press down to see the bowing. Add another under it and check it again. It still bows. Add one standing on it's end and you have much more support. Kind of like how a 2x4 is much stronger standing up. The front apron is the stronger support because it is standing up.

Just thinking out loud.

Steve

PS.....I just realized that this project is an SD-10. so it isn't an issue but I'm still curious about the merrits of attaching necks to each other. I also just remembered that my Clinesmith does not attach necks to each other either.