Finished building

[maxi19]

Hello everyone,

I have managed to complete my pedal steel, I have made some mods but there is still a lot of improvements I want to make. It tunes up and plays chords but I am still 'setting it up'.

The next part will be the most difficult and more time consuming and that is learning to play the thing, I would like to thank everyone for the advice and assistance I was given and perhaps ther wont be so many questions with the next one.

Regards to all

Ron Mc

[maxi19]

More photo's

[na4it]

NICE! Are you going to have a pad next to the neck? I saw one the other day that a guy had a removable pad with Velcro on it.

[richard37066]

Congrats, Ron! Everything looks to be first rate. This old man is proud for you.

You speak of learning to play it and of making some changes. In my view, the greatest impediment to learning to play this contraption is the "playability" of the instrument. That is, the relation of lever position and spacing versus pedal position, etc.. In an ideal sense, you would want to just "think" about making a lever move and have it happen. In refurbing my old Dekley, I've spent several hours just moving the levers around such that I can just plop my old butt in the chair and everything falls into place in my "normal" playing posture. I, for one, prefer to have the levers relatively close together such that I don't have to sling my knee all over the south fourty in order to activate them. The pressure required to activate either a pedal or lever is of importance, too. You really don't want to have to "fight" this thing in order to get something out of it. Both of those can be tweaked so as to give a reasonable resistance while offering a positive tactile feel. I'm not suggesting that you make wholesale changes to your guitar, but, rather to tweak things to your reasonable satisfaction while learning what works and what needs to be improved upon - in order to suit YOU - in your next build.

Virtually all guitar manufacturers have a "formula" by which they construct their instruments. It is, obviously, a compromise which would pretty much satisfy most players. They are not in the business of constructing a "custom" instrument for each buyer. As much as I truly admire and respect the quality of Bent Romnes' guitars, I have no doubt that I'd prefer to relocate a lever or two and, perhaps even the placement of the pedals in order to suit ME! And there's the key: - To set up an instrument to suit yourself and no one else. You will learn this in short order when you attempt to drag some pretty sounds from your guitar.

None of the above is meant to be critical or demeaning. I'm only attempting to get you to be your own worst critic - to admire those things which are on the money and, also, to make note of things to be changed in order to create the absolute best instrument for YOU! Given the obviously fine craftsmanship that you've brought to bear in the building of this guitar, I'm certain that your next instrument will fit you like a glove and operate with the smoothness of greased owl-crap!

Once again, be proud of your accomplishment. It deserves it.

Richard

Oh - one real criticism. Ya forgot the cup holder up by the keyhead.

[Bob M]

Hi Ron
It looks the Dogs Nutts,be proud mate.
if it sounds as good as it looks,which i guess it will, Hours of fun to come

Best Regards

Bob

Wolverhampton uk

[Bent]

Ron you have built a beautiful and strong pedal steel that I am sure you will be proud of owning. I predict that this will not be your last one.
I love to observe all the great talent out there!
Good luck and keep on building.

[maxi19]

Thank you Scott, Richard, Bob and Bent,

The encouragement you receive on this site is certainly overwhelming, you are right Richard the 'project' becomes very different when you have the result sitting in front of you, there is the realisation that this part would be better there and another part should probably be in that position.

Bent I am already thinking about the next one but I will continue to modify this one and hopefully transfer the results to the future model, as I said in a previous post, I met Dave Wheelhouse
(sheffield steel) recently and we had a long chat during which he gave a lot of pointers and helpful advice.

Best Regards Ron Mc

[sheffield steel]

Hi Ron, she sure looks a beauty , I see you put the stainless steel pull rods on, Great workmanship. Dave

[Jif]

Looks really sweet Ron, you have every right to feel proud of the result

As a relative newcomer to playing PS I would say that perseverence is the key. When I first started the neighbours thought the cat was being strangled, actually it was my wife strangling me if I didn't stop making that racket

But after a couple of years I've finally realised what the foot pedals do, not sure about those bar thingies hanging down about my legs are for though

I found it a hard instrument to learn but it's worth it when it all starts to come together.

It looks crackin'

[maxi19]

Thanks Dave, Geoff,

I am still looking to improve on it and set it up so as it feels more comfortable etc.

Regards Ron Mc