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Topic: Feeling good steel leg vibrations |
Colm Chomicky
From:
Kansas, (Prairie Village)
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Posted 3 Sep 2007 7:01 am |
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| When looking at steels at the ISGC, a friend pointed out to me, one test to help tell a guitar is a good one is to give the strings a strum and feel the vibrations in one of the legs with a light touch of your fingers. Look for a good sustain in the legs. Could that be true, or is it more of a myth? If the legs are an important part of the system, especially how a guitar sustains, then image other variables such as the contact between the legs and the floor (and even the nature of the rubber feet which could affect dampening) Opinions? I have not felt enough different legs to really know. |
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Lee Baucum
From:
McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier
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Posted 3 Sep 2007 7:12 am
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I have heard and read where others have made that same comment. I suspect you would feel those vibes in just about any pedal steel guitar, unless the legs were somehow isolated from the rest of the guitar.
I also heard (or read) a comment that if you can feel those vibrations in the legs, then the guitar is losing all its sustain down into the floor!
Go figure! |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 3 Sep 2007 8:37 am
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I believe that that's the test used by Buddy Emmons to separate the sheep from the goats when it came to steel guitars.  |
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Jim Kennedy
From:
Brentwood California, USA
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Posted 3 Sep 2007 11:14 am
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Two things I look for in an electric guitar: How does it sound unplugged, and how long does it sustain. The first is subjective, tone always is. The second can be measured using an intellitouch tuner. My Tele will sustain a note for several seconds before the tuner can no longer pick it up. Also, I can feel the vibrations in the headstock when lightly touched. I am sure the vibration test would apply to psg. Poorly built instruments do not "vibrate" to the same extent as a well built one. I would assume a solidly built PSG would transmit those vibrations into the legs--solid glue joints, solid attachment to any frame, tight fitting end plates, should transmit vibration into the legs IMHO. Also, I use my intellitouch tuner on my ShoBud as a tuning reference. Works great. I just clamp it onto the skirt.
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ShoBud Pro 1, 75 Tele, 85 Yamaha SA 2000, Fender Cybertwin, |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 3 Sep 2007 11:30 am
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I'm just a hacker at this, but I tend to judge the sound of a guitar by the way it sounds! Whether or not the legs vibrate, what color it is, whose name is on the front, who owned it before, who plays one now, or how much it costs, are all rather insignificant details (to me) where the sound is concerned.
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Dick Wood
From:
Springtown Texas, USA
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Posted 3 Sep 2007 2:10 pm
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| Didn't Buddy play that slide part on the Beach Boys Good Steel leg Vibrations? |
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Billy Carr
From:
Seminary, Mississippi, USA (deceased)
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Posted 3 Sep 2007 4:02 pm vibrations
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| I've seen vibrations on knee levers on some guitars but if you really want to enhance guitar tone/sustain, just send one to Tommy Young in Columbus, MS. and I assure you he'll take care of it with a mod. It works. My D-10 Fessy has one and you have to use your hand or volume pedal to stop the sustain. I think he's got a magic wand up there somewhere! |
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