Fender 2000 Finger Mod

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

As they say..."Don't try this at home"...
You could ruin a otherwise nice guitar very quickly. Whoa!

Well... I didn't have any other place to try it...

Iâ€™m adding in this timeline of events just for clarification; Some time around the early 90â€™s, I bought
a Fender 2000. I played it for a while, then switched out the cables for rods, thereby giving it a more
direct feel, and then added knee levers. Some where along the way I noticed it had this certain â€œextraâ€
tone when I played the fourth and fifth string. I tried every thing I could to figure out what was causing
this. I experimented with different string gauges and even changed the pickups to GL 10-1â€™s. In 2006
I posted on here http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=34451&highlight= to see if any one
knew the answer to this problem. I got some very good replies from all who responded on that thread,
all of which were very helpful, very solid advice. One of the items mentioned was the contact point
where the string meets the finger. One thing I did not know to try then was what Donny mentioned in
this thread, which was forming the string at the finger. This may have been all I needed to do. Jerry
also mentioned this and posted a picture, on this thread, which explains this perfectly.

After finding the problem, I fixed it (not the easy way, mind you) and have been happily playing it
for 3 or 4 years since. Here's what the problem was. It is a phenomenon which probably happens in most
all strings, but is only manifested audibly in the largest of the solid strings. What happens is this; The
larger the diameter of the vibrating string is, the more prone it is to come up off the finger at the point
where the string and the finger meet. It then slaps back down onto the finger introducing a new random
vibration into the strings otherwise "perfect" oscillation. This is sometimes referred to as the â€œsitarâ€ effect,
but might be more properly known as string sizzle. This happens to a lesser degree as string size
decreases because;
#1 the "new random" vibrations are increasingly higher in frequency with this decrease in string size,
being coupled with,
#2 they are significantly quieter because the increasingly smaller string slaps the finger with less force.
There are other things like string tension which could have some affect, but the best fix is to keep the
string in constant contact with the top of the finger at this critical point. A way to keep the string to finger
contact is to increase the down bearing pressure of the string by decreasing the radius of the finger. This
would maybe not need to be as drastic for the number 4 finger as for the number 5 finger, but I made my
number 4 and 5 finger radii the same. Then again, the tension on the number 5 string might be such that
it had less of a problem than the number 4 string had, therefore requiring finger 4 to be in need of more
modification. Some guitars which have sizzle may be the effect of being worked on to remove a burr
or groove, and in reality the top of the finger was flattened, thereby increasing the radius of the contact
point. What I am posting here is just by way of information for some one who has a machine shop and/or
the right equipment, and would want to make an entirely new finger for their guitar and is in no way
meant to encourage any one to haphazardly experiment on, or otherwise ruin their guitar. Since I didnâ€™t
have the tools to make an entirely new finger, this is what I did;

I removed the chrome by grinding toward the center of the top of the finger. I then made the back
and front radii less, always cutting toward the inside of the finger so as to not chip the chrome. I left
the top (at the string contact point) where it was(minus the chrome). I did most the work with a 4"
grinder and finished it with a honing stone and then a dremel to polish them. It took a while, and
then I had to make a cone for the front so the wrap on the string would not have to bend coming
out the back. I did this using a cut off from a brass barbed connector and a piece of small stainless
tubing to join this to the finger and keep them centered. The steeper radius on the back the finger
made for too sharp of a string bend, so I had to take off about 1/16" of the back so as to have an
easier curve for the string. It took a long time and I thought that if some one wanted they could use
this information to make one of these modified fingers. It works great, no more sizzle, still goes
3 or 4 years without breaking a string.

This is a great guitar, has great tone, and at this point I don't think I'll ever need to change to
anything else. Very Happy

Hopefully, some day I can post a sound clip/video, but that will take some R&D.

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

I have NOS fingers for these if you need them.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I had a Fender 2000, bought new in Oct 1969. I never had any string problems with it. In fact, never broke a 3rd string on the E9th neck! I was using Sho-Bud strings back then.

If it is having problems now, its probably from worn parts, considering the age.

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

i don't know if that's a good idea or not, but that's sure some close-up photography.

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

I admire how you backed yourself in uncharted territory. It's a puzzle why the original fingers have such complex radii - I've only ever owned one steel, but the fingers are plain 1" diameter and they do the business. Could it be to deliberately give more travel on the raises than the lowers - for the feel?
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Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

Thanks Jim for the offer, I didn't realize they would be available any where any more.
I don't currently need any as these work really well, fortunately i didn't ruin any in the process.

Good point Jack, a person would definitely want to take a really, really close look for wear, and in
this case, does the chrome possibly have a bubble or seperation from the finger where the
string sets at the top of the finger. If it was only an area 1/16" dia. it would probably
cause a problem.

Thanks Chris, beleive it or not it's just the camera on a droid X2 cell phone.

Ian, that sounds reasonable, but I never considered that point. Maybe some one else on here
would know that answer. I do think they work really well excluding the problem I had on
the 4th and 5th string.

Thanks all, I'll be offline for a while...

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I've tracked down a buzzing sound at the changer of several guitars to be due to the string being not properly "formed" over the changer. Pressing down firmly on the string just ahead of where it comes off the changer, with either your thumbnail or the bar, eliminates the slight arch in the string at that point, and also the resultant buzz. Smile

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

Good on ya Donny! Also a drop of oil can help as well as moving the string slightly to the right or left - especially for diagnostic purposes to determine the nature of the buzz. Using Donny's technique it is also possible to lessen bar noise on the 1st few frets by pushing down on the high (elevation wise- not pitch) strings just in front of the nut. One wouldn't think that the string would retain that curvature but it seems to w/o any deleterious affect on tone, etc.

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

Thanks for the insight Jim and Donny, It's the littlest things sometimes that can make the biggest differences in the sound of an instrument and I appreciate that you and others on here who have the experience are willing to part with this information for the benefit of the rest of us. Smile

basilh · From: United Kingdom

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

LOL lets just say I was doing a test... I know thats way too long to go without changing the strings. I played it about 3 hours every week. I did break one string about a year ago, but if I remember right it was down at the nut end.

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

I remember when I put the new ones on it was way too lively sounding Laughing

Russ Wever · From: Kansas City

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

That's right, Russ. I had to cut through the barbed connector on an angle, the same angle as the hole coming out the front of the finger. This was all tedious work with a dremmel, using cutoff wheels, and a three dollar magnifying glass. The pull of the string on this angle causes the cone to want to slide down the face of the finger (and this is where it was going to rest) so I wanted it to have a good fit in this area. I wanted the ball end of the string to sit into the cone, so I used the dremel with a cone shaped reamer to let out the front of the cone so that the ball would set down in and so the string wrap would not touch the sides of the cone as it came off the ball. The wrap at this point was entering the stainless tube, so I had to ream the end of the tube quite a bit so that it would not interfere with the string wrap. I made both parts individually, testing their fit as I went, until I could just put them together. If I remember right, some of the biggest strings (because I was going to do cones on all the strings just for esthetics) were too big to go through the stainless tube so I got some thin walled tube, I think it was brass. The brass tube was just a hair too big so I had to sand the outside down until it would fit in the finger. If I recall correctly, it fit in the cone without any sanding. For the stainless tube, I had to slightly crimp "out of round" the end with pliers so it would fit tight into the finger and also into the cone.

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

Picture coming up....

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

This is not drawn to scale, but it shows what happens at the "cone"...

basilh · From: United Kingdom

Looks vaguely familiar in a sensual kind of way !
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Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

... well, yes, a person would need to consider these kinds of things as they are preparing their post...

However, this is as close to scale as I remember it being and I don't have any of the parts out of the guitar....

The farthest back dotted line going down the back of the finger is what the string would have to bend around and that would be too sharp of a bend(135° +/-), so I ground out this area ( to the other dotted line) to make it bend up at about 90 and then take a 45 to go toward the top of the finger. I used jagwire stainless steel strings and all of the wraps were at least an eighth inch back in the hole. It would not be good to have a wrap ending right where the string was going to make a bend.

Aaron McFate · From: Arizona, USA

Here are some pics of the fingers from my other E9 neck. I didn't cut the whole upper back of the finger off, just made a trough for the string.

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