Parallax and string height

George Biner · From: Los Angeles, CA

I'm newish to the pedal steel -- been thinking, why are the strings so high off the fretboard? I've had 1/2 a mind to shim up the fretboard to like 1/4" below the strings -- that would improve the sightlines and reduce the parallax between the steel and the fret line, while not impacting the playability. I know, not necessary, people been playing like this for years, suck it up, etc. Still, why the dang strings so high?
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Jon Voth · From: Virginia, USA

Also newish, and I'll add to this question.

I'm doing OK, and can't change the tradition of things.

But seems like a small adjustment can make an even smaller improvement in technique.

But still we're using our ears as the main guide (and we can't squish the strings down enough to touch anything anyways).

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

I'm thinking that there will always be some parallax however slight the height.

I play fretless bass on some numbers, and on the lower-numbered frets even though there is no clearance at all the ears are still more accurate than the eyes!
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Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I think originally the strings were rather high off the fretboard so if you hammered down on the strings with your bar you wouldn't bang on the fretboard.
Hammer on's were used quite often by the old non-pedal steelers. Very Happy

Erv

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

The Sierra Crown Model had a very high neck that curved downward near the picking area so your finger-picks wouldn't click on the neck. Buddy Emmons played one for a while.
I liked it better than the later Session Series necks, which were flat from end to end.
If you watch Paul Franklin play, he really keeps his head/eyes right over the bar, more than most any other players I've seen.

Pat Chong · From: New Mexico, USA

Hi George,
I have seen some guitars with what seem pretty high strings. But after a while of playing, I realised it is all relative. Jon is right, it's in the ear, when you hear it is out of tune, you adjust your position, anyway. Try playing Clint Blacks "Nobody's home" on YouTube. You have to play in the middle of the frets to be in tune.......Pat.

Larry Bressington · From: Nebraska

On the other side of the coin, if you go lower strings to fretboard ratio, you wont have enough clearance to see the fret marks as you slide up and down like you do a regular guitar, because your hand is operating in the opposite direction.

Currently if you play at fret one, you can see the fret mark, if you lower down too much your hand will be blocking and shadowing that view, however in saying that ive played an acoustic guitar set up as dobro without strings being raised and did not give me any problems, so my theory might not be valid, maybe it's because of the changer height required.

Rick Barnhart · From: Arizona, USA

If you ever play a steel with the action too low, I think you’ll understand, then.
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Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Curt Trisko · From: St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

No need to re-invent the wheel. Very Happy

Erv

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Will mention that when I replaced the neck on my Dekley, I ended up cutting the distance between strings and fretboard to about half – about 1/3in now (see picture).

The reduction caused by the thicker neck was by choice for other reasons. But what matters here is that the altered distance doesn't affect my intonation any compared to playing my unaltered PSGs.

Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

In my experience, the parallax effect is very real. The old student-model instruments from the Emmons Company were originally constructed with strings very high above the fretboard. The subsequent "Black Rock" models solved the problem buy installing a "neck" (for lack of a better term) to raise the fretboard closer to the strings. Installing a Black Rock-style neck on a student model greatly reduces the parallax, and imporoves its playability in my opinion.

Emmons #278 GS with Black Rock neck (Clem Schmitz photo).

Jerry Jones · From: Franklin, Tenn.

Neck thickness aside, some of the string height is necessary for proper down-bearing for strings 5 and 6.
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Glenn Suchan · From: Austin, Texas

The fret 'lines' on the neck of a PSG are visual references. I've found if you develop the habit of sitting in the same spot in relation to your fret board, i.e. the tenth fret, you'll be able to develop a sense of the parallax view which indicates that your bar is correctly positioned. Note: The parallax deviation increases the farther to the left or right of your seated position. To accomplish correct bar positioning with a parallax view you first need to develop your ears to hear correct pitch, and rely on your parallax view second.

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn
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Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

If you start at the key head, The height of the body of the keys themselves is about 3/4" so the key heads are about 1" tall so the keys will fit proper. Then the Nut Rollers need to be tall enough so the strings pull down on the Nut Rollers so there is no weird sounds from the strings.

Next Pickup, Many old steel pickups are made with about 1" long magnets to get 17,500 to 20,000 ohms of resistance in the pickups. You must have space for padding or springs between the body and the pickup. If not the pickup will pick up and amplify noise from the Pedals, Rods and Changer.

Then the Changer, Because of the wood that must be removed from the body, So the changer fingers will extend down to the Pull Rods, A metal frame is needed to spread the pressure on the body over a larger area.

The high strings puts more tension on the body and neck for better sound and sustain.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I have a non-pedal steel whose strings are pretty close to the fretboard - I mean around 1/4-5/16" instead of the usual 1/2-5/8" on my other steels, both non-pedal and pedal. It drives me crazy - when I tilt the bar, it's hard to keep it from hitting the fretboard. And forget about slamming the bar. I'm going to put on heavier strings to try to keep that from happening. But I think it's still gonna take some time to get used to, and I suspect it's gonna continue to annoy me.

As far as additional design rationale for higher strings - I think the acoustic tone, volume, and sustain suffers with lower strings - keeping the nut low would change the break angle and there may be other issues. I guess that could be dealt with by keeping the nut high and padding the fretboard, but I still don't think strings close to the fretboard is a good idea. I guess I think it creates more long-term problems than the short-term issues it makes easier.

I think parallax is an issue steel players just have to learn to deal with. Whether it's 1/4" or 1/2" or more, it's very different than standard guitar or even slide guitar. I play slide a lot, and I would never have strings anything like even 1/4" above the frets. Compensating for parallax is a learned skill. And, as was stated in earlier replies, fret markers are guides to bar positioning. Playing in tune requires using well-developed ears to rapidly detect pitch discrepancies and then highly-developed and autonomic motor skills to make accurate corrections on the fly. I don't think there's any easy way out

Dave Hepworth · From: West Yorkshire, UK

Seat height is another factor.Higher you sit less the parrallax!

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