need advice for making a fender knee lever.

Kristen Bruno · From: Orlando, Florida, USA

I would like to get somthing at the local hardware store to make a knee lever for my cable fender. Nothing fancy. I just don't know what to ask for. I can get some wire to use as a cable (maybe picture hanging wire), but what type of specific hardware do I need to ask for to hook the cable to?

Thanks
Kristen

Jim Bob Sedgwick · From: Clinton, Missouri USA

Skeeter Stultz who just became a member of the Forum had a knee lever on his Fender 1000 made out of a regular gate hinge. It wasn't pretty, but it worked as good as any other knee lever.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Kristen - there's not really a group of "guitar ready" parts at the hardware store. I wish there was; mine would have been a LOT easier.

You really need to be able to cut, shape and drill pieces of aluminum; 1 1/2" (appx) "L" angle with a hole drilled in the center for a crosshaft works; 1" "U" shaped channel can be cut to shape for the actual lever. But the hard parts are the lever attachment to the crosshaft (so it folds in one direction and pulls the cable in the other) and the crosshaft itself (usually a square aluminum bar cut to length and rounded the ends using a lathe - those ends fit into the "L" pieces) (I was supplied with most of the parts by a forum member and Jim at Steel Guitars of North County made one of the "folding" parts for me.)

Then you also need a piece attached to the crosshaft with holes in it (and I used a 1" steel "L" with a bolt/nuts as a "stop" to hold the levers in place, which works great), and a turnbuckle to hook in one of the holes - the other end of the turnbuckle is soldered (using a propane torch - not for the inexperienced, trust me!) to 1/16" galvanized wire rope (available at Home Depot) - that cable either (depending on left or right lever) goes direct to the changer loop or around the big pulley (assuming there's an extra pulley section....if not, you either need a bigger one or a pulley of some type for the single cable).

The changer loop you can make from brass tubing and stiff wire - you cut the tubing to length, bend the wire into the right sized loop (matching the ones on existing cables) and solder the loop in one end and the cable in the other, again using a propane torch (and again, a tough soldering job unless you've torch-soldered a lot).

Some pics are posted below. This method is really low-tech compared to some I've seen, but they work perfectly. About the only simpler method is one Red Rhodes used - big gate hinges, but with custom-made stuff hooked up to make it work.

If you take the pics to a machine shop they may be able to duplicate them; if you want exact dimensions of parts I used email me and I'll send them to you with more pictures.

Good luck! It's not easy, but not as hard as it probably sounds; once you have the parts the assembly and setup literally takes about an hour!

_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

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

You really don't need anything fancy for a simple lever. All you need is a bar of aluminum for the lever, a couple mounting brackets, a transfer bar or pulley to make a "Y" cable, and a couple of wire loops to hook to the changer. Why everyone puts sophisticated knee levers in a cable guitar, I'll never know. Rolling Eyes

Part of the charm and advantage of a cable guitar (to me, anyway) is keeping it all cables, keeping it simple.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Actually, mine ARE simple - but there's no way to avoid certain things if you're going to have the knee levers fold down, rest against a stop, and have some sort of adjustment. I just posted a very detailed description of everything that needs to be done to install *simple* knee levers. If you look at the pic, they are very, very basic (I have pics of some really nice...but complicated...kne levers for Fenders, along with ones that are made with all very precision parts. Those are, as Donny said, all overkill in my book).

"Simple" things like making cable loops are nothing for people with welding or heavy-duty soldering experience; just like making the aluminum parts is really basic stuff - to someone with machine tools. But for the average player who has a few hand and/or power tools (the highest-tech thing I have is a $50 Big Lots drill press) it's not as simple as some folks think...maybe because the assumption is everyone has tools at their disposal, which isn't the case.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

George Lewis, when he worked for Sho-Bud, had a modified Sho-Bud knee lever made for my Fender 2000. It wasn't really much different fro the stock Sho-Bud knee lever kits. It's been too long to remember much about it (1970). but I used the cable for the 10th floor pedal with the knee lever kit and lowered the 2nd and 8th, like Sho-Bud was doing at the time.

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