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Topic: Lap Steel Mod Project: Adding Pedals |
W. Johnson
From:
Oregon, USA
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Posted 2 Apr 2013 12:28 pm |
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I'm starting a new project, modifying a lap steel to have foot pedals. Originally I intended to do palm pedals, but, seems to me it would be possible to connect foot pedals. I'm starting with a very, um, cheap guitar, one I bought quite a while back. I plan it to be able to raise or lower any string or group of strings a person wants, it will be flexible in the way it can be set up. Most want to bend the G and B strings, and it will do this, and more. I want it to have the same functionality as the pedal steel guitar I built has: to play open E, has the I - IV chord ability, can play minor chords, and a 7th, and minor 7th. But, it can also be set up the typical way people set up palm levers. It would be nice, I think, you can bend the G# up to A, or down to G, either way, and it seems it would add a lot of function and open up some possibilities.
Here are a few initial pics, this project will be on going for a few days to a week. I'm using pieces of metal I happen to have on hand (I'm a machinist.)
You can see the bridge with rollers. I'll be making a nut with rollers.
The benders will be bars with levers attached. Each bar has six holes drilled in them. Three bars. User selected strings will be put in the bars. Non-bending strings will go into holes in the base. Base will be having a plate added.
Initially, I am doing this, just to experiment. I want to see if two strings of different gauges can be bend, like 2nd string and 5th string, one wound one not, both tuned to G#, will stay in tune with each other. Maybe someone can answer that question for me? Anyway, if it doesn't work, this will still be a cool mod.
I'm replacing the single coil pickup with a better humbucker pickup. Tuners are not so great, this is not an expensive guitar. 
I'm in the process of building a bigger nicer console steel guitar, but before I start the changer settup, I want to experiment on this cheap guitar, see how my ideas work out.
Foot pedals will be connected with cables, like heavy duty bicycle brake cables. I plan on adding four pedals, same as on my pedal steel guitar.
That's all for now. I'll add photos and comments as I go along. Seems to me there might be a few people who might be curious about this little project?
W. Johnson |
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Iestyn Lewis
From:
Georgia, USA
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Posted 2 Apr 2013 12:54 pm
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It is possible, and it works well. I did the same thing a while ago with bike cables. (See link below for pictures). Even just pulling down on the strings, it stayed in tune and returned to pitch.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=243240&highlight=
You will need a way to individually adjust the pull travel of the strings if you plan to hook more than one string up to the same lever. They won't both raise up a half step with the same pull distance.
What I found is that it works great for simple raises, as soon as you want to do a lower it involves springs, and at that point you might as well just build a simple pedal steel. Since you're a machinist, you're well suited to do that. Google "Fessenden six-shooter", "Duesenberg palm pedals", "Hipshot", "MSA Guitar Pedal attachment" for more on various string bending devices.
There's also a surprising amount of force involved, so if you're pushing down on a foot lever, the whole guitar is going to want to go down with it, rather than bending the string. You'll have to counteract that with your hands and knees, which leads to awkward playing. With a console, you can build a sturdy frame to counteract that.
Good luck, I had a lot of fun with mine, yours looks great!
_________________
Iestyn
http://facebook.com/trcguitars |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 2 Apr 2013 1:44 pm
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| Iestyn Lewis wrote: |
as soon as you want to do a lower it involves springs, and at that point you might as well just build a simple pedal steel. Since you're a machinist, you're well suited to do that. Google "Fessenden six-shooter", "Duesenberg palm pedals", "Hipshot", "MSA Guitar Pedal attachment" for more on various string bending devices.
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Just to clarify, the six-shooter only does raises - no lowers - but each pedal does act on 2 strings. |
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W. Johnson
From:
Oregon, USA
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Posted 2 Apr 2013 2:21 pm
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| Iestyn Lewis wrote: |
It is possible, and it works well. I did the same thing a while ago with bike cables. (See link below for pictures). Even just pulling down on the strings, it stayed in tune and returned to pitch.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=243240&highlight=
You will need a way to individually adjust the pull travel of the strings if you plan to hook more than one string up to the same lever. They won't both raise up a half step with the same pull distance.
What I found is that it works great for simple raises, as soon as you want to do a lower it involves springs, and at that point you might as well just build a simple pedal steel. Since you're a machinist, you're well suited to do that. Google "Fessenden six-shooter", "Duesenberg palm pedals", "Hipshot", "MSA Guitar Pedal attachment" for more on various string bending devices.
There's also a surprising amount of force involved, so if you're pushing down on a foot lever, the whole guitar is going to want to go down with it, rather than bending the string. You'll have to counteract that with your hands and knees, which leads to awkward playing. With a console, you can build a sturdy frame to counteract that.
Good luck, I had a lot of fun with mine, yours looks great! |
Hey, your pedal steel is cool. I had not seen that.
You answered a big question of mine: Will two strings of different gauges raise or lower together? I sort of thought 'not', but had hoped they would. Makes sense they would raise or lower with different amounts of travel. Individual fingers of a pedal steel are probably the only means, and it's tricky to get the stops right so the two strings are in tune. I thought that perhaps if they were on one bar, it might work. That's why I'm using angle aluminum bars, bolting them to a lap steel, just to test. It probably does not make sense to build such a huge contraption for bending a few strings. One fellow here in this forum used a door hinge, and I was greatly inspired by that.
The amount of force depends on the amount of leverage. In my design, there will be a lever of at least 2" in length, and I could make it 3". On my pedal steel (here's a link to that thread: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=243638 ), the fingers are 3" long, and the amount of force to pull a string is not that much.
I have an idea for a much simplified means to lower, yes, it involves a spring, but the design might be vastly simplified.
I wonder how many people realize that a harp, those big ones, bend strings? They raise or lower, using pedals, I was surprised to find out. The first pedal steel is not a guitar but a harp!  Can't imagine country music on a harp!? 
In my cable to the pedals design, there would not be the long distance of bare cable outside the cable housing, as in your design. The cable is in housing right up to the pedal.
Anyway, I might opt for palm pedals, or, both palm pedals and foot pedals.
W. Johnson |
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