Dimensions and diagrams.

Tony Boadle · From: Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland

Hi team. I'm about to start my 6-string PSG home-build.
Two pedals, two knee levers btw. It would save a lot of trial and error if I could get hold of:
a)A rough drawing of the undercarriage showing accepted basic dimensions (overall length, width, relative position of lever and pedal assemblies etc
b)A side-on view of the raise/lower mechanics.
If anyone can suggest some reference material, I'd be most grateful. Many thanks!

Michael Maddex · From: Northern New Mexico, USA

Tony, if you do a little searching and browsing on the Steel Guitar Builders' Forum, I think that you will find the drawings and dimensions that you are looking for:

http://steelguitarbuilder.com/forum/

HTH.

Great job on the Recording King conversion. Good luck on the next one!

Cool

_________________
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert." -- Arthur C. Clarke

Tony Boadle · From: Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland

Thanks for the kind words re the RK, Michael. I've done a quick check on that link but can't initially see any posts re dimensions. I'll look more thoroughly later. I basically need the generally accepted length and width of a console, also the usual positions for pedal and lever assemblies (ie: where they 'sit' in relation to each end of the console)

Ian Worley · From: Sacramento, CA

Tony, it sounds like you don't have a PSG upon which to base your design, nor any pre-existing preferences.

There is no real "standard" in PSG dimensions, but some things are more common than others. There a few longer scale guitars out there like Sierra, but most have a scale length between 24" and 24-1/4". Body dimensions depend on all sorts of variables, the changer design, tuner design, scale length, etc. Typical modern S10/D10 keyhead guitars are ~32"-33" long overall; keyless will be shorter, some substantially so.

On most modern guitars the pedals are usually spaced around 2-1/2" center to center. Pedal and lever positions should be determined relative to the fretboard, not the body. On guitars with a conventional keyhead, the B pedal typically aligns pretty closely the nut or slightly right. On keyless guitars, the A pedal would be in this position, some (like me) prefer their keyed guitars with the A pedal in this position. LKL is usually in this general vicinity too, but this varies a lot. Knees typically have about 6" space between them, which would put LKR around the 6th fret or so. Again this varies a lot; someone with bigger legs will want more space. If you want add some right knees, they vary a lot too. On my Emmons, RKL is 10" over from LKR; On my Sho-Buds it's about 8", on my BMI keyless it's 7" (left knees are further to the right also).

How you layout the undercarriage will depend entirely on the mechanics you use. Are you making the parts yourself, or...? If you start with a preferred pedal location, the cross shaft placement will be determined by the offsets from the vertical pedal rod position relative to the pedal and the length of the pedal crank on the cross shaft. Cross shafts would be spaced the same as the pedals. Knees are a little different because LKR needs a reverser. Different reverser designs require different offsets, etc. You can usually fit the cross shafts for the left knees between the pedal cross shafts. Some manufacturers will offset the cross shaft(s) from the knee lever itself with a connecting rod and place them closer to the changer end to avoid the clutter.

Anyway, a lot to consider, but easy to figure out once you have all the parts in hand. If you want more info you're probably going to need to explain some specific details about the mechanical system/parts you're using. Google is your friend.

Tony Boadle · From: Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland

Many thanks Ian, a lot to take in but really useful info. Much appreciated!

Forum Index > Pedal Steel		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: