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Topic: Rondo SX Lap Steel not holding tuning |
Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 14 Jan 2014 9:37 am |
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I have a Rondo Lap Steel, SX-1. I'm posting this because I know several folks on the forum have one of these. I like the little guitar pretty well for the $100 I paid for it buy I have noticed one annoyance.
My guitars are kept in a bedroom which is not very well regulated temperature wise. We heat it at night, but in the day when we're not at home, the temperature varies.
I have several instruments stored in there, pedal steel, other lap steels, etc. Of course with the temperature variance it is not unusual to have to touch up the tuning a bit, but the SX is much more drastic than the other instruments, (including a Rogue RLS-1, also a cheap steel). The SX will sometimes be a half a note off on several strings.
As thick as the neck is on the guitar, I'm really thinking the culprit might be the tuners slipping and may not even be related to the temperature changing.
Anyone had this problem?
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GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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Darrell Birtcher
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Posted 14 Jan 2014 10:01 am
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Which wood does your's have? I've seen them in Ash and in a Mahogany-ish (Sapele?) wood.
The Ash should be pretty stable. Mine is the non-Ash type and I had major issues with the
wood holding the bridge properly. It's pretty soft.
It absolutely would not hold the bridge collars in place. The bridge practically fell out on it's own.
The wood did shrink some over time
and I had to tighten the tuner shafts. Once I fixed those two issues, it holds tuning
just fine.
I use it to try out different tunings but I have taken it out on gigs so it's been exposed to some environment changes and it's held up fine.
Some times I don't change to the proper string gauge when I experiment with different tunings
but even with the extra stresses involved it seems to hold up really well. Check the bridge collars and tuner shafts.
You can see my bridge fix here:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=247522&highlight=
I basically bolted it all the way through the body with some nice dressy chrome hardware. |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 14 Jan 2014 12:57 pm
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Thanks, I will look into the bridge issue. I don't notice mine being loose, but the screws are a little bit uneven (crooked) so that could indicate some slack there. I have tightened them down before hoping to solve the problem. Mine is the original wood, not the ash. I've actually thought about selling this one and buying the ash model for the new legs and the humbucker.
I looked at your mod. Did you leave the original threaded mounting studs in the guitar or did you remove them?
_________________
GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal.
Last edited by Jim Williams on 14 Jan 2014 1:26 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Darrell Birtcher
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Posted 14 Jan 2014 2:50 pm
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I removed the studs and drilled all the way through the body.
I then sanded down the corners of some long coupling nuts a bit, such that there was good contact with wood after I drilled out the body, and left some of the flats to allow a gap for the glue, then epoxied the coupling nuts into the body after trimming them to the correct length. On the bottom, I ran a machine screw into the coupling nut and used a large chrome fender washer. This just ensures that there is no way the bridge mounts will pull out from the top. Probably overkill, but it is very stabile.
The alumitones are killer! Love those things, and with the pair of them it sounds like a Stringmaster on steroids. |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 15 Jan 2014 8:51 am
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Oh now I understand...you are still using the original bridge and mounting bolts, you just have a longer threaded and better anchored nut for it to mount with.
One other question, how did you get the old mounting studs out without damaging the guitar?
Thanks.
_________________
GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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Darrell Birtcher
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Posted 15 Jan 2014 9:51 am
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| Pm replied to. Old collars just fell out. Should be easy to remove with a little upward pressure on a screw run into the threads. They're just a friction fit. Not glued. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 15 Jan 2014 9:59 am
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I have three, two of which are in storage for future projects and the other has a Duesenberg Palm Lever unit on it. I haven't noticed it going out of tune even when I leave it for several months at a time.
Some instruments are very sensitive to humidity and temperature changes. For instance, the lute has so many strings that if you don't slacken them off before you put it away then when the temperature drops at night the strings contract and pull the bridge off. |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 16 Jan 2014 8:48 am
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Well, I got rid of the radius bridge again and am going back to the stock one. I did however discover a simple change that I think is beneficial. Instead of mounting the bridge in it's normal fashion, with the ears through the mounting stud grooves, I mounted the bridge underneath the mounting stud which makes direct contact with the mounting nuts going into the guitar. In its stock configuration the bridge is cocked up at a pretty good angle, and the strings are a good bit higher above the pickup than they need to be. If you look at the strings from the side, they are higher on bridge end than the nut end. By mounting the bridge underneath the mounting bolt and tightening it down it is much straighter and parallel to the fretboard, the strings are nearer the pickup, and the height is the same at the bridge as the nut. (I was going to just replace the stud bolts with a stainless flathead bolt, but the mounts have an extremely fine thread that I can't find anything to fit.) I've got to restring it, but I think it will have better output, as the strings were unusually high above the pickups before. I also think there may be a little better transfer of the string vibration to the body this way. The bridge still slants forward a little due to the sloppy job of putting the mounting studs into the guitar. At some point I will probably remove the studs and fix the angle, or I may just convert to a string through setup with a plain angle type bridge. I'm also about to order a blade type humbucker pickup that will fit in the standard slot.
 [/img]
_________________
GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal.
Last edited by Jim Williams on 16 Jan 2014 9:10 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 16 Jan 2014 9:09 am
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
I have three, two of which are in storage for future projects and the other has a Duesenberg Palm Lever unit on it. I haven't noticed it going out of tune even when I leave it for several months at a time.
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Yes these are nice little guitars for modding and experimenting with...wish they would sell some more of the bodies like they did at one time.
_________________
GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 16 Jan 2014 10:48 am
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| Jim Williams wrote: |
| ...Yes these are nice little guitars for modding and experimenting with...wish they would sell some more of the bodies like they did at one time. |
They're an amazing bargain for the price, especially since they include a fitted case. They were made very cheaply, using easily-available parts made for six-string solid electrics. For instance, the adjustable bridge is completely unnecessary on an instrument played with a tone bar. The ones that I bought were from the first batch, and were finished with just a slight lacquer over the bare wood. I understand that subsequent batches have varied from this, and even been sold with soft bags. I would have liked to see an 8-string offered, but that would mean having special pick-ups made for it, although they could have used mandolin tuners, and that would have gotten away from the fact that their market was mainly to non-steel players who just wanted a lap steel for the occasional effect. |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 16 Jan 2014 2:04 pm
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Yes, mine has a soft case, but it is a pretty good well padded case. The new ones have legs with them...looking at one of those...can't have too many steels round the house 
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GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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Godfrey Arthur
From:
3rd Rock
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Posted 15 May 2019 12:51 am
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Would these Hipshot bridges work on the SX as far as string spacing?
Hipshot SBR-1
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ShoBud The Pro 1
YES it's my REAL NAME!
Ezekiel 33:7 |
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