â€˜Aâ€™ Pedal Problem

Bradley Harper · From: United Kingdom

Hi guys,

Iâ€™m wondering if anybody can help me.

5th string raise with A pedal... couple of problems:-

1. Canâ€™t QUITE get it to pitch. Close but no cigar type of thing.
2. No slack in A pedal I.e. you could lay a finger on the pedal and it would start to raise the string.

I expect these issues are both connected I.e. the amount of tuning at the nylon nut required to get the pitch right (or not quite as the case may be) means there is no slack in the train.

Iâ€™ve tried increasing the travel of the A pedal at itâ€™s stop as much as possible but this hasnâ€™t helped enough. Am I right in thinking the next thing would be to change bell crank hole? Itâ€™s in the second hole at the moment.

Questions are:-

1. By changing the fifth string raise crank hole, must I also change the 10th string raise hole to match? The 10th string raise works perfectly by the way.

2. How do I even change the hole lol?!

Iâ€™ve attached a picture (albeit of the crank that belongs to the 10th string, but theyâ€™re identical of course) if this helps.

Thanks guys,

Brad

P.S. please bear in mind this will be my first real exposure to any tech-related stuff lol!

Al Evans · From: Austin, Texas, USA

Bradley Harper · From: United Kingdom

Hi Al, thanks for your response and help mate.

I donâ€™t think it ever stopped working as such, itâ€™s actually a brand new guitar. However, there are a few reasons I expect I need to do a few tweaks: it spent a few days in transit with a courier company (if you know what I mean(!)), I also use different string gauges to the ones it arrived with, and on top of that Iâ€™ve adjusted the pedal stop.

Would I need to change the crank hole for the 10th string to match the 5th string or would this be unnecessary? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

When you say leave slack when I put it back in the brass barrel, what exactly do you mean? Again, sorry for what is almost certainly a stupid question!

Is there anything else I must bear in mind?

Really appreciate your help mate.

Kind regards,

Brad

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Bradley Harper · From: United Kingdom

Jon that thread is so helpful! You should be bloody proud of it.

I donâ€™t think Iâ€™d be too bothered about a LITTLE disparity in the 5th/ 10th raise. Of course, I wonâ€™t know fully until Iâ€™ve done it.

What would be the determining factor of whether to change the bell crank hole, or alternatively, the changer hole? Being a relative novice underneath the guitar (and on top of it for that matter), changing the bell crank hole looks more suitable for my skills, other than changing the changer hole.

Iâ€™ve attached a picture of the changer for completeness. As you can see, I do have one available raise hole.

Thanks again,

Brad

[/img]

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Thanks for the kind words, Bradley. I get huge satisfaction from knowing that it helps people.

I would indeed go with the bellcrank holes. It is more visually understandable and usually has fewer consequences involving having to move other things to accommodate the change. The "if I move this, then I'll have to move that" struggle is real.
Go for it!

Bradley Harper · From: United Kingdom

Thanks Jon. Iâ€™ll let you know how I get on mate.

Jory Simmons · From: Elkhorn, Wisconsin, USA

Maybe I misunderstood something... usually the simplest answer is the correct one. ( I hate to read..LOL!) But changing the what hole in the B Crank...wont change your tuning problem. are you tuning your a pedal correctly? Forgive Me if Im out-a-line here. Tune your B's open to 439..then raise and tune the C# to 436.5
Your raises should be in perfect tune at this point.
strings 3 and 6....open=436....raised 438.
_________________
Jory Simmons

Bradley Harper · From: United Kingdom

Hi Jory, sorry I donâ€™t think I explained myself properly mate. Basically, the problem Iâ€™m having is that no matter how much I tune the A pedal, the C# is always coming up flat. It maybe comes out around equivalent to 434hz.

Bengt Erlandsen · From: Brekstad, NORWAY

In the picture shown, the raise/lower mechanism on the 5th string seems to be bent/kinked or misaligned. You might wanna loosen/back-out that raise nylon tuner temporarely and check if the raise mechanism works properly by pushing it gently with a pen or a small screwdriver to simulate the pull of a pullrod just to see if the raise works properly and does produce a full step raise of the 5th string.

The cross-shaft and connections to the pull rods seems super-easy to work on if you need to adjust the length of the pull or syncronize pulls on several strings.

B,Erlandsen

Tucker Jackson · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

Update: I see Bengt just beat me to the same thing:
I see you've read the overtuning thread, so... I assume you've completely unscrewed the nylon nuts on stings 5 and 10 so they aren't engaging at all, and then started the tuning process from there?

If that doesn't fix the issue, try loosening the 5th string nut and then manually try to raise the string to pitch by pushing on the finger with a screwdriver (like, above or below the nut). You're testing to verify if the changer finger itself can move far enough. Sometimes, the ball of a broken string falls into the changer and restricts it's movement.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

The first thing I would do is put the correct Guage string on (same as what came on the guitar from the factory) as that may solve your problem. Many times any problems that crop up on a brand new guitar, are usually caused by the owner. I believe your changing string guage caused your problem. What came on the guitar and what did you change it too.

What brand of guitar.
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

richard burton · From: Britain

Are you set up on carpet?

Your 'A' pedal may be bottoming out on carpet, and not going its full travel.

Another thing that could be the cause of the problem is that the spring that holds the lower might not be tight enough, and needs a bit of adjustment.

If you activate the 'A' pedal and observe the lowering part of the changer, if it moves then the spring needs to be tightened.

Bradley Harper · From: United Kingdom

Thank you so much to everybody for their input! Iâ€™ve tonight changed the bell crank hole which housed the rod. Iâ€™ve moved it one hole up (or down, depending on how you look at it lol) - seems to have done the trick!

James Flaherty · From: California, USA

The further the rod is from the cross shaft the more pedal travel you will have and the easier it will be to press the pedal. The closer the rod is to the cross shaft will result in less pedal travel but requires more pressure to bring it to pitch.

Frank Freniere · From: The First Coast

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