Foot position on using A & B pedals (emmons setup)

John Palumbo · From: Lansdale, PA.

I always thought that the proper most comfortable position (at least for me, sitting at the 12th-15th fret)) is to have the base of your foot / left leg at a somewhat 11:00 position and not square too (in particular pedals A & B) and if you wanted to depress pedal A only, you rock your foot at the ankle to do that, thus also making it easy to depress A & B simultaneously if need be. But by rocking your foot at the ankle I have to raise pedal A so that when it is fully depressed, I don't engage pedal B slightly. I can do this much easier without wearing shoes and more difficult with shoes on. To help with this I have raised my pedal A so that it is about 1/4" higher than pedal B. But I have noticed some players just pivot or move their foot when having to depress pedal A only. But I have to think rocking your foot at the ankle is the preferred but maybe not the absolute way. Or I thought another fix would be to move pedals A,B & C & related knee levers towards the changer but really don't want to do that.

Ian Worley · From: Sacramento, CA

Is this a new guitar to you, or one you've been playing for a while? If it's causing you to contort yourself uncomfortably, you might find that shifting the pedals over one position will make things more comfortable. I and many other players prefer the pedals a little further to the right, such that the A pedal is roughly aligned with roller nut, perhaps just slightly to the left of the left-knee-left lever. Most keyless guitars are set up this way out of necessity, there just ain't no more real estate to the left because of the short key head. Same with keyed guitars that have a 'zero' pedal.

You could try this out in a non-invasive way by just moving the A&B pedals into the current B&C pedal positions to see if works better for you. On a typical 3-pedal single neck guitar it's usually a fairly easy task to move things, you just relocate the rods and bell cranks on the 2nd and 3rd pedals to switch their function from B&C to A&B.

If you decided you wanted to commit to it, it's mostly just a matter of removing and relocating a couple of things and screwing them back down to get your C pedal back. Measure carefully and remount the original A pedal cross shaft in the new C position to the right of the existing pedals. You'll have to relocate the pedal too of course, and shorten the pull rods to work in the new location. On some brands you can shorten the rods at the bell crank end, it depends on the mounting style. Sometimes it easiest to cut them at the changer end and re-thread the ends. 5-40 thread will work on 1/8" and 7/64" rods, 4-40 for 3/32" (or 7/64" too). Just don't over-thread the shortened rods, 3/8" is enough. There should never be exposed threads within the hole in the changer finger. Michael Yahl sells pre-threaded pull rods too if wanted to preserve the originals in case you decide to switch it back. Pedal mounting varies from brand to brand too but in most cases it's intuitive and not too difficult. Just something to consider.
_________________
All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest - Paul Simon

John Palumbo · From: Lansdale, PA.

Yes, Ian it is a new (Mullen) guitar. I had this issue many years ago when I played an MSA (S-10) on that one I did do what you suggested, shift the pedals one position to the right and it was so much better after making that change. On that guitar in particular the pedals (for me) just seemed to be too far to the left to be able to rock your foot on to pedal A and not hit B.

Thinking back on other guitars (Carter & Williams) I've had. I also wound-up raising pedal A to compensate but did not move them.

But I think that over the years my ear has gotten better to pick up that very slight B pedal being engaged when pressing A while rocking your foot.
With all that being the case I should experiment and try your suggestion as I have done in the past and shift the pedals and see how things feel.

Thanks for your help with this! Smile

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

If you use the Search function here on the Forum, you can read previous discussions.

I believe it is a fairly common practice to have the A pedal a bit higher than the B pedal.

If you have it too high, though, you could end up having issues pressing the B pedal without inadvertently pressing the A pedal.

Trial and error will get the pedals where they need to be, based upon how your ankle "bends" or "rocks".

Footwear can also make a difference.

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

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: