The British Steelies Society

Hi all
Thought I might share this issue to see if I am trying to reinvent the wheel! I have fitted compensator pulls to my G#’s that allow me to tune them slightly flat on the open chord to sweeten the thirds and then they lift a few cents when I engage the F lever so that my A pedal F chord is also on the money. It’s fabulous and I’m very happy.
However, and it’s the kind of 'however' that may in fact be a 'but', playing A plus F and then adding B creates an interesting issue. When I take B off and keep A and F engaged, the G#’s don’t drop back by anything like the full amount which should ideally be the micro tad F lever raise point. Cleaning the changer has been discussed but I have a feeling that this is a Laws of Physics issue and the drop isn’t ever going to settle in the same place as it did on the raise. I have a cunning plan in reserve but thought I might share first to see if anyone has wandered up this trail before me.
Very grateful for anyone’s input, even if it’s advice to 'get a life'.....
Cheers
Calum

Calum, you will have noticed, by now, that I can't resist responding to posts, regardless of content.

My advice would be, rather than 'get a life', I would say, 'get a drink'. 'However', in matters technical, I tend to talk out of my 'but'.

I'll get my coat......

This is the bug bear of steel players. Hysteresis (I think that's how it's spelt). Hysterics is what it causes. Are you using a Peterson tuner? It will show up every flaw that a pedal steel can demonstrate.
Cabinet drop.
String gauges.
Raises and lowers on same string.
Raises and lowers on different strings.
Splits.
Physics.
When you also add the bar we use to fret strings, any deviation from straight will be picked up by the tuner (except, of course, when we deliberately sharpen strings so they sound in tune).
The best advice I get from steel players is to tune up and then switch the Peterson off.
BTW What are compensators?

See also

https://www.gunlaug.com/contents/music/ ... ities.html

Found on the US Forum.

Thanks Nick
That’s a new link that I hadn’t seen before and yet another new issue to consider. I don’t think my issue is either the classic hysterics or this new one but all good to have in the melting pot. I’m guessing you’ve probably encountered compensation pulls but for anyone who hasn’t, it’s usually adding some small pulls to compensate for stuff like cabinet drop and often to sort the F# issue. This is when the f#’s change from being the 9th on the open chord to the 6th on the A B one. An extra pull to retune them makes a big difference. It’s something that can be used to minimise how much you have to 'sweeten' the tuning.
I’ve been persuaded of the joys of a Peterson by Danny but it’s not arrived yet. In th meantime I only need ears to tell me that I still have work to do.....
Cheers

I think all you techies just need to sit down and play the instrument. There I've said it now.

I practice every day Donny. (Just having a break). However, when I get a new guitar, I spend approximately just one hour putting compensator rods in. Once they're in that's it, and there is rarely any need to tweak them. I'm happy that my guitars are as in-tune as I can get them so I rest easy.

I read out the first post on this thread to my wife followed by “See, I told you it was a difficult instrument to play “. Her eyes glazed over and I didn’t want to tell her that I had only understood half the technical stuff anyway. Lol.