Half stops on knee levers

[hatterjack]

Happy New Year!
I really don't come here as often as I should. Putting that right should be an achievable new years resolution though!

My question: How many of you use "half stops" for passing chords? I think that's the term...I'm afraid my skills and knowledge are pretty rudimentary.

I often back off the A pedal a semitone when I have AB engaged to get a IV minor and that's very usable and predictable (a bit like clutch control in a car). My query is about half stops on knee levers. My steel has a mechanical half stop on RKR so that one's taken care of. However when I use the RKL half way to raise my 1st string a semitone and lower my 6th string a semitone to get that super mysterious chromatic scale, it's largely guesswork ...and a bit hairy live. Has anybody fitted a mechanical half stop there? Is it worth it? Would it ruin the smoothness of RKL?

The beast is a GFI with 4 levers and 3 pedals in E9 tuning.I haven't had it long (I spent 20 years with my much loved Maverick so I have much to learn and a lot of neural pathway reconfiguration to do!). Forgive me if I'm asking something I should know about already.

I've recorded a short MP3 so you can hear what I'm trying to achieve with the RKL thingy. It's here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EDEJ3 ... uxVvSqe5i4

Regards
Jack Hayter

[Haddock]

Hi Jack and HNY

I use half stops on both my right knee levers and couldn’t live without them now. On my last guitar I fitted a hardware halfstop to do the RKL that was the same as RKR. There was a kit available and a bit of trial and error and it works fine. On my current set up, I use string 2 as the feel stop for RKL. It raises a semitone but only on the second half of the lever travel and is set to use a hard combination of crank and changer holes ie. far from the shaft on the crank and close to the axle at the changer. Also requires a bit of experimentation with the crank selection on the other strings to get the note accurate but its been very successful. I can hit a minor chord just with a half RKL plus catch a 7th on string 1 which also can raise a full tone if I give it full lever. Yes it does take a bit of pushing to go the whole way but doesn’t seem to affect smoothness.

Hope that helps.
Cheers
Calum

[hatterjack]

Thank You Calum!
Brilliant! You've understood exactly what I want to do despite my amateurish explanation. I'll have a go.What I'm after is a minor 6th scale across strings 4 to 9 when I half engage RKL...so that should be easily do-able and actually simpler than your modification. As you've probably realised by now I don't really play country style steel (other than faking it very badly!). These days the steel mostly comes out when doing film soundtrack improvs or accompanying electronica and those mysterious minor 6th's are blimmin' irresistible when it come to ambience and dialling in a bit of "wierd"!
Regards
Jack

[Haddock]

Hi Jack
Much more to this instrument than just country and I couldn’t agree more about how good it does ‘weird’! Another wee thought. If your guitar has lower limit or ‘split’ screws, then it makes setting up the G# lower much easier as you can use the tuning nut to set where you want the half note as long as the overall pull on full lever takes it below the F#. The split screw then sets F#. If you don’t have them, a second rod doing a small raise on 6 can tune the split. I’m sure I can explain that much better but its still New Year here.....
All the best
Calum

[hatterjack]

Thanks Calum,
Sorry its taken me so long to get back to you...unforgivably long really. Very belated Happy New Year! My day job has completely got in the way and when I have been out they've been lap steel gigs (funnily enough including one a few weeks ago at Glasgow Celtic Connections fesival with an Irish harp player). I've sort of trained myself to do that half RKL without a stop for the moment, but come the Easter hols I'll have a go at your tuning nut suggestion.
Regards
Jack

[Nick Bidmade]

Calum (I really remember you as Jif)
You showed me how to clean the changer on a very tired old Sho-Bud a couple of years ago and it made a huge difference.
For a while I understood your posts, but recently...
All you have done is promote yourself as a steel guitar 'tech' if I ever need one!
Your explanations are really clear, but, despite taking off my shoes and socks, and supping Oban whisky by the bottle (purchased on my frequent visits to Mull) I am completely in awe of your understanding of this beast...
I can raise a serious sweat just changing strings, and the very minor tweaks I have made to my guitar have always been undertaken with many photos, so I can find my way back home when it all goes wrong...
The very sight of a screwdriver can bring on a nose-bleed - so Hats off to You.
In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man envies the man with two.

[Danny Mitchell]

Nick, I feel compelled to put you straight, re your Calum/Jif, confusion

Geoff is 'Jif' and Calum is 'Haddock', but both are immersed in the dark arts of undercarriage tweakery. Like your good self, I choose to adopt the trepidacious approach. My emollient of choice at the moment is a 12 year old Aberfeldy. Definitely soothes the boggled mind