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Topic: First Pedal Steel |
Don Crowl
From:
Medford, Oregon, USA
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Posted 30 Aug 2015 2:33 pm |
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| My first pedal steel was a used Black Sierra S-10 with 5 pedals & 2 KLs. It had all cable pulls tuned standard E9. It was a reasonable easy change to C6 even for me as a novice. Seemed easy to adjust. Very steady/sturdy, held tunings well & had a good tone. Not too pretty with a shielded cable coming out of the pup & going into the body. I still like the idea of cables for a pedal steel. Got it in the 70s. Any one seen/had one? Just remembering! |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 30 Aug 2015 2:41 pm
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My first pedal steel I built myself almost entirely out of wood, with some Meccano parts. In those days you never saw pedal steels in music shops in England. I'd been building lap steels since 1963, so, ten years into that I decided to build a console steel with pedals. The pedals were wooden, the pedal rods were dowling, the bell cranks were Meccano parts, and the cross rods were also dowling. The legs were on hinges that folded into the body.
I could never get the thing to stay in tune, especially when it rained, so I eventually removed the pedals and played it as a non-pedal for years, in which form it sounded pretty good. 
I left it in my parents' loft when I moved to California 35 yrs. ago, and the house was subsequently demolished. Somehow I hope that one of the demolition crew took it home to play, but more likely it ended up on landfill.  |
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Dave Meis
From:
Olympic Peninsula, Washington, USA
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Posted 30 Aug 2015 8:42 pm
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I have a Sierra D-8 that's all cable. 4 pedals and one knee, although I'm adding at least one knee to it. Wish I could find more pedal assys. Easy to set-up.. all you need is a piece of cable!  Mine's an early '60s. |
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Don Crowl
From:
Medford, Oregon, USA
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Posted 31 Aug 2015 7:17 am
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Interesting build Alan. Dave you confirmed that Sierra built some steels with cables in early days.
Leads me to wonder when the last one was built, how many were built, & if any have survived. I bought & sold mine when I lived in Sacramento.
Seems like I read in a B. Seymour letter that there was possibility of some company considering building new steels with cable systems. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 31 Aug 2015 9:15 am
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I have three Fender cable-operated pedal steels. In every one of them the cables have become tangled over the years, or interfere with the cables next to them. There are people out there who swear by cable-operated mechanisms, but I myself have found them unplayable.
Maybe I need the attention of an expert on the subject, but my only connexion with anyone like that is 5,000 miles away back home in England. |
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Charley Bond
From:
Inola, OK, USA
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Posted 13 Sep 2015 2:41 pm Cables & guitars
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Since me & everybody else know that cables stretch, I wonder why this subject came up.
Wouldn't be a guitar for me, but to each his own... |
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Rich Upright
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 16 Sep 2015 8:02 pm
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My first steel was a Maverick that a friend sold me for $10.00. I had to fashion rods out of coat hangers.
My first "pro" steel was a G.E.S. D-10. It was built like a tank, and I'm sure it killed my gas mileage every time I took it to a gig.
_________________
A couple D-10s,some vintage guitars & amps, & lotsa junk in the gig bag. |
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richard burton
From:
Britain
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Posted 16 Sep 2015 9:22 pm
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I built my first few pedal steels using cable, but I didn't use just a single cable, I used inner and outer cable (just like the brake cable on a push-bike) which allowed me to route it anyway I wanted.
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 17 Sep 2015 4:43 am
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Cables had one big advantage...they could be totally set up or changed in a couple of minutes. Another advantage was that there was nothing teeny to lose (no e-clips, c-rings, or set screws to worry about). Also, cables only stretch a little when they're new. After they have taken a "set", they're pretty reliable and consistent...after all, they used them on airplanes for over 50 years. Leo Fender was smart enough to use turnbuckles that were easily adjusted, and as long as they were kept adjusted, no "tangling" was possible. He wasn't smart enough to have them the proper lengths, though, so the turnbuckles did bump or rub each other occasionally.  |
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Mel Bergman
From:
Camarillo, California, USA
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Posted 17 Sep 2015 9:19 am
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1964 Sierra....cables work great!
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Micky Byrne
From:
United Kingdom (deceased)
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Posted 17 Sep 2015 11:49 am
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My first steel in 1970 was a copy of a Fender Stringmaster...it was a 6 string made by Aria if I recall. It had 3 legs same as a Stringmaster. I tuned it to an A6th and eventually made reasonable "sounds" to use it in a band...I was so naive then and never knew about a "Pedal" steel was what I heard on records.Next was a very short lived "Denley" made in U.K. If you raised a string, you couldn't lower it and visa versa. Didn't keep that long and progressed to a ZB S-10....kept that for 5 years then part exe'd it for a Sho-Bud S-12 (extended E9th) in 1977 .. Had it altered by a friend to a Universal of sorts in 1982. Just a different Copedent to the later Uni's as we know them now. Few years later, got a Carter Uni and use both in turns. Of course the Carter is lighter which us more mature players or old timers if you so wish to say prefer ... That will do me.....Of course there are goodies i'd like to buy, but the "Bank" says no!!!! with a capital "N"
Micky "scars" Byrne U.K.
Sho-Bud and Carter universals, and lots of appropiate toys. |
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Don Crowl
From:
Medford, Oregon, USA
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Posted 19 Sep 2015 12:03 pm
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I'm not sure if I recall correctly or have my "mechanical engineering" right, but I'm wondering if the cables on the Sierra were a heavier gauge than the Fenders & that they may stretch less. The hardware pictures shown above are reminiscent of what mine looked like.
I too recall cables being used on air craft. As I mentioned I seem to recall Bobbe Seymour mentioning a name company toying with the idea of building a new steel with cables & that he was in favor of the idea/concept. Again, just wondering. |
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Steven Albrecht
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 19 Sep 2015 1:10 pm first pedal steel
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| My first is a MSA 12 according to the numbers was early 60's but the undercarriage was redone to rods etc, I am learningto play but thinking about selling and getting a newer s10 that hopefully doesn't need anything, hard enough to learn to play without trying tofigure out all the dajustments at the same time, meebee I'm just old lol |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 19 Sep 2015 4:27 pm
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When cables were first used for automobile throttles and brakes they were just plain cable. It didn't take them long to realise that you had to have them contained within a tube. Nowadays no-one would ever consider using throttle cables with just plain cable. Unfortunately, that message never seemed to have reached Fender. I wonder what Leo Fender's brake pedal was attached to in his car. Maybe if he had opened the lid and looked he might have come up with a better idea.  |
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Ron Brown
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 20 Sep 2015 6:45 am
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| Years ago I remember Walter Haynes showing me his Fender 1000 where he had removed the cables and replaced with rods. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 20 Sep 2015 10:56 am
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| Donny Hinson wrote: |
| Cables had one big advantage...they could be totally set up or changed in a couple of minutes... |
But you still had to turn the machine upside down to work on it, and those cast iron frames are heavy.
As far as I know, the Harlin MultiKord and the first Gibson remain the only pedal steels where you can change the copedant from above. They were both cable models, by the way, but they had no pulleys. |
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