Adding a knee lever to a sho bud D8/D9 permanent

[Ryan Forster]

I’m wanting to add a knee lever to the E9 neck on my Sho bud D9 permanent and am curious if anyone has tips/experience aswell as photos? Not sure how many people have done this but I wouldn’t mind getting one or two on there.

[Ricky Davis]

Well; there's no just over the counter levers for the perm. You'll have to know what actual lever positions you want and what are they lowering or raising or both...as to make/find something that will work; will have to be made to work as a Pull-release type leverage; and pics of the underneath will get you started with what are the possibilities, at All, can be.
Ricky

[Ryan Forster]

Yah I know there is no levers for these you can buy like a modern steel just trying to figure out how I go about it. Another question would be if I was to have just one knee lever what would be the choice?

[Ian Rae]

Lower 8 and 2 a half tone each. Historically, that was the first lever to be introduced and it does not involve lowering any string that already has a raise on it.

I did once add a total of four to a Perm copy, but it's messy.

[Paul Brainard]

Following. . . I have an old D-9 permanent w/6 pedals, it has unused fingers on E9 strings 2 & 8 and screw holes where it must once have had an RKR - I wonder if either Michael Yahl's parts would work out (psgparts.com, not sure if he is fully back in business) or could they be sourced from Jackson or Sho-Pro?

Or, probably a lot of it could be done with hardware store stuff as it was/has been many times before!

That one lever sure does open up a lot of possibilities. . .

[Brett Lanier]

I put in all the knee levers on my marlens, which are the older permanent style. I don’t lower string 4, which makes things a bit simpler… But if it were me I’d start with the F lever. It’s a simple change (lowers are more complicated).

I use all kinds of random parts, so nothing really matches on my guitars. I’ve found that 90 degree bell cranks work best and are easier to deal with compared to the sho bud two hole style that sit at an angle.

Couple tips…

Use cross shafts with a flat edge on them. I like the late 60’s + marlen cross shafts because the flat edge is recessed, so even if the bell crank gets a little loose the set screw will catch that edge before it completely slips. If you have cross shafts without a flat edge, you can drill out a small hole for the bell crank set screw to sit in. Not as easy, but works just as well as long as you get it in the right place.

Before you screw anything down, put everything in place and make sure it’s all moving freely. After you tap holes and install one KL bracket, go back and put the cross shaft with bell cranks and KL back in and double check that everything is moving freely before screwing in the second bracket. It’s a little more time consuming, but it will help ensure you don’t have any unwanted friction or binding with the new change.

[Ryan Forster]

Thanks for all the info, do you have any photos of your under carriage just as a visual?