Home built pedal steel guitars

Russell Adkins · Post by **Russell Adkins** » 1 Jun 2017 7:06 pm

Was wondering if any of you guys on the forum have built your own pedal steels , if you have could you post some pic s of your guitars

Will Cowell · Post by **Will Cowell** » 2 Jun 2017 5:22 am

http://steelguitarbuilder.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 3 Jun 2017 1:05 pm

Will, after following your link it's not clear where to go next.

In the meantime, thanks Russell for reminding me that I don't have up-to-date photos of my home-build, as I've modded it a bit. I shall remedy that soon. Here's a couple of old ones to be going on with. It's a 7x5 uni 12, the main features of which are a Kline-style changer and my own keyless tuner. All other such tuners, at least from what pictures I've seen, seem unnecessarily complicated.

MANUFACTURER'S GUARANTEE: This guitar sounds better than it looks.

Dan Robinson · Post by **Dan Robinson** » 3 Jun 2017 3:15 pm

Ian, your keyless tuner is ingenious. If I'm interpreting it right, the tuning screw pushes on a finger that rotates on the axle. I've seen nothing like that before. I bet it's a smooth and precise mechanism.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 3 Jun 2017 3:42 pm

It is, because it's basically a miniature pull-release changer without the pulls. It's all I could build with the tools that I have, and it works very well. The screws are #10-32 x 1" set screws. Changing strings is easy, too.

Here's a pic from the construction stage

Dan Robinson · Post by **Dan Robinson** » 3 Jun 2017 4:02 pm

Pedal steel made by Alex Robson from Australia, courtesy of Doug Beaumier. Beautiful build. LOTS of pictures.

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... highlight=

Will Cowell · Post by **Will Cowell** » 3 Jun 2017 9:59 pm

Ian Rae, I paid him the compliment of assuming he would know how to navigate a web forum. My post alerted him to its existence. It's difficult to imagine anyone interested in steel not knowing about Bent Romnes, for example.

Anyone intelligent enough to play PSG can poke around a web forum without me needing to lead him by the hand... He doesn't need to be spoon-fed.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 3 Jun 2017 11:47 pm

Wow, sorry. Anyway, here are some updated pics. The part of the instrument that I was finding least playable was the pedals (!) so I made a new chunkier design. The footplates are secured with a single screw which means I can tinker with them independently - I've already tried a longer C pedal (as someone suggested a while back) and I shall experiment with rounding some of the corners.

The changer has holes tapped for splits on all strings - you can see which I use. The plated tuning screw is a reminder that it's a borrowed change for string 9

The tuner is kind to strings as it doesn't pinch them. To change a string you loosen the tuning screw until the finger pops up to the horizontal.

The mixer is for practice and recording only and the little shelf is removable.

Stuart Tindall · Post by **Stuart Tindall** » 6 Jun 2017 3:10 pm

Hi Folks,

I built my own Pedal Steel Guitar about 15 years back and enjoyed doing it.
I will hopefully build another one day having learned all of the pitfalls building my first.
Here are a few pics

Got to know some great people along the way including,
Bent Romnes, Mac Knowles, Dave Wheelhouse and Karlis Abolins to mention but a few very talented people.

Stuart

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » 7 Jun 2017 8:19 am

My hat is off to anyone with the mechanical ability to build one of these things!

Ross Shafer · Post by **Ross Shafer** » 7 Jun 2017 9:08 am

Jim Williams wrote:My hat is off to anyone with the mechanical ability to build one of these things!

Since my shop is about 60 feet from my front door, I'm wondering if the steels found here: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=316783 would be considered "home built".

Especially big kudos to anyone building one of these without easy access to a machine shop.

Jim, my hat is off to you folks who can really make these suckers sing. At this point I find making these babies easier than playing them! Go figure!

David Weisenthal · Post by **David Weisenthal** » 7 Jun 2017 12:25 pm

Great to see the handiwork of Ian and Stuart! Very professional looking machines.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 8 Jun 2017 9:16 am

I wish mine was as pretty as Stuart's, but I don't have the skill or the patience so I have to settle for functionality.

My father and grandfather were both great at woodcraft and would be downright ashamed of me