Beginner Question About switching between AB -> A Pedals

Peter Haverkamp · From: Ontario, Canada

Hello everyone, Newb E. Beginnerton the third here. Back with another riveting question that I will one day no doubt cringe for asking....

Having an issue switching from the AB Pedal position to the A Pedal position without my knee hitting the F lever. I am sure there must be something wrong with my technique, or maybe the guitar needs to be height adjusted for me? Not sure. I have attached a brief video to demonstrate what is happening.

https://youtu.be/N_rfjPeNQb4

Thanks in advance for any and all help and have a great day.

Joel Jackson · From: Detroit

Try it with your body centered at the 15th fret and see if that helps.

K Maul · From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL

Moving your whole body to the right would help. Get right up against the back of the steel, too. When you have both feet on the A+B it should be angled more across them so all you have to do is rotate your foot slightly and lift off of B. The whole leg shouldnâ€™t have to move that much. Your A pedal should be slightly higher than B, too.

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Iâ€™m thinking different shoes might help, like loafers or Nikes. Those look a bit bulky. I thought at first that your knee levers are too close together but looking at mine I see they are about like yours. It is very awkward at first. We understand how strange it seems, believe me.
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Kevin Maul: Airline, Beard, Clinesmith, Decophonic, Evans, Excel, Fender, Fluger, Gibson, Hilton, Ibanez, Justice, K+K, Live Strings, MOYO, National, Oahu, Peterson, Quilter, Rickenbacher, Sho~Bud, Supro, TC, Ultimate, VHT, Williams, X-otic, Yamaha, ZKing.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

That's a very common problem for beginners. After you center your body around the 15th fret (I center at the 17th), Play with the height adjustments on your pedals. But I found (with myself students I have had), it's the lack of muscle development in the ankles. In normal day to day activities, we don't roll our ankles to the left and right much, not enough to get control over the ankle. What I did, and had my students do, was to grab your knee with one or two hands so it won't move, and roll your ankle left and right like your were playing the pedals. Actually doing it at the guitar is good, but you can even do this if you are nowhere near your guitar. It's a great exercise. It will strengthen and loosen up the muscles in the ankle where the only movement should be. The knee should not move at all, or very minimally.
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, NV400, NV112 . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Tommy Mc · From: Middlesex VT

Peter, I think your solution is a combination of all the previous suggestions. Center yourself a little farther to the right (15th fret?) and adjust the A pedal a little higher than the others. I'm not familiar with the linkage on the GFI levers, but if possible, another strategy would be to set the LKL so that it is angled a little to the left instead of being perfectly perpendicular.

Bill Miller · From: Gaspe, Quebec, Canada

Peter, these things that feel so awkward become second nature pretty quickly but as Tommy Mc said there should be a set screw near the pivot point of the knee lever to allow adjusting the angle. My Mullen has them as did my Carter so I assume GFI has the same feature. I've had to tweak mine to suit me.

Joel Jackson · From: Detroit

Try adjusting your seated position before you start adjusting your guitar. Judging by your video, your A pedal height and left knee lever placement look pretty reasonable.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

What Tommy said. Try adjusting the tilt of the lever away from your knee position. I don't know about GFI, but most modern pedal steels have an adjustment screw at the base of the lever that will allow this.

I have the same issue and I'm playing for 40 yrs. I just finished adjusting the tilt of the LKL on the Carter. It's a delicate balance so that I don't lean on it, yet it's not too far away to reach comfortably.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I just watched the video. You are trying to make the moving of your foot by moving your leg at the hip. That will cause our knee to swing. Work on making the ankle move your foot, not your leg.
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, NV400, NV112 . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Peter Haverkamp · From: Ontario, Canada

Wow! This Forum is amazing! Thanks everyone for your swift and detailed answers. Looks like I have a few things to try. And yes K Maul, those are my slippers lol which is why they look bulky, maybe I will switch to a smaller loafer! ðŸ˜‚

So many things I had no idea about, that the pedal heights could be adjusted and/or possibly the angle of the knee lever,. I will try moving to the right and closer to the guitar, and practice my ankle movements when I'm watching TV

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

James Sission · From: Sugar Land,Texas USA

Get you some of this and put it under that volume pedal so you'll stop sliding it around on the floor. It's cheaper than a bar bracket. You're trying not to slide your volume pedal is diverting your attention from more important techniques.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/EasyLiner-Brand-Select-Grip-20-in-x-6-ft-Shelf-Liner-Dark-Gray/656354149?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&wl13=546&&adid=22222222228333553021&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=418930743812&wl4=aud-430887228898:pla-875565709193&wl5=9027781&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=656354149&veh=sem&gclid=CjwKCAjwmv-DBhAMEiwA7xYrd3knXpytAcb5I8MCIJZMVDaDHLesWzqHsGlECTX2w25ENbWgUT218BoCsMMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

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Ronnie Boettcher · From: Brunswick Ohio, USA

I had the same problem 40 some years ago. I solved the problem by moving both knee levers left, about a inch and a half. Problem solved. You have to adjust your steel, to fit "you". No two people are built the same.
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Sho-Bud LDG, Martin D28, Ome trilogy 5 string banjo, Ibanez 4-string bass, dobro, fiddle, and a tubal cain. Life Member of AFM local 142

Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

Do you have some sort of injury to your left ankle so it will not roll left smoothly?
You may want to raise the A and B pedals so you will not have to roll your foot as much left.

Will your foot roll right smoothly?
If it will roll smoothly right.
You may be a candidate for a DAY SET UP steel.
Where the pedals run C-B-A instead of A-B-C like your Emmons/Nashville set up. The knee levers would need changed also. So it would not be and easy job to have the steel changed.
Good Luck in finding a solution.

Darryl Coyne · From: Georgia, USA

As somewhat of a newbie myself, I'm certainly in no position to give much instruction. But I can relate to your situation and want to point you to a similar thread that I started back on April 16. It was more specifically a question of proper left heel position because, like you, I found that placing the heel centered on the B pedal made playing difficult. in my case the problem was that twisting in to reach B+C was very uncomfortable. There were a lot of very helpful responses and in the end, I found 3 things really helped for me. Maybe this will help you as well:

1. Moving my body center from the 12th fret to around the 15th (this also helps with right elbow position)
2. Placing the left heel near the C pedal
3. Raising the A pedal about 5/8" above B

I would encourage you to look back at the responses in that thread which was labeled as a "Newbie question on left heel position". Andrew Frost posted link there to an excellent video with some great closeups of the left foot position. I hope this helps!

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