playin' around…

…making noises #2…

improved sound…

The massive, floating, laminated aluminum neck is my own construction, and it went on around 1992. The idea was to isolate the parts of the instrument that create the unique “steel sound” from the body and the mechanics, in order to optimize the tone and sustain within the framework of a regular All-Pull construction. The instrument changed appearance and took on a little weight, but the operation was quite successful – I found the tonal qualities I was aiming for.

stronger than the rest…

That the neck is laminated — screwed and glued using heat-treated epoxy — is important to know to understand how it behaves tonewise and mechanically. The two solid aluminum “slabs” layered on top of each other to form the neck, are not of equal length. In addition the bridge/changer pillow-blocks are stainless steel bolted on the bottom-layer and resting against the top-layer, and that and the binding/layering means the tendency to get standing waves and resonances in pieces of metal is pretty much eliminated — the neck doesn't contribute its own “metal-tones” to the string-tones.

The lengthwise binding/layering of two 10 millimeter thick aluminum “slabs” also makes the neck extremely strong and rigid — many times stronger and more rigid than if it had been shaped out of one solid 20 millimeter thick piece. Yes, it may sound as if I have completely overdone it, but the mechanical stability resulting from this construction-method is without a doubt superior to that of any PSGs ever made, and I'm not joking.

nickname: “the bell”…

Having been able to compare the sound of my modified Dekley GS with quite a few new steels, I nicknamed mine “the bell”. Hard to describe, but it has that little “something” – natural timbre and sustain, that I feel gives it an edge.

Dekley PSGs are known for their unique body-tone and that they are sustaining well. My modified Dekley has a more “controlled”, or rather “controllable”, body-tone, and is sustaining much better than before.

It all has to do with how vibrations from the strings charges the heavy mass consisting of changer and neck, which in turn excites the top plate/sound board on the instrument-body. The body-vibrations come back up the same way. There's a mechanical response-delay caused by the heavy neck not being in contact with the body at the bridge/changer end, and that dampens the attack-sound and makes the tones grow, or swell, naturally like in a well-tuned bell, adding sustain through a kind of low frequency “kick-back” from the body.
At the same time the large free-floating mass, the neck that in itself is made to be resonance-free, filters out stray and unwanted body-vibrations, so the sustained tones that come out are “massive” but very pure.

This is quite the reverse of how regular PSGs are built, as they all resonate with the body at or near the bridge/changer end. This gives a mix of short-travelled body-vibrations and much more immediate and audible response. Some like such an immediate response – maybe because that's what they're used to.

improved stability…

I also wanted to eliminate all detuning tendencies exhibited by a Dekley and all other pedal steel guitars. The new, rigid, floating neck with the changer bolted on, takes up all twisting and bending forces from the cabinet through 4 screws at the back half of the neck holding it firmly onto the relatively thin top-plate.

This causes the neck to move up and down as much as a millimeter at the bridge-end when the cabinet and/or neck is put under stress by forces in any direction, but the neck with bridge/changer, strings and all, isn't exposed to any twisting or bending forces that can affect tuning.

The free-floating front half of the neck with the bridge/changer, only has to take up the horizontal pulling force of the strings and the variation in horizontal pulling force caused by pedal/lever action. There are no bending forces from, or through, the changer, as those are taken up by a horisontally stable but vertically flexible plate holding the stop plate and return springs below the bottom of the cabinet.

The new neck is a bit thicker than the original one, but I didn't raise the strings to compensate. So the distance between strings and neck is only about 9 millimeter, which reduces the impact of varying string tension when pedaling even more through reduced leverage.

To top it off the original changer shaft was replaced with a specially hardended shaft that is specified to break before exhibiting any bending, transferring all pulling forces to the enforced sides of the neck. Needless to say that the neck doesn't give in much when practically all forces are directed, or redirected, to affect it lengthwise only. As a result all detuning caused by pedal/lever action is inaudible, and next to zero when measured. I usually present my PSG as having less than 2.5 cent body-drop, but I have yet to measure more than about 1 cent on it.

As for the effects of changes in environmental conditions: the high-quality aluminum chosen for the floating neck is affected by swing in temperature but not much else. By laminating the neck and having both the top side and underside of that neck “in the air” and subjected to the same temperature without any part being insulated by or having to wait for environmentally caused changes in the instrument-body, even changes caused by shifting temperature are kept at a minimum. Thus, I don't think there's much more one can do to keep a steel guitar in tune. I will continue to look for ways to improve it though.

new name: “Dekley GS”…

The decal is a recent addition. The original only survived for a few years after I bought the instrument back in 1980, and it didn't look good to me anyway. The new one is more my style, which isn't surprising since I designed it.

The new decal contains my initials for obvious reasons. There is after all only one “Twin Tuned Single 10”^™ Dekley with floating neck/changer around. I came up with the ideas and did the job, and find it most appropriate to take the credit … and the blame.

The term “Twin Tuned” points to the fact that string 7 and 9 are tuned to one octave below their neighbors – string 6 and 8. This gives my steel a wider tonal range than standard 10 string E9 PSG, and the modified and extended copedant and thicker, deep-sounding, strings let me play licks and chords that are otherwise reserved for a C6 or an E9/B6 universal. I have had this copedant since August 1988.

As of March 2010 the copedant has been extended even further. The new copedent has some experimental features with the addition of two pedals, as I want to test out how far the Twin Tuned concept can be taken.

The reason for replacing string 7 and 9 directly and not move strings up to put the thickest strings in the lowest positions, is that I wanted to keep string 8(E) and string 10(B) positioned where they are normally found on 10 string E9 tuned steel guitars. This makes it easier to move back and forth between this modified steel and all non-modified E9 tuned steels, as the most used strings are in exactly the same positions on both.

Needless to say I had to modify grooving at the bridge and key ends to get these thicker strings leveled with the others – wouldn't sound good or be easy to play otherwise. My handmade grooving leaves a lot to be desired – something to improve on in the future, but the end-result sounds and plays just fine and has done so for more than two decades.

the reasoning…

Back in the mid 1980s I had a not very old Dekley that sounded good but didn't exactly stay exceptionally well in tune. The brand went out of production in 1985, and spare parts was increasingly difficult to get hold of in Norway. Most Norwegian players replaced their Dekleys with other brands, and I contemplated doing the same.

After having given the issue some serious thoughts, I decided to keep my Dekley and turn it into a better instrument – not because I had to but because I could. Back in the late 80s up to the mid 90s I had access to all sort of metalwork, and the Dekley was easy to experiment on since it is such a solid construction.

Two years of experimentation lead to the design I ended up with, although it did take a few more years to completely rebuild the contraption. Once finished it was closer to my preferences for tone and mechanics than any PSG I could find on the Norwegian steel guitar market, so I stuck with it until the day came a few years ago when I lost interest in steel guitar and music altogether.

Now I'm back into music again, and the old and modified Dekley still produces sounds that I haven't found in other PSGs. It may all be in my imagination, but although I have tried for a couple of years now I can't find a really good replacement for this particular Dekley.

So now I have 5 more PSGs, and they all sound and play fine but they do end up “playing second fiddle” to the old bastard. Looks like I can't get rid of this bad-looking good-sounding Dekley, so I may as well keep on playing and maintaining it for as long as I can.
To be completely honest: I don't mind one bit.

sincerely 

Hageland 17.jun.2009
24.sep.2009 - minor revision.
26.dec.2010 - major revision. Moved old last section to 101226, and added new last section.
28.dec.2010 - minor revision.
09.sep.2011 - revised no of other PSGs.
15.mar.2012 - minor revision.
last rev: 15.mar.2012