I visited a gear collector today who has two pedal steels that he bought from Japan. He thinks they both belonged to the same player. One is branded Fuzzy and is a single-neck C6 instrument. The other is branded Excel and is a D10, but the setup seems unusual. I guess the person who played it used C6 much more than E9, because pretty much all the pedals and levers do something on the C6 neck, and the left levers are located in the middle of the body rather than to the left side. I failed to take a photo of the front of the guitar, but as well as the Excel logo, it had the word LION written in large letters.
I didn't have time to properly investigate the copedent, but it was clearly not standard on the E9 neck. Pedal 1 raised strings 5 and 10, but only by a semitone. Pedal 3 lowered string 4 by a semitone. RKR raised both Es by a full tone.
I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this instrument? I could probably make a deal with the owner, but I am doubtful about the expense of having it put back to a more conventional setup, especially relocating the left knee levers.
Sorry about the bad photos, it was a very hurried visit!
I’m connected with Lion Kobayashi, so I can certainly ask him if he remembers ordering this guitar.
Drawing on my experience working at Excel, I am now building the next generation of these models. I would be delighted if you would also take a look at my website:
Thank you! I have been following the development of your new guitars with interest. They look spectacularly good.
Are you able to give me a rough idea of the age of this Excel? And how difficult would it be to relocate the left knee levers so that they are in a more conventional position?
I’m not sure of the exact year, but I would guess it’s from the 1980s.
The difficulty of relocating the left knee levers really depends on your experience with pedal steel guitar modifications and maintenance. In principle, you should be able to remove them and reinstall them in a new position in the same manner. However, Excel guitars vary widely in their specifications, and some were not designed with modifications in mind, so I can’t say for certain until I’ve had a closer look.
Thank you for the advice. This is not a job I would attempt myself! I wish I had taken better photos. It looks as though there are extra holes in the frame between the existing cross-bars, but I don't know if those are designed as alternative positions for the knee levers. (Is cross-bar even the right expression?)
I am impressed by the construction of this instrument. It makes my old MSA seem quite clunky in comparison.
Especially with older Excels, there is a good chance that Mitsuo may no longer have parts in stock.
By “cross-bar,” you are referring to the hexagonal cross shaft.
Hi Sam,
I own an Excel of similar vintage, they are well designed and easy to work on. The extra holes in the frame are indeed alternative positions for the cross-shafts. Relocating the cross-shafts should be possible and not too hard to accomplish.
As you want to reposition the left knee levers further to the left (to standard position), you'll need longer pull rods. That might become a bit of a problem, as the nylon tuning nuts on the older Excels are round on the outside (instead of hex) and have the hex on the inside, so you tune the changes with an (metric) allen wrench. Not sure where to get those other than from Mitsuo - if he still has a supply of them. Furthermore, these nylon tuning nuts are fixed to the pull rod. On the bell crank end of the pull rods there are threads that screw into a little nylon cylinder sitting in the bell crank. When tuning a change, you basically turn the whole pull rod. Bend rods because of loaded setups are a last resort in undercarriage work IMHO anyway, but with the design of this Excel it's impossible to accommodate bend rods.
That being said, my Excel sounds fantastic and plays smooth like cheese cake.
Ollie
Thanks Oliver, that is very helpful information. I spoke to John Davis who is the main PSG repair person in the UK. He said that if it was his, he'd remove the C6 neck and turn it into an SD10. That way any parts needed to move the knee levers and change the E9 copedent could hopefully be taken from the C6 neck. It does seem a shame to make so many changes to a very nice instrument, but it's so far from standard spec at the moment that I don't know who might ever play it in its current format.
Sam Inglis wrote: 18 Aug 2025 12:33 am
Thanks Oliver, that is very helpful information. I spoke to John Davis who is the main PSG repair person in the UK. He said that if it was his, he'd remove the C6 neck and turn it into an SD10. That way any parts needed to move the knee levers and change the E9 copedent could hopefully be taken from the C6 neck. It does seem a shame to make so many changes to a very nice instrument, but it's so far from standard spec at the moment that I don't know who might ever play it in its current format.
If you're Britain based, I'd get in touch with Ron Bennett before doing the usual D10 to SD10 butchering.
He's a master of his craft and built Bennett steels for many years. He still does repairs/setups and has tooling equipment. He fitted me a zero pedal a while back and moved my left knees to accommodate this.
27 year old wannabe.
Steels - 2015 Show Pro SD10, 2025 Max Resobird.
Amps - Quilter 202 TT12, TC Furlong Sesh 400
Sam Inglis wrote: 18 Aug 2025 12:33 am
Thanks Oliver, that is very helpful information. I spoke to John Davis who is the main PSG repair person in the UK. He said that if it was his, he'd remove the C6 neck and turn it into an SD10. That way any parts needed to move the knee levers and change the E9 copedent could hopefully be taken from the C6 neck. It does seem a shame to make so many changes to a very nice instrument, but it's so far from standard spec at the moment that I don't know who might ever play it in its current format.
In this particular case I have to oppose the estimable John Davis. On the one hand because I'm a big advocate for C6th, on the other because you just need a few longer rods (plus fresh tuning nuts from Mitsuo), the rest is undercarriage-work: relocate the left knee cross-shafts incl. knee levers, and re-rod *cough* everything. If you remove the C6th neck and convert it to a SD10, you still need the longer rods for those then "E9th-positioned" left knee levers, You don't really gain the crucial parts needed (as you can't get the "fixed to the rod"-tuning nuts off the too short rods without breaking them, I fear). Everything else for putting a standard copendent on both necks is basically there, isn't it?
The pedal rods for pedal 4 to 9 are just not hooked up, I guess? Or are they missing?
I'm going to see the owner of this instrument again in a couple of weeks, he still seems keen to sell or trade it, and I probably have something I can trade for it.
Can someone sanity check my thinking here?
There are currently 41 changes on the guitar in total, of which 25 are on the C6 neck. That's at least eight more than on a standard C6 copedent. What's more, three of these unconventional C6 changes are on pedals 1, 2 and 3, not normally used in C6. So, in principle, reverting to a standard C6 copedent would free up three long rods that could be repurposed on the E9 neck. The idea would be to convert what is currently LKL to LKR but leave it in the same place, and move the lever in the middle that is currently LKR the other side of that one to become a conventional LKL.
So IF all of the existing rods, nylon parts, bell cranks and so on are in good order, there should be enough to implement a conventional E9 copedent without extra parts, and probably enough to retain a fairly standard C6 copedent too.
However... this is all predicated on it being possible to shorten some of the longer rods from the C6 neck as required. That's the step that seems to me potentially challenging as they need to be threaded at the bell crank end.
