Pickups
To please the varying tastes of our customers, we developed and pioneered modular pickups. Custom pickups are wound with different tonal qualities in mind. The opportunity for the player to select from our many different pickups allows him to custom-tailor his guitar to his own tonal desires.
Pickup removal & replacement
Slide out present pickup. Notice there is a dovetail track with three or four brass spring-loaded pins depending on your model. Using the un-lipped end of the pickup, gently depress the three pins and mate the dovetail on pickup with the track, and slide the pickup into place. Alignment and pin depression is essential!
Tuning
To better understand tuning procedures of your Sierra, study Figure 2, and compare to your guitar. Figure 2 shows the relationship from pedal to changer. A hex capped pull rod is installed with 2 or 3 nylon cylindrical bushings (1 or 2 lengthwise, 1 crosswise). These bushings are what contact the changer when a pedal is used. One short bushing accommodates the raise holes, (Figure 1, rows A., B, C); one long and one short accommodated lowers, (Figure 1, rows D & E) The properly used rod is then guided through the proper changer hole for raises or lowers. A bell crank with a threaded barrel shape nut is then aligned and tightened on the cross shaft. The rod is then threaded through the nylon nut. When the cross shaft is rotated by a pedal or lever, the bell crank on it moves the pull rod. The cylindrical bushings thereby come into contact with the changer finger, moving it to make a change.
Tuning pedals & knee levers
Tuning a Sierra is not complex. The guitar is tuned open to an electronic tuner, fork, or whatever, and then tempered to sound pleasing to your ear. Pedals and knee levers are tuned at the right end plate. With guitar in playing position, the 3 top most rows in the changer are raises, Figure 1, the bottom 2 rows are lowers. To adjust, turn brass pull rod hex cap clockwise to increase your change or counter-clockwise to decrease it. This is the same for raises or lowers. Caution: do not over-tighten these rods. A good rule is to leave 1/32’Äù to 1/16’Äù of free-play in each rod. (This is explained in the ’Äútrouble shooting’Äù section.)
Half stops
The Sierra half stop consists of an extra bell crank on the lever shaft and a special half stop rod. This rod, Figure 4, visible at the endplate, is easily recognized from the others by a spring mounted on it. The normal pull rod operates the changer, e.g. 2nd string E9th D# to C#. The spring loaded half slop rod has no nylon bushings and will not affect the changer. It travels freely until the spring begins to compress. This point of pressure gives the knee lever a defined stop-feel and is adjusted at the endplate to the half tone between a whole step, as D between the D# and C#. The amount of ’Äúfeel’Äù is also adjustable by lengthening or shortening the preset compression of the spring by resetting of the lock nuts or lock collars holding the spring. When resetting for ’Äúharder feel,’Äù make sure spring does not fully compress before full tone note can be made.