Steel Guitar leg clutches won't hold

[Bob Tuttle]

Does anyone have a source for parts to repair or replace adjustment clutches on these legs?

[Ricky Davis]

[Donny Hinson]

Make sure the (inside) beveled edge of the metal washer is against the split ring. If the flat side of the washer is against the split ring, the leg will never tighten and stay in place!

[Jerry Overstreet]

If none of these suggestions work, you can buy a parts kit or individual parts for Atlas mic stands which are what most legs are built from here:

clickhere
[Sorry, didn't notice they are out of stock currently].
I haven't really looked around but you may find these parts cheaper at places like Amazon etc.

[Gene Tani]

I took apart a bunch of legs, cleaned all the pieces including the lower leg piece with rubbing alcohol AND citrus cleaner (like goo-gone) and they were still slipping under heavy body weight, so i cut some PVC pipe from Home depot, 7/8 outer diameter, and put that in above the lower leg piece so they will never slip again. Got the idea from Al Brisco, tho he used wooden dowels.

[Gene Tani]

oops, 2x post!

[Jack Stoner]

I had one leg on my Franklin (about 35 years old at the time) slipping. I tried all the various suggestions, including the ones here, and it still slipped. Bought clutch repair kit and that fixed it.

[Ricky Davis]

I have restored over 100 shobud's for 28 years and everyone of them had at least 1 leg clutch slipping. I referenced "cleaning the threads" so since that is a general advice; that is NOT the fix. Here's what happens over the years of tightening the clutch threads onto the leg threads. "METAL SHAVINGS" and those shavings are soooo small of course, you can't really see them. Sure you can try all the different cleaning solutions mentioned; but it's not the CLEAN metal you are looking for; it is the Getting the freakin metal shavings out of the threads in both the clutch and leg threads; and that is ONLY done with OIL and RAG. Get some 3&1 oil(something light) drip is on the threads of both areas and rub rag around threads and do that like 3 to 4 times...then put oil on threads and put back together and tighten back and forth till smooth rotation; then take off and oil/rag one more time. Then oil threads and put back together and NOW you have the fix and you don't even have to "IRON GRIP" tighten to hold anymore(which is what caused those shavings over and over again through the years.
So yes I have done this with over 100 legs and all fixed and hold. Otherwise just buy brand new legs.(they're cheap enough)
Ricky

[Jerry Overstreet]

I defer to Ricky's experience. No doubt he has serviced many guitars and certainly would know the ins and outs of legs and clutches. Nothing to lose by trying.

[Bob Tuttle]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I will definitely give Ricky's method a try. I hesitate to use the wood dowel method to prevent slippage because these are the rear legs and I need to be able to adjust them to level the steel. Sometimes our space where we set up is not level.

[Dom Franco]

This is funny... I just had to fix one of my shobud LDG legs yesterday. I wish I had seen this post sooner!

[Norbert Dengler]

I`ll never understand why even modern builders still stick with the old style microphone stand legs. to me they are a pain in the a.. Gene Fields made his guitar with legs that are adjustable with a screw. I use the same kind on my Schild. How great it is to own a guitar you could literally sit on without any hassle...

[Bobby D. Jones]

Dowel rods work well for setting the height of each leg so they won't collapse. You can still lengthen 1 of the back legs to deal with an uneven floor so the guitar will be stable to play. And hope the clutch on that leg will hold when you set it.

[Butch Mullen]

get the smallest hose clamp you can find. put it on the small part of leg. it ain't going nowhere. Butch in NC

[Donny Hinson]

The microphone stand legs looked good, were easily available, and reasonably reliable. Like the guitars they held up, they normally worked pretty well...until somebody screwed around with them, trying to make them "work better". The ones on my previous guitar worked well, without regular attention, for 29 years (until I "retired" that guitar).

[John Talbott]

you can check fullcompass

https://www.fullcompass.com/prod/000295 ... and-chrome

[Bobby D. Jones]

Another thing to check is if the slot in the inter plastic sleeve are touching or open, When squeezed tight around the inter tube. If the ends are touching it may not collapse enough to grip the inter tube. Cut the slot wider, So it can collapse on the inter tube, It can be a quick short time fix, But a replacement kit is the long cure.

[Hyram Ballard]

I've got an 80s MSA and the legs slip even after all the possible cleaning and mods I could find. I settled on some small hose clamps below the adjustment collars and I leave them on at my preferred height. Most stages are level enough and if it's not I usually only need to adjust one leg and there is no real extra work in loosening the hose clamp, adjusting the leg and then tightening the clamp. Works for me.

[Jerry Overstreet]

What Donny said above.




The bevel on the metal ring goes down toward the foot.
The design is so that the phenolic split ring mates with the metal ring bevel thereby expanding the connection so that it swells up inside the leg to lock it in when you tighten up the threaded clutch part.

I just went through a set of legs that were so tight that it took a strap wrench and channel locks to get them loose. No issues with the marring since it already boogered up. They were so tight because the parts were not assembled correctly.

People need to either leave things be or take note of the orientation of all the clutch parts before they take things apart.

This plus Ricky's excellent advice on caring for the threads will solve most "legs slipping, won't stay tight" issues.

[Steve Lipsey]

Hmmm....I just fixed mine, I figured that over time the brown slider had gotten too smooth, roughed the inside of it up with a file just a bit, and legs stay without sliding now...

[Chris Brooks]

Sort of on topic: For uneven stages, I carry some felt furniture pads. One side is sticky. I put that side up, against the leg tip of the leg that needs shimming up.

[Bob Hoffnar]

I fixed a few of mine by flipping over that ring/clutch thing. I had no idea what I was doing but it seemed to work.

[Lane Gray]

What is the trick when the female part won't catch the threads? I've got a customer guitar, and I'm not sure he wants to spend 40 bucks a leg for the Atlas kit. But I guess that's why the kits come with the big female part.

[Bobby D. Jones]

Check the 1st thread inside the female and first thread on male outside thread some times a thin edge on the thread will collapse and not allow threads to line up and start.

[Lane Gray]

In my case, the collar was worn enough to have too large a diameter. I actually observed the collar going all the way to the end of the pipe.
The (in my opinion unwise, but hey, it works) application of many wraps of nylon thread tape on the pipe's threads have it seating, but it's working.