UNIVERSAL E9-B6-Bb6 B6/E9

Joe McHam · Post by **Joe McHam** » 21 Apr 2008 9:59 am

How many E9-B6-Bb6 B6/E9 players out there?

How many of you would like to join forces and create a Universal E9-B6 Group or Assoc to exchange ideas, swap licks...etc

I know there are some great Uni players out there excluding myself!!

Would love to hear from each of you that have an interest.

Thanks so much!!

Bill Stroud · Post by **Bill Stroud** » 21 Apr 2008 10:03 am

I play a Universal 12 with 9 FL & 9 KN I'll send you the setup of it if you would want it.
Bill
BJS Bars

Bill Stroud · Post by **Bill Stroud** » 21 Apr 2008 10:05 am

I also play Double Ten Emmons, Mullen, double 12 Dekley, they are all good playing steels, I like them all.
But the low notes sound good on the U-12's got two of them.
Bill

Len Amaral · Post by **Len Amaral** » 21 Apr 2008 12:28 pm

Hi Joe, count me in. How is that Excel treating you?

Lenny

Joe McHam · Post by **Joe McHam** » 21 Apr 2008 3:20 pm

Thanks guys for the quick response... Please email me or post your ideas about our group...
Mr. Bill Stroud I'd like to see that 9/9 setup. .Wow!! Len the Excel is doing great.keeps telling me to practice.. LOL!!!

Thanks!

Tom Campbell · Post by **Tom Campbell** » 21 Apr 2008 4:14 pm

Joe

I think this is a great idea.

This is a tuning with a lot of flexibility and a variety of approaches. I am sure we can learn a lot from each other.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 21 Apr 2008 6:54 pm

Count me in. After learning on an S10 I briefly tried an S12 extended E9. But there weren't enough brains in my thumb to get around down there on the bottom strings. Then I tried an S12 E9/B6 uni and everything cleared up on the bottom. It was love at first play. And I loved learning B6 stuff without having to carry around a big, heavy double-neck.

My main group right now is a blues group, and I love playing rhythm power chords on the low strings, and also being able to sail up into Elmore James territory for lead work. I still play E9 country, and also dabble in swing, rock, jazz and classical. The uni is the ideal tuning for that kind of versatility.

It would be nice for us to post some E9/B6 uni tab and sound clips - the kind of stuff that can only be played on a uni. I have some stuff in the works, but I have to learn how to post tab on here, and have to find a host site for MP3 clips.

John Roche · Post by **John Roche** » 22 Apr 2008 12:09 am

I also play one , a Sierra Session uni 12

Larry Lorows · Post by **Larry Lorows** » 22 Apr 2008 12:27 am

I play a Williams U12, and like to play dinner music and old country. The trouble is, I'd have to take a course in computers to learn how to post anything. ha ha I'm not very swift on these contraptions.Larry

John Sluszny · Post by **John Sluszny** » 22 Apr 2008 1:31 am

I play a Carter S12 Uni and I love it !!!

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 22 Apr 2008 6:23 am

Hey Joe, I played a Uni for a long time before changing it about 4 or 5 years ago. What I did was drop the low B string and move the low G# and E to slots 11 & 12 like an extended E9th. I then added a C# string in the 9th slot. I like it a whole lot better this way and I can still use my Uni pedals.....JH in Va.

Gil Berry · Post by **Gil Berry** » 22 Apr 2008 7:48 am

I play a Sierra uni 9/7 keyless. Love everything about that guitar except the concept of playing E9 and C6 (B6) separately. My 2nd lkr is only reachable after the 1st one is folded up out of the way. Thinking was 1st lkr for E9; fold it up out of the way and lock the rkl (lowering e's) with the change lock for B6, and have access to the 2nd lkr for B6 changes. I'm gonna have to take this thing down to Jim Palenscar to have that 1st lkr knee changed around -- maybe to a lkf (?) so I can play the whole tuning at once....Oh yeah, I have two other uni's and a d12....and too many amps...at least that's what my Mrs. says.

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 22 Apr 2008 7:52 am

Hey Joe,,at one time I had a pretty good list of uni players,,and people that requested a copy of my Universal B6 chord chart converted from Trap Truly's C6 chart,,,there was a bunch of them. If you like I'll see if I can find it and share it with you?

Ivan Funk · Post by **Ivan Funk** » 22 Apr 2008 8:02 am

Id like to be a part of discussions. I learn a lot from these threads although I'm reluctant to be a part of a group or association. -unless of course we can get biker jackets made up with "local U12" patches and serve bad coffee and donuts at meetings.
I play a Pedalmaster keyless S12 universal E9/B6 with 7x6. (custom made by Roy Thomas for Peewee Whitewing) I can post pictures and the copedant if anyone's interested.

-Ivan

John Groover McDuffie · Post by **John Groover McDuffie** » 22 Apr 2008 9:31 am

In response to Jerry Hayes' post, where does one cross the line from an ext E9 to what would be considered a universal tuning without the low B? I use a tuning in that direction, I know Ernest Bovine does, Jerry of course, and I'm sure there are others.

Perhaps it should be called E9-uni or something. There are high bass and low bass open G tunings, maybe we could call it high-bass-uni? Or in the spirit of extended E9, call it a truncated Universal?

Seriously I don't care what you call, it's the actual notes and pulls that matter.

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 22 Apr 2008 9:34 am

Ivan Funk wrote: we can ...serve bad coffee

Dude, I'm with ya.

Mike. alias: "The caffiend"

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 22 Apr 2008 9:47 am

Question: Who invented the E9/B6 tuning, and when?

In the MSA manual, which Carter has reproduced on their web site, (Thanks John and Ann) there are several tunings shown, including Reece's Bb6 universal, but the E9/B6 is not, presumably because it had not yet been invented. And if I remember correctly, Winnie's book which was written in 1975 doesn't list it either. (I could be wrong about that.)

But when I bought my green steel, in 1979, it came with an E9/B6 on it, and the guitar was used. It was traded in on a newer one.

My guess is that the tuning was invented around 1976 or '77.

I asked David Wright about this, and he doesn't know the year, but thinks it might have been invented by Jeff Newman.

Does anybody have any more information?

Brian ONeil · Post by **Brian ONeil** » 22 Apr 2008 9:58 am

count me in!!

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 22 Apr 2008 10:05 am

Tom Bradshaw's monthly column in Guitar Player magazine showed a 12 string universal tuning in 1972. As I remember it was a very basic A6/D9 that was fundamentally the same as any U-12 today. Maurice Anderson was playing something very similar.

Joe McHam · Post by **Joe McHam** » 22 Apr 2008 10:19 am

It's my understand that Bob Simmons came up with the orignal idea for the E9-B6.. I recently spoke with Bob on the phone and that is what he said. http://www.simmonspedalsteel.com/ I think it was sometime in the 1960's..

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 22 Apr 2008 11:06 am

John Groover McDuffie wrote: ... where does one cross the line from an ext E9 to what would be considered a universal tuning without the low B? I use a tuning in that direction,

John, what you call it is a matter of semantics, but the definitive factors are the lack of a D string, and the inclusion of the B6 pedals.

John Groover McDuffie · Post by **John Groover McDuffie** » 22 Apr 2008 11:23 am

Mike, you missed my point, which is what to call a tuning which has the string pitches of an extended E9, but has more pedals/KLs and all or most of the pulls which would be on strings 1-11 of a Uni.

I realize it is a matter of semantics, as I more or less said in the last paragraph of my post.

Jerry Heath · Post by **Jerry Heath** » 22 Apr 2008 12:09 pm

Count me In!

Alan Pagliere · Post by **Alan Pagliere** » 22 Apr 2008 1:44 pm

I'm in.

Currently playing an MSA 2002 Millennium. U-12, 8 and 5

Fred Glave · Post by **Fred Glave** » 22 Apr 2008 1:55 pm

I'm in. I play a Sierra Crown gearless U12 with 8/5.

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