Modified 6 Shooter is more fun than a barrel full of monkeys

[Steve Ahola]

This evening I took the plunge and reconfigured my new Fessenden Six Shooter as a console steel with auxiliary pedals rather than a wannabe baby pedal steel. There was a bit of that leap of faith in there because I took apart the pedal mechanisms and started over from scratch, adding the pulls I'd like to use with the E9th tuning that Mike Neer sold me on: E-B-G#-F#-D-B (hi to lo).



Raising the 5th on the second string to a 6th was a must as was raising the major 3rd on the third string to a 4th- the rest was gravy. I thought it would be cool to raise the b7 on the fifth string to the root and raise the 5th on the sixth string to a 6th. Although it might seem more logical to put both 5-to-6 changes on the same pedal I decided to split them to offer more voicing options, especially since there are only two pedals. BTW the string spacing is nice and wide for slants- more than 3/8". Another reason I insist that it is really a console steel with auxiliary pedals...

Code: Select all

E9th        string gauges    
    PEDALS
    A    B  
E           .015
B  ++C#     .018
G#      +A  .024w
F#          .028w 
D  ++E      .032w
B      ++C# .038w

Just a few of the chords:
    A    B     A&B

E9 E6/9  E11  Esus/6

Bm6/11  Bm7/11
   Bsus/6/9   Bsus9

Amaj7/13 Asus2/6    
   Amaj6/9    A6/9

         D6/9
   
              F#m7/9

Damn- its been a long time since I have had so much fun screwing around with a steel guitar. With no pedals it is the E9th tuning I love, but I can shift gears by engaging one or both pedals. Since my technique is still mainly lap steel I really consider it to be a console steel with 2 auxiliary pedals.




Fessenden had a great idea but I found the stock tuning/copedent to be very limited. Yes, you can get a lot of the "pedal steel effects" but I am more interested in adding versatility to lap steel tunings. Although I did E9th on this one they could be adapted for other tunings as well (like C6). If these instruments were more well-known they could become as influential as the B-bender telecaster designed by Clarence White and Gene Parsons.

Steve Ahola


P.S. Now I just need to check with Fessenden to see if I could get the parts to add a knee lever to lower the two strings not connected to a pedal 2 frets- the E on the first string to D and the F# on the fourth string to E. That would be nice but I think that the Six Shooter will work great just as it is now. It is very light and portable- the legs fold in after you remove the pedal rods and crossbar. I could see bringing this to a jam while a regular pedal steel would be too complicated.

Photos taken by seller

[Pastor Bruce Kiser]

TRY ONE OF THESE!SERIOUSLY THESE LITTLE JEWELS ARE
NOT "WANNA BE'S" BUT CAN DISH OUT SOME SERIOUS TUNES
STILL LIGHT AND FEWER STRINGS , BUT DEFINITLY A PEDAL STEEL.DON'T LOOK BAD EITHER.
PASTOR BRUCE

[Les Anderson]

WOW Could that pink steel be classed as a blushing pink axe?

[Steve Ahola]

TRY ONE OF THESE!SERIOUSLY THESE LITTLE JEWELS ARE NOT "WANNA BE'S" BUT CAN DISH OUT SOME SERIOUS TUNES STILL LIGHT AND FEWER STRINGS , BUT DEFINITLY A PEDAL STEEL.DON'T LOOK BAD EITHER.
PASTOR BRUCE

So what the heck is that?

It is the idea of a six string pedal steel that knocks me out more than the actual manufacturer and model. And in particular the idea of using it to extend the capabilities of favorite lap steel tunings.

Supposedly a good pedal steel player can accomplish a lot with the Six Shooter so my calling it a "wannabe" is mostly rhetoric. And I was referring to the stock tuning and not the instrument itself: I don't see how raising the 3rds and 5ths of a basic dobro tuning (5-R-3-5-R-3) comes close to capturing the capabilities of an E9th pedal steel with 3 pedals and 2 knee levers. With the tuning I am using you basically have all of the notes from an E9th pedal steel minus the 2 chromatic notes, the high G# and the lower E.

So what is the tuning/copedent for the pedal steel in your picture? Tell me more about it. It would be great if more pedal steel builders got into making 6 and 8 string models.

Thanks!

Steve

[Brad Bechtel]

Moved to Pedal Steel from Steel Without Pedals.

[Pastor Bruce Kiser]

ok,steve-let's move
sorry,brad!
pastor bruce