Double 8?

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Did anyone ever make D-8 guitars with pedals and knee levers? I mean like a full 8p+4k copedent, but with 8 strings per neck and wide string spacing. Seems like it would be fun to play something like that, especially for traditional country.

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6)

John Daugherty · From: Rolla, Missouri, USA

b0b, of course you know about the Fender 1000,but it did not have knee levers. I am interested to know why you want to give up two strings to get a wider string spacing. I did read the post where BE and PF discussed spacing and agreed that they could play faster with a wider spacing. I was always of the opinion that you could get "bonded" to a certain spacing and that "practice,practice,practice" would improve your speed.I have owned a couple of Fender 400s but I never measured the string spacing. As I recall, it was no more than 3/8".

Bobbe Seymour · From: Hendersonville TN USA, R.I.P.

Very interesting you brought this up Bobby, I have been playing a D-8 Sho-Bud ('63) for the last several months. It is astounding how much can be played on a D-8 set up. I did away with the chromatics. The rest of the tuning is the same as the standard set-up.
After playing this guitar on several jobs in Nashville, no one has ever even spotted the fact that it is an Double eight string. Knowing where to get the "missing" chromatic notes is the secret, and in a lot of cases, it sounds and flows much better.
Jimmy day proved everything I'm saying, and he proved it for many years.
D-8, seven pedals, solid finger permanent, pull release. Tone? Good Lord! YES!
Tell us why you are thinking in this direction Bobby Lee? Then I'll tell you why I think this may be a new direction for pedal guitar from a commercial playing point of view.
As you can see, I'm seeing a future in this direction.
Buddy E., Jouquin M., Noel B,, Jimmy D., Slim Idaho, Jerry B., Bud Isaacs, Billy Bowman, Big Ben Keith, Pee Wee Whitewing, Ray Norn, Chuck Caldwell, Don Helms and hundreds of others can't all be wrong.
bobbe

[This message was edited by BobbeSeymour on 05 June 2005 at 09:38 AM.]

Ted Nesbitt · From: Northern Ireland

I owned a D8 Fuzzy in 1978. It had 8 pedals and 2 k/levers. As you are probably aware,Excel Pedal Steel Guitars are made by Fuzzy Musical Instruments in Japan,so I guess Mitsuo Fujii could still make you one, and he makes GREAT steel guitars.

Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

Interesting you should ask, b0b.

I was recently watching a video that was made a couple years ago of the James Hand Band, with Pete Mitchell and myself. We had the camera focused mostly on James, and I couldn't tell which guitar I was playing, but it sounded from my E9 licks that I was on my Emmons D-10. Anyway, when the camera hit me on my solo, I was on my T-8 Bigsby!

I'm of the same feeling as Bobbe... nix the chromatics, and use the bar. Just as Jimmy and Buddy did pre-1963.

My Bigsby has 6 pedals and no knee levers, BTW.

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

I currently have two 8-string single-neck PSG's, and have often concidered having a Williams D8 made. Nice and light with modern mechanics, maybe an 8x8 (just to keep straight!

)
A D8 8x8.
Someday!

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

I enjoy playing the wide string spacing on my non-pedal 8 string guitars, and I like bar slants. On the modern pedal steel, the strings are too close to do bar slants on adjacent strings.

I'm very comfortable with the maxed-out copedent on my Williams. I want every instrument I own to be a subset of it. I've been using knee levers since I got my first Sho-Bud in 1974. It seems that almost all of the 8 string pedal steels are antiques that don't have the benefits of modern mechanics (double raise - double lower, compensators, tunable splits, etc.).

Maybe there's not much of a market for them, but so many of our steels are custom jobs anyway. Does the market size really matter?

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6)

Andy Greatrix · From: Edmonton Alberta

Has anyone ever taken the two top strings off of a ten string E9th and added a low G# and E instead so as to get the same set up as the Extended E9th?

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Andy, most 10 string players who want that low range omit the D string and add a low E. I've seen a lot of people do that, and I've done it myself once or twice.

Now, an 8 string E9th with a low E - that would be an interesting challenge.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

After I played my old 1000 for a year or so, I kept the chromatics, but dropped the 7th and 9th. That gave me two stacked triads (great for rock and blues), and with the addition of a couple of levers, I could still get the 7th and 9th notes. But today's leaning is always "more, MORE, MORE! More pedals, more levers, more chords and scales, and less feeling. In some ways, we're getting hung up on complex chords and intricate scales, and forgetting to make just good, simple music.

You can still have great feeling and emotion without a lot of technical content. In fact this was the whole basis of coutry music for more than half a century.

For the most part, we've lost this.

Pity.

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I'm not an expert on the history of pedal steel like so many here, but it does seem as though using a lot of pedals and very heavy bars has tamed it down considerably. Joaquin Murphey and Speedy West had a real spark and personality to their playing.

Andy Greatrix · From: Edmonton Alberta

An eight string with the F# omitted could be set up this way.

G#
E
B
G#
E
B
G#
E
The F#'s could be handy with a knee lever.

[This message was edited by Andy Greatrix on 05 June 2005 at 03:40 PM.]

Alvin Blaine · From: Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA

About a week ago there was a D-9 Shobud on ebay.
The down side of the it was that the auction was by GCREP(Guitar Center) and I think the starting bid was like $4200.

Alvin Blaine · From: Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA

OK, now they have it for $2700
I just wish that it wasn't from gcrep, I just don't trust those guys.

D-9 Shobud

Bobbe Seymour · From: Hendersonville TN USA, R.I.P.

An indication of the next good investments. Will the old Sho-Bud perms follow the Bigsby pricing?

basilh · From: United Kingdom

As an interesting point, I´ve asked most of the major USA manufacturers to build me one and been turned down flat..Even when I said that the price wasn´t a consideration..

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