Franklin Pedal Who really uses it and how?

[Craig A Davidson]

Removed mine...

me too. I could never get the hang of it and Lloyd Green and Tom Brumley never needed it.

[Richard Sinkler]

Removed mine...

I've put it on and taken it off so many times, it would make your head spin. I just never fell in love with it. Same with the B to Bb lowers.

[Tony Prior]

Removed mine...

me too. I could never get the hang of it and Lloyd Green and Tom Brumley never needed it.

This discussion is going in a very silly direction. Nothing is a need, Steel Guitars are not NEEDS ,they are desires.

"Using any change is not a need , they are in addition to, an alternative "

For many, improving or adding to a voicing vocabulary is a desire . no different than learning a few ways to play the same phrasing on any instrument.

Just because so and so doesn't use it seems to be self limiting to me.

"I don't need a Power Saw , that guy on TV doesn't use one "


This is a very similar situation to a Guitar with B Bender, NOBODY NEEDS a B Bender. Most great players DO NOT have one. We all love them ( well not all ) when we hear it, then we buy one, we play 2 or 3 licks over and over then sell it. We are kinda stuck in 1st gear. It didn't do anything for us. While in actuality it was waiting for US to do something with it, not the other way around.

Its a personal growth thing.

Regarding Benders, I don't need one at all but somehow I ended up with 4 . The first 2 or 3 I owned over the years I didn't put any time in, so I sold them. Now I won't leave the house without a Bender guitar for any gig.

We can talk some more about the FP I guess, same thing. Its there, study it, put the time in. There is no law that says you have to use it, but when you find a phrase and finally use it, there's no going back. It will be an " Oh My Lord moment " for you personally. Others on the bandstand won't have a clue, BUT you will.

PF gave us a little something extra here, why not give it a shot ?

IF we think about it, we didn't know what to do with the AB PEDs when we got our first Steel but somehow over time we figured it out.

[Craig A Davidson]

Tony you make perfect sense.I tried to find a use for the change but only ever learned one lick from a Gene Watson tune and then found I could do the same lick without the change. Maybe for some of you guys that are super pickers there is a need but for what I do not so much. I admire anybody that can use all those changes even though I don't.
I guess that is what makes us all different.

[Tony Prior]

Maybe for some of you guys that are super pickers there is a need

Ha, I don't think we are super pickers, maybe super ambitious instead ! Realistically there are things I work on or study for endless hours in the hopes of conquering the task. Some things work out great, some not so great.

My opinion is that many times we are seeking or searching for a LICK, which is very limiting. We didn't seek a lick for the AB peds, we learned what they did then applied them to every song we play.

for ex: Lowering the E's with the B ped isn't a LICK, its a relative chord that we use in every song we play and
in every song we are ever going to play . We didn't know this on day 1 but we know it now. BUT, if we want to take some of the notes and turn them INTO a lick we can, because we now understand the functionality.

It just takes time is all.

I just happen to be one of those that plays the same thing over and over again , everyday until my wife yells up the stairs "CHANGE SONGS ALREADY WOULD YA ! , you're killin me down here " !

I'm not sure if its a blessing or a curse.

Not my wife, the music ! She's a blessing