Jimmy Day Pedals/Levers

[Miles Seaman]

I'm curious how many guys out there play the Day pedal set up of E9 chromatic anymore...?

[Ian Rae]

Any more? Many always have. Polls suggest 30-40%

[Charley Bond]

I was told to change, when I bought my first Sho~Bud.
I have always changed my guitars, because my ankles & legs didn't work well with the Emmon's way of doing things. If that was the only way, I would have quit in 1974

[Richard Sinkler]

Me. Switched from Emmons to Day probably 1 year into playing on the advice of a friend.

[Ian Rae]

My first guitar was set up Day so I learnt that way and never regretted it. When I swapped to universal it was a definite advantage.

[Michael Sawyer]

I play Day.

[Bobby D. Jones]

I have played Day Setup since about 1970. Changed the D & F knee levers from left knee about 3 years ago. When I changed to a 12 U. I moved the D and F knee levers to right knee.

[Ian Rae]

I moved the D and left the F.

[Larry Phleger]

I play the Day setup. My ankle is much more comfortable with it as opposed to the Emmons setup. D and F levers on the right knee. Makes it easier to switch between mu U12 and my D10. It also keeps the C pedal out of the way when playing the B6 side of the U12.

[Ian Rae]

It also keeps the C pedal out of the way when playing the B6 side of the U12

and the A pedal has its uses on the B6 side too.

[Nick Fryer]

Not to beat a dead horse, as I’ve search and read all the threads on the forum about this, but I would love to get a definitive answer on what JD’s early 8 string E9 copedant was. I think I know what he was doing basically, but would like to know more details from someone who is an authority on this.

[Zoots Houston]

My pedals are set up like Emmons, but I have a lever that lowers 2 a whole step and 8 a half step that I saw in Day’s copedent and I love it. My steel is an old Miller student model that came to me in rough shape and it just couldn’t handle the high E string lower. There are some “classic” licks I can’t play without the high E lower, but the greater harmonic variety is worth it to me.

[Ian Rae]

Nick, this handy chart was posted some years ago by a forum member whose name I sadly failed to record. It would seem that Jimmy Day was responsible for what is now 8th string E:-

[Nick Fryer]

Ian, thanks for posting this chart. I’ve never seen this before. I don’t want to hijack this thread from what was the intent of the OP but this chart does leave me with more questions. Maybe I should start a different thread. I’ve just always been curious how many pedals JD had on his 8 string and mostly wondering what else he had other than the A B C pedals. I can seem to play most of what he’s doing on the “Golden Steel Hits” album just using A B C pedals but would just love to know what else, if anything, he had going on.

[Ian Rae]

I know I've only deepened the mystery. What we do know is that by the time Winnie Winston collected copedents in the early 70s, Jimmy's setup had a familiar look about it. I won't reproduce the chart here for fear of infringing copyright, but according to David Jackson (Shot's son?) he had Es on the left, 2 & 8 lower on RKL (the first lever ever added to the E9) and 6 lowering to G on RKR. The only slight oddity was that he raised 5 & 10 to D on a left vertical.

Which of course tells us nothing about what changes he might have had on an 8-string!

We might assume that at the least it had post-Isaacs split As and C#s, as discussed with BE and then implemented in opposite ways

[Jeff Mead]

I'm a Day player - mainy because my steel came set up that way but I really like it and, with my E raise and lower levers on my left knee, it makes sense to me to move to the right to raise and left to lower.

I think maybe there is a slighty higher percentage of Day players here in the UK because one of the early and very influential British steel players - Gordon Huntley - played that way.

[Paddy Long]

I mostly play at night, although I do practice during the day a lot !!

[Roger Rettig]

To elaborate on Jeff Mead's point, I'd add that the 'Day' prevalence in the UK all those years ago was because Gordon Huntley actually worked for the importer (Eric Snowball of ESE in Maidstone, Kent) as his steel-tech.

Perhaps the majority of guitars they imported (mostly ZBs, with a handful of Emmons) were probably ordered with the 'Day' set-up as it was Gordon's preference.

That was certainly the reason for me starting that way. My first guitar was a ZB Student (3&1) and, of course, I knew no other way. I've subsequently blessed my good fortune - any time I've attempted to play on a guitar with the 'Emmons' pedals, I've found it physically limiting. I seem to be incapable of 'rolling' my ankle in that direction without my knee moving right at the same time.