Benders on a C6 eight string lap-steel.

Tony Boadle · Post by **Tony Boadle** » 2 Jul 2023 5:44 am

I'm currently playing E6 tuning on a six string lap-steel steel, using string benders to raise the G# and top B to mimic the A and B PSG pedals.
I have an eight string Goldtone lap-steel tuned C6...which string bender raises would give me similar results in C6 tuning?

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 2 Jul 2023 8:50 am

You’d want to raise the G string to A, and the E string to F. But you already have an open A string, so raising G to A would be redundant, unless you just want to have that bend capability.

Keep in mind, the C6 neck on a PSG is set up to produce different sounds and voicings than the E9.

Compare your C6 tuning to standard PSG C6 first, then have a look at some of the copedents here:
https://b0b.com/wp/copedents/c6th/

Chances are good that the changes you are looking for are in one of those charts. Probably the Buddy Emmons one.

Tony Boadle · Post by **Tony Boadle** » 2 Jul 2023 9:02 am

Many thanks Fred, I'll check out that link this evening.

J D Sauser · Post by **J D Sauser** » 2 Jul 2023 4:11 pm

“C6th”-tuning has 2 out of the 3 main chord qualities: Major and minor.
Dominants are missing.

If you only can raise strings with a bender system, raising the A’s a half step will turn C6th into C7th by raising the 6th degree to b7th and raising the C’s a half step too will turn CMajor’s relative minor Am7 into A7th by raising the m3rd degree to Major 3rd.

Having Dominant chords als generates HalfDiminished positions.

With that you can play 2,5,1’s in Major or minor und thus have pretty much full harmonic posibilities.

IF you have the low F string (F Maj7,9th)… that also generates a relative minor (Dm7,9,11th at the nut… which invites to tune the bottom C string up to D (see Maurice Anderson’s non-pedal tuning)), which could be turned into a Dominant by raising the F string a half step (like “P5” does but without dropping the G-string half to round-off that 11th (Sus4))… so, I rather keep that position (also aka. “The Two Below”) in mind as a single-note pocket to “paint around with the bar.

As for cloning “P7” whole tone raises, I would rather go 12 string and add these two (D&B) inside-out as strings # 1&2

… JD.

scott murray · Post by **scott murray** » 2 Jul 2023 6:01 pm

C6 changes rely as much on lowering notes as raising them. is that possible with benders?

if you can only do raises, how many? personally I'd want pedal 7 changes first, raising C and A (3&4 on a 10-string) a whole tone. I'd also want to raise C to C# on string 7 if not both C's, and E to F on string 6 if not both E's.

in summary, get a pedal steel

K Maul · Post by **K Maul** » 2 Jul 2023 6:54 pm

Duesenberg benders allow strings to be lowered or raised. In C6 I’d want to flat the 5 (string 5 G-F#) and also string 6 E-Eb. Raising 7 or 3 C-C# for sure. More than three bender levers would be hard to manipulate, I think, but maybe I’d raise string 4 A-B if I wanted to put a fourth lever on.
None of these changes really ape the E9 changes but they are the most useful.
Or….just get a pedal steel.

Paul Strojan · Post by **Paul Strojan** » 3 Jul 2023 3:15 pm

C6 and E6 are the same tuning four frets apart. I would stay with an E tuning because of the amount of resources that can be adapted from pedal steel. You have two extra strings add to the tuning. I would add a D and a F# to the E6. G#, E, C#, B to C#, G# to A, F#, E, D.
Once you get the hang of the benders, the C# would be redundant and that string can be removed and put to better use.