Common uses for Xlever vertical

Brian Henry · Post by **Brian Henry** » 17 Jul 2007 9:29 am

I know this has been covered before, but could someone summarize he common uses for this lever.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 17 Jul 2007 9:35 am

A good place to start: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=103291

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 17 Jul 2007 10:23 am

I believe that the best use for the vertical knee lever is raising the F# strings to G natural. he reasons are that

1- The vertical is easier to use with the pedals down. You have some leverage to use against the lever, and

2- raising the F#s to G with the pedals down gives you an A7 chord, which is how the changed is used most of the time. (Especially going to or from A6 to A7)

I also believe that the B to Bb change is the most misunderstood and underutilized of all changes. Even after all these years, I'm constantly finding new uses for it.

Brandon Ordoyne · Post by **Brandon Ordoyne** » 17 Jul 2007 10:23 am

most people seem to use it to lower the B's to Bb. My '71 Emmons D10 P/P has the vertical lever lowering the 5th string only from B to Bb. But on my Pedalmaster it raises the F#'s a whole tone to G# and 2nd string D# E and my RKL lowers only the 5th string B to Bb. I like lowering the B's with my RKL, rather than the vertical. But I dont have the time to take it in to have them switched.

Brandon

bob grossman · Post by **bob grossman** » 17 Jul 2007 11:09 am

Maybe everyone knows about this, but I didn't. When you are on a 7th chord, strings 5,6, and 9 and are going to be there a little while, lower the B to Bb while moving up one fret, let off the KL and go back to the 7th chord. Neat sound.

Brad Malone · Post by **Brad Malone** » 17 Jul 2007 6:30 pm

Yeah Bob, you are going from A7th to E7th and back to A7th

Ken Williams · Post by **Ken Williams** » 17 Jul 2007 9:44 pm

Am I the only person here that has trouble using the vertical lever. It feels like my leg weighs a ton. I can depress the lever but I find myself leaning my upper body to do it. Like Mike, I find it easier to press when using it with a floor pedal for leverage. I see other people use the vertical lever and it looks almost effortless. I lower the B to Bb with that lever. I've avoided it for years and found other ways to get some of the changes produced by that lever. Lately however, I've been trying to make myself get used to using the vertical lever.
I've always thought that a foward moving lever would be more practical for me. I think the Emmons company tinkered with that idea a fews years back but I don't guess it caught on.

Ken

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 18 Jul 2007 6:13 am

I use the vertical knee because of a house fire about 4 years ago. No seriously.

My new Sierra got roasted in that fire and I had nothing to play so I got a Carter Starter. The Starter had 4 knee levers. RKL was the B to Bb change which is normally on the vertical knee.

Well anyway, I got used to the sound that change made and kept finding new ways to use it. Then when I could finally afford a pro guitar again, the Bb lever was on the vertical left knee.

I had to get used to the physics/body movement of it, but that didn't take long. I use that pull in just about everything I play now.

Now to answer the question...

I mostly use it for a V7 chord or a II7 chord.

Try this on the major string groups...

3 ~ 3AB ~ 3X ~ 3BD

or this...

10AB ~ 8 ~ 8X ~ 8DL (L lowers the G# strings a whole tone)

There are plenty of other uses for X, including lots of cool MEOLODY tricks, but those chords are really useful in my playing.

Mike Wheeler · Post by **Mike Wheeler** » 18 Jul 2007 6:27 am

Ken, I feel the same about the vertical B-Bb lever. I put that change on my LKR...much more useful there. On the vertical, I raise both the F#s to Gs (for a pedal down 7th chord). LKL drops G# to G for an easy minor chord. There's lots of note movement available on the top half of my MCI Uni with this setup...and lots of fun chordal stuff to play with.

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 18 Jul 2007 7:17 am

Of course, you could always slide up 3 frets and add the A pedal for a minor chord.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 18 Jul 2007 12:24 pm

I didn't use the X-lever until I figured out how to make the C naturals play in tune when X-lever is combined with A-pedal.

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 18 Jul 2007 12:51 pm

That can certainly be an issue.

Ken Williams · Post by **Ken Williams** » 18 Jul 2007 9:59 pm

If you have split tuning on the 5th string, here's a move using B to Bb lever. You could use it when moving from the IV back to the I, in the key of D.

[tab]

2.-------------9-------------7-----------5----------
3.--------------------------------------------------
4.---10~~~9--------9~~~~7-------7~~~~5-------5------
5.---10A~~9AX------9AX~~7AX-----7AX~~5A------5A---5A
6.---10B~~9B-------9B~~~7B------7B~~~5B------5B---5B
7.--------------------------------------------------
8.------------------------------------------------5-

[/tab]

Ken

Johan Jansen · Post by **Johan Jansen** » 18 Jul 2007 11:24 pm

6th string G# to B
9th string D to D#

Try it, you will like it, esspecially in combination with AB pedals
JJ

Fred Glave · Post by **Fred Glave** » 20 Jul 2007 6:26 am

I have B's to Bb's on RKL, and F#'s to G's on X vertical. I love lowering the Bs, and it's so nice on RKL. It's really a versatile change. I'm really glad to see this thread because: 1. I've always been baffled on how to use that X pedal to raise the F#s, and.. 2. It's tough to do with no pedals activated. It looks like I've got some new work to do now...again!

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 20 Jul 2007 1:31 pm

I've always split my B to Bb (A#) lowers so on my old ShoBud I didn't have as many floor pedals as my current BMI so with my X lever I raised my 4th string to F# and lowered my 10th string to A#. On my BMI I have the E to F# 4th string raise by itself on pedal 8 so on my X lever now I only lower the 5th string. I tune my 2nd string to C# so my LKL raises it to D# and lowers my 10th string to A#. It's probably confusing but I use every change I have on my guitar...........JH in Va.

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Common uses for Xlever vertical

Common uses for Xlever vertical

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