6 String pedal steel in E

[Jerry Overstreet]

I am dead keen to know though: given that when playing a guitar you use fingers to form chords, but with a pedal you use a bar, why did you choose standard guitar tuning for your six string pedal and not an open chord..?

Yeah, well I got the idea from Bill H. and I thought it would be a good place to start and add changes to modify the tunings.

Plus, I have a fretted board that I built so that I can fret it like a regular guitar ala Thumbs Carlisle et al. There's some work left on that as getting the proper relief for finger fretting, proper board height for both bar sliding and fretting too.

As I said, still a major work in progress and considering other ideas as well.

It's entirely possible that I may have to go back to the original fretboard and E B G# etc. tuning or one of b0b's ideas, we'll see.

I haven't had the time to write out the setup, sorry.

[Stuart Docherty]

For communicating with this audience, you should probably call your 1st pedal (G# to A) the "B pedal", and your second pedal (B to C#) your "A pedal". I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but those are their established names in the "standard" E9th copedent.

Yep… I noticed that Steve Fishell, in that youtube clip, despite using the same tuning, had his pedals setup the opposite way to mine… Unsure as to why mine was even setup this way..

I was just working through the alphabet, from left to right.. I understood from the start of this that the traditional PSG audience wouldn't be particularly interested in this topic, but then so far it's been demonstrated to me that nearly anything goes in setting up these things anyway.

A better path for me may be to refer to them as pedals 1 & 2 (also working from left to right)…

I am pretty much trying to find other guitarists who have one of these instruments, of course, so far, I haven't found any…..

[b0b]

About 1 player in 4 has his A pedal (B to C#) on the right. It's called the "Day setup" after legendary steeler Jimmy Day who was the first to do it.

[Tony Boadle]

Hold on there Stuart... I'm just starting my six-string project PSG build. I've done a pile of reading into various tuning options, the more I read, the more confused I get. Check out the Hudson 6-string PSG and see what Jimmie recommends, also the Fessenden 6-shooter set-up if that hasn't been mentioned (can't scroll back through the thread to check without losing this)
Even my previous threads about the Deusenberg Multibender might be of interest.

[Stuart Docherty]

Hold on there Stuart... I'm just starting my six-string project PSG build. I've done a pile of reading into various tuning options, the more I read, the more confused I get. Check out the Hudson 6-string PSG and see what Jimmie recommends, also the Fessenden 6-shooter set-up if that hasn't been mentioned (can't scroll back through the thread to check without losing this)
Even my previous threads about the Deusenberg Multibender might be of interest.

Thanks Tony, the Hudson is what I have, so I am using the setup per Jimmie…
I must also see what I can find on the Fessenden, it gets mentioned a little bit here and there..

But it still all comes down to the player, to work out where the notes he/she wants to use are...

[Stuart Docherty]

About 1 player in 4 has his A pedal (B to C#) on the right. It's called the "Day setup" after legendary steeler Jimmy Day who was the first to do it.

There you go…!

Thanks for that Bob…!

[b0b]

The Fessenden has no knee levers.
[tab] p1 p2
G# +A
E
B ++C#
G# +A
E
B ++C# [/tab]

[Tony Boadle]

Hey Bob, while you're there....just say I wanted to use the Fessenden tuning, and just say I had a single knee lever...could it be used in a useful way? Ideally, would it be possible to find I,IV and V in one position from that setting?
Ps: Stuart, my dad was from Sydney and I'm proud to say I have full Oz citizenship B-)

[b0b]

If you added a knee lever to raise the E stings to F, you'd have all 3 inversions of the major chord and a very useful 7th chord (C#7 at the nut). I have 2+1 on my Sho-Bud Maverick (10 string), and that's how I have if set up.

The knee by itself gives you a C#7 chord, but when you add the first pedal it becomes C# major. If you're playing in G, you have:

• D7 at the 1st fret (knee only)
• D at the 1st fret (pedal + knee)
• G at the 3rd fret (no pedals)
• C at the 3rd fret (both pedals)
• D at the 5th fret (both pedals)
• G7 at the 6th fret (knee only)
• G at the 6th fret (pedal + knee)
• C at the 8th fret (no pedals)

etc.

With only one lever, many (perhaps most) people would use it to lower the E strings to D#. This gives you another minor chord position (G#m at the nut), and almost gives you a B7 chord (there's no F# note). For a full B7, here's a wacky idea:
[tab] p1 p2 knee
G# +A
E -D#
B ++C#
G# +A
E ++F#
B ++C# [/tab]
Primitive changers might not support raise and lower on the same lever.

[b0b]

My advice to people with only 2 pedals and 1 lever is to learn to slant the bar. It's a technique you'll use all your life. You won't regret it.