The Steel Guitar Forum

Might be a dumb Question but what is the difference in a Day setup and a E9? Im only about a month in to the PSG thing and green as they come.

I think you mean `Day and Emmons`. Emmons setup for the three main pedals on E9 is ABC, whereas Day is CBA.
That's all it is.

Arch.

Thanks Arch, Yep Emmons is what i meant. Told you i was green.

Jackie, to make it simple........

On both setups your second (B) pedal raises the 3rd and 6th strings G# to A.

On the Day setup your 5th and 10th strings are raised from B to C# on your third pedal and your 4th and 5th strings are raised a whole tone each on your first pedal.....

On the Emmons setup your 5th and 10th strings are raised from B to C# on your 1st pedal and your 4th and 5th strings raised a whole tone each on the 3rd pedal........

Some newer players sometimes ask "Which is better, the Emmons or Day setup?" The answer is that either is OK and one is no better than the other. Anyone who says different doesn't know what they're talking about as there are too many fine examples of each way of doing it to say one is better than the other.

I'd say if you're a new player to try both ways to see which you feel more comfortable with. This is easy to do and what you'll do is hold down the B pedal and rock on and off the A pedal and see which way your ankle responds better.

You can do this on any steel as all you have to do is back off the tuning nut on the 4th string so it'll only be pulling the 5th string and then back off the tuning nut on the 10th string so it'll be only pulling the 5th string. Then you'll be able to try both ways and you'll have the exact same tension on both pedals.........JH in Va.

Thanks Jerry, I think that's good info. I was just curious. Iv seen PSG,s for sale and they mention Day Setup and Emmons. Thanks again

On a related point,I heard that the Emmons E9 setup also includes RKR lowering the 2nd string 1/2 step(sometimes a whole step),RKL lowering the E strings 1/2 step,and LKL raising the E's 1/2 step.What is the proper name for that knee lever setup?

There's no proper name for any specific copedent.

Emmons raises AND lowers the E's with the left leg. I've heard it called the "Sho-Bud set-up" when you lower the E's with RKL and raise 'em with LKL.

I think you're right Brett! When I bought my old ShoBud S-12 in 1977 the factory setup had the E's lowered on RKL and raised on LKL. It also had a double stop on RKR which lowered the 2nd string to D and C#. The LKR raised the 1st and 7th F# strings to G..........JH in Va.

b0b, there's not even a proper way to spell "copedant"...

Etymology

Pedal steel player Tom Bradshaw coined the term in the 1970s, as an abbreviation for chord-pedal-arrangement.
[edit] Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /kəʊˈpiː.dənt/ SAMPA: /k@U"pi:.d@nt/
* Hyphenation: coh-PEE-dant

[edit] Noun

copedant (plural copedants)

1. (music, rare) The setup of a pedal steel guitar—the tuning plus pedal and knee lever pitch changes

....Makes sense to me!

It's "copedent" (no "a"). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copedent

Yup. Or is that Yep?

Bob, I agree with you.....I remember seeing that spelling somewhere......
Now we must decide whether we, as the steel player community, can agree on the spelling..... Copedant sounds ok to me!
Although, if we go the route of Tom Bradshaw, the spelling Copedent seems appropriate, as well!

Since Tom coined the word, he is the authority. He says the spelling is "copedent", therefore it is.

The word was derived from the phrase "chord pedal arrangement".

Jerry Hayes wrote:I think you're right Brett! When I bought my old ShoBud S-12 in 1977 the factory setup had the E's lowered on RKL and raised on LKL. It also had a double stop on RKR which lowered the 2nd string to D and C#. The LKR raised the 1st and 7th F# strings to G..........JH in Va.

Yup(yep?)All my steels' knee levers have that setup.

The spelling of copedent got its "a" in the "Pedal Steel" publication by my good friend Winnie Winston. For those who have a copy of Winnie's book, you will see that he published a few other pieces of my writings. Winnie told me that a typesetter simply misspelled the word and he didn't catch the error. So, with many thousands of copies of it being sold all over the world, many people ended up learning its spelling as "copedant" instead of how it was spelled in many other publications. Once Winnie's book was published and distributed, there was nothing that could be done to correct the spelling error.

As I've said many times, I actually didn't like the word. I was simply trying to come up with a term that was solely dedicated to our instrument (and I succeeded). Up to that time, "Setup" was the term. That word was vague and had a number of other meanings, a couple of which were demeaning in their designations.

I suspect that any word I would have coined, that identified the instrument's basic tuning, and the string pitch changes to that tuning when the instrument's pedals and knee levers were activated, would have been an annoyance to someone. ...Tom

Tom,

I can't think of a better portmanteau word for the tuning setup of the steel-guitar than "copedent". I think your crafting of the word was inspired.

It stands alone, it has stood the test of time and it remains recognisable in spite of "regional spelling variations". (for example, Australians use "tyre" and "aluminium", and we still use the double-L in words such as "travelled", "unravelled" etc. However, we use "copedent" because that's what we mostly learned when we got into this contraption!)

It is the perfect word for the task.

That's the way it goes, Ned.
Some spell Emmons, others spell Day.

Arch.

I just say, what setup do you have? I can't spell copedent. Copedent ranks right up there with words like, modality, circa, and frippery with me. LOL
Seriously, Tom did coin a word for steel guitarist and I think it was very good thinking. I still hate modality though.

Some day you will say to another steel player, "Want to know what my setup is?" That fellow will reply, "Look, I'm not asking what mixes you want with your whiskey, I want to know what your copedent is."