The Steel Guitar Forum

I've been working a little bit at a time setting up my single-neck pull-release Marlen before trying to learn to play it, and finally it's at the point where there are three pedals and two levers working and in tune. I was just testing things out, unplugged, no bar or picks, and happened to notice a nice major chord with the A pedal halfway down and the E strings dropped to D#. And thus I wound up spending the next six hours playing with changes and working stuff out on paper. (Which has something to do with why I'm pulling the redeye shift tonight fighting to meet a deadline!)

What I've gotten so far is that the major chord on the 3rd-6th & 8th & 10th strings is one fret lower than the normal A & B pedal major chord--with open strings it's G# instead of A--but there seem to be some nice moves available with basic changes that aren't there for the usual A&B version: going major to minor or minor to major by releasing or half-pressing A, from major to sus4 by pressing A all the way down, releasing the E lever for +5 and then using the F lever to get a 6th, or combining those for a I-IV change to the Lloyd Green A+F Wynette chord. There's also a b7 on the 1st string without needing a lever, which seems like it could be handy for something.

I don't remember reading about this before, and a forum search didn't turn up much other than giving the impression that on contemporary pedal steels it's often done as a tunable split between the A pedal and a lever that flats the Bs a half step. Then by coincidence it came up just this week in the topic on diminished chords. Are there older topics about this that I haven't found yet? Maybe tabs for licks or solos using this trick? Other stuff you like to do with it that I've missed?

There are a ton of C6 type sounds available on the E9th tuning by engaging the B and then 1/2 A pedals.
Check out this tab which does show the diminished change you mentioned above but also the 9th chords using the B & 1/2 A pedals without any knee levers starting on the 3rd stanza.


Tab634


Tab634 in pdf format











Greg

Thanks, that's good stuff Greg. Just scanning through it looks like something I could definitely use for honky-tonk and swing comping. I'll work on it for sure.

Oh: Is there a typo in measure 5, on the second C chord? There's "2A" for string 6 but the A pedal changes 5 and 10. Would that be a Bb or a natural B note (B pedal) like in measure 1? (Not quite the same lick, but if I had to guess...)

Tim,

I patched up the tab above so it should be correct now. Also added the 3rd page which was missing and a link to the tab in pdf format for easier printing.


Greg

Thanks Greg. More is better.

I'm still wondering about that "2A" on the 6th string in the 5th measure though. An A pedal doesn't affect that string, does it?

And I was just browsing through the Winnie Winston/Bill Keith book and happened to notice the chord listing on p.43, which includes a Cm played with 1/2 A + B at the 3rd fret. That one's pretty obvious I guess, but it's interesting to me that they'd introduce it at that point in a beginner's book.

Tim , refresh your browser, the 2A on string 6 is long gone!


Greg

Sure enough, that was it. Gone now. Thanks again!