The Steel Guitar Forum

DAN, I've been working on my own adaptation of the "sacred Steelers" tuning. I am trying to put it on my back neck (C6 neck). First problem is: I only have two real knee levers.
I do not use P3 on the E9 neck,so I have 6 pedals available. I hung a lever on the cross-rod of P4 to effectively give me another lever & I can bump the vertical lever of the E9 neck to effect at least one pull on the C6 neck. If all of this sounds like a poor man's rigging,that's because it is!
I am trying to compare the strong points of your setup vs. Bobby Lee's,and hopefully incorporate a sixth note into the upper half of the tuning. I have done some re-tuning to get the general effect of the doubled root note. I have observed that with your setup,you get a really strong relative minor with P1 and strong majors,both open and with P1 and P2 depressed. Most of what you have relates well to E9,which I am familiar with.
Having said all of that,here are my questions: How critical to your setup is your LKV,which lowers your B's to Bb? Does that change have to be on a lever to be effective? And,third,what about P5? I see that it gives a nice A6,but is it also used for effect,somehow? Since I have some limitations with levers & such right now,I'm trying to get a handle on what is considered,"high priority" and why. OK,that's sufficient to chew on for right now. Any sincere reply or comment will be appreciated. Thanks!
~~W.C.~~

Wayne, if I was putting this tuning on my back neck I wouldn't use a hybrid tuning like b0b's or mine (really the same tuning, slightly different copedent). I would go to the Carter site and look at basic SS copedents. A lot of the stuff in my copedent has to do with keeping the basic E9th stuff in addition to the SS tuning. It is really useful to have as many knee levers as possible, but the requirement for combinations isn't as strong as with E9th, so many of those changes you can put on a pedal. In terms of the B->Bb change, it's not that important to me, I think the G#->G change is more important for this tuning. I'm thinking of switching it.

Wayne, you might find this link useful.

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/coolb0b2.gif" border="0"><small>               Bobby Lee</small>
-b0b-   <small> quasar@b0b.com </small>
-System Administrator

Thanks to both of you,DAN & BOBBY! I've just about concluded that the best thing for me is to simply lower string #7 a whole tone in order to get that doubled effect. My E9 setup is what(I think)most of you call the,"Expanded E9." This lends itself well to "strum" chords,anyway,so lowering the F# with a lever should only enhance the strumming capabilities of the tuning without the agony of having to re-learn the whole setup. Secretly,I am a very lazy person. I work hard at being that way. Thanks again!
~~W.C.~~

A few weeks ago I reversed the function of LKR on my Williams' front neck. Instead of tuning string 7 to E and raising it to F#, I'm tuning it to F# and lowering it to E.

This puts me a little closer to the standard E9, but I still have the big doubled-E strum chords when I need them. I played it out last Saturday night with Open Hearts. The rhythm mode is a little harder to play (gotta hold the knee in), but it still sounds great.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6), Roland Handsonic