Half-pedaling pedal 7?

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 22 Jun 2003 1:25 am

I just found a few new 7th chords on the C6th tuning by lowering either the A or C a half step with a knee lever and then raising P7 back up so the A and C go up a half step, rather than all the way up to B and D. My question: does anybody successfully do this on the fly, in the middle of a actual song in front of paying customers, or is this best left for those contemplative noodly moments only?

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 22 Jun 2003 7:25 am

That's called "splitting" and some of us who lower 3 and 4 a half a tone do this all the time. On guitars set up for "tunable" splits, it works great. The following lists the chords I use:

1. C9th--Pedal 7; and split 4.

2. A7th--Pedal 7; and split 3.

3. Dim7--Pedal 7; and split 3 AND 4.

(NOte: this last one is often handy and provides a dim7 on strings that pedals 5 and 6 do not allow. IE, strings 1, 2, 3 and 4 or 2, 3, 4 and 5.)

carl

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 22 Jun 2003 8:07 am

When I feel lazy, I feel for a half stop on Pedal 7 to get my diminished, then down two frets with p7 for the 4 Subdominant chord.

Right on as usual, Carl....thanks....al

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 22 Jun 2003 9:20 am

I don't have any fancy tunable splits or half-stops - I just half-pedal it just like you do the "A" pedal all night long on an E9 country gig. I do it all the time - it's just a matter of practice.The only thing is to get both raised strings to hit the halfway point in sync takes some serious tweaking and some guitars might not be quite that tweakable(my Excel will do it).You can still do it however and just use one string which is what I used to do on my older guitars.

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 23 Jun 2003 6:16 am

Just put A to Bb and C to C# on your guitar and be done with it.

Unless it is like Al suggests the C#dim chord you're going for. For the dom7 chords you'll be in much better shape separating the changes onto two knee levers (unless I'm totally missing your point). Anyway, you'll have to be REALLY LUCKY to get both to the musical half step at the same time. I have done it one at a time and gotten by with it.

Those are certainly not new changes. Look at the 'Tunings' sections on http://www.b0b.com -- you'll see those changes on most guitars that have more than one knee lever on C6.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps[This message was edited by Larry Bell on 23 June 2003 at 07:22 AM.]

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 23 Jun 2003 11:33 am

You are right again,Larry. That is another way to get a dim.

I usually don't use p 7 for a feely half stop. I just said when I feel lazy and on a certain tune, it can be done.

But I personally do not recommend feely half stops. It just does not work and still be in tune for me.

I know, we have all probably tried to save a pedal or Knee lever to make it do double duty. Usually it is just not satisfactory.

The only one I can think of on a slow tune is the B pedal on E9, you can get get a pretty close proximity to a C inbetween the B and C#

I remember the Master, Maurice Anderson, telling me that when he hits a note, he wants it to be there right on the money.

That's plenty good enough for me...al

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 24 Jun 2003 2:13 am

My LKL is G to F, LKR is the top E to D, RKL is C to B and my RKR is both A's to Ab's. I get some really nice chords with that - like, pedals 5 and 6, LKL and RKR gives me an A minor at the 4th fret, those knees and pedals 6 and 7 give me another C6th at the 2nd fret. I don't really want to give that up. The notion of needing 6 knee levers for one neck sort of appalls me, but that's the direction I seem to be heading.