Tom Brumley Fender 1000

Andrew Srubas · From: Minneapolis, MN

I have been wrestling with how to tune my 1000 and was wondering if any one has an idea of how Mr. Brumley might have his guitar set up in this video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xso4nGms6V4

Thanks for the help guys!

AJ

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

That looks like a short-scale 1000, so he probably has a standard 8-string E9th tuning. All there was back in those days (on guitars with no levers) was the standard A,B,&C pedals, and I think all he's using on all those songs is just the A&B. The top 6 strings would have been the same as today's E9th. We'd have to guess as to the bottom two strings, but they were probably F# & D, the same as the 7th and 9th strings on a 10 string E9th.

Andrew Srubas · From: Minneapolis, MN

So you think he did how the chromatic string or a G# on top?

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

I bought a Fender 1000 yesterday!
8 pedals, no knee levers.
For E9 neck I will leave off strings 2 and 9.
First 4 pedals will be for front E9th neck E's>F, B's>C#, G#'s>A, E's to Eb.
For the B6th neck I will use the top 8 strings of a 10 string 6th tuning.
Pedals 5-8 will be for the B6th neck with mostly standard 6th tuning changes.
B's to A, Pedal-5, Pedal-6, Pedal-7.
I play a Uni so my 6th neck is B6th.
I think mine is a long scale, but it looks alot like the one in the vid, mute lever etc.

Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

Tom didn't have the chromatic strings on the Fender 1000 guitars. It's obvious to me on the Jimmy Dean videos. It also looks like was also using a smaller bar, like a Jerry Byrd bar.

Tom had 2 Fender 1000s. The first one, the guitar that Buck had ready for him when he came out from Texas and was trashed, was the one on "Together Again." Tom told me loved the sound of that guitar, but Leo Fender quickly gave him a new 1000, the one you see on the Jimmy Dean show. This was the guitar on "Close Up the Honky Tonks" and a very different sound from the "Together" guitar, much brighter. Tom didn't like the tone of that newer 1000 at all... way too "harsh."
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.

Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

Mine sounds great!
Can't imagine how anyone would complain about this tone Smile

Andrew Srubas · From: Minneapolis, MN

I also just bought a 1000. I've had a 400 for 2 years and totally love it. The 1000 I just bought is a long scale but in a sunburst. Pretty cool guitar. Has a roller bridge and one well done knee lever. I'm really having a hard time deciding how to set it up. I love this Brumley stuff on the this video.

So, Pete, you are leaving on one chromatic string? F#? And taking off you low D?

Andrew Srubas · From: Minneapolis, MN

I also just bought a 1000. I've had a 400 for 2 years and totally love it. The 1000 I just bought is a long scale but in a sunburst. Pretty cool guitar. Has a roller bridge and one well done knee lever. I'm really having a hard time deciding how to set it up. I love this Brumley stuff on the this video.

So, Pete, you are leaving on one chromatic string? F#? And taking off you low D?

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

Andrew, From top to bottom:
1-G#
2-F#
3-E
4-B
5-G#
6-F#
7-E
8-B

Some guys will reverse the order of the top 2.

Andrew Srubas · From: Minneapolis, MN

Huh. Ok so it's puts the f# in order. I'll give that a try!

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

What is your current setup?

J Fletcher · From: London,Ont,Canada

The sound of the steel on Close up the honky tonks is just about the best ever.

Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

That's what I told Tom, but his opinion apparently disagreed with mine.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.

Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

Andrew Srubas · From: Minneapolis, MN

High to low is: F# D A F# E D C A

P1-> As to Bs
P2-> F#s to Gs
P3-> 4th string F# to G and 3rd string A to B
P4-> Ds to Dbs
LKL-> Ds to D#s

I'm not really sold on p4 and knee. But it's what I got...

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

OK so it looks like your Steel is tuned to Open D.
If it were in Open-E, it would look like:
G#
E
B
G#
F#
E
D
B
Which is strings 3-10 of a standard E9.

Andrew Srubas · From: Minneapolis, MN

yeah i have it tuned to d9 to avoid string breakage...

Peter Freiberger · From: California, USA

Attention Fender lovers. Last time I was there Jim Palenscar had several.

Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

I tune my long scale 1958 Fender 1000 to D9. I like to have the one chromatic - for me it's an E - for the first string. I find it's very useful and it keeps my F# (3rd) on the second string, where the angle from the nut to the tuner is not so severe.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

Donny
My recollection was that it was a transitional period. Lots of guys were still playing 8-string guitars in the mid-60's. Buddy came up with the diatonic strings in 1962, so they were fairly unique to many, especially in California which was very Mooney oriented at the time. The first pedal steel I bought was a Gibson Electroharp in 1965, and the seller showed me his brand new Fender 2000 with the "new, added strings" tuning Wink

. He had a letter from Buddy explaining the new strings, in fact.

Fender had only come up with the 2000 in 1964. Before that, all Fenders were 8-stringers and the recommended tunings were A6 and E7 (or some variant thereof... I don't have my Fender brochures handy.)

I have my Bigsby tuned to D9 without the diatonic strings, and the three common ABC pedals. For playing traditional country, I don't miss the extra strings at all, but then again, I'm sure you remember that most of us who learned the older tuning simply moved the bar and changed positions rather than depending on the diatonic string sound. Also, few were playing bluegrass/speed picking in those days, where the diatonic strings really come in handy.

As a sidebar historical perspective note, I was talking to Richard Bennett (now a great Nashville guitarist/producer) when he worked at Al Casey's music store in LA, probably 1969, and he was playing a 2nd generation (23 inch scale) Fender 400 at the time. He told me that he had an "unusual tuning" with the diatonic strings on it and had dropped the bottom D and B notes.

Sidebar 2: Gene Fields told me that Fender weaned out the pedal steel division by attrition, because by the late 60's players were wanting knee levers with custom positioning and changes, and CBS-owned Fender was not into "custom" anything at that time. So the PS-210, expensive to build, was dead in the water from the git-go. I'd like to hear Jody Carver's take on that time period.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.

Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

Steve Spitz · From: New Orleans, LA, USA

I think that steel sound on close up the honkytonks is my favorite steel sound of all times.

Interesting to see others feel the same.

Ian Worley · From: Sacramento, CA

Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

Just so we're all on the same page, this is the Together Again with the older Fender 1000.

This is the Close Up the Honky Tonks with the 1964 guitar which Tom didn't care for.

This is the earlier version of Close Up with Mooney, or possibly Jay McDonald, that Ian referred to.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.

Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

Ian Worley · From: Sacramento, CA

Did Jay McDonald play a Fender also?

Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

Jay McDonald played a Fender 1000 on the Buck Owens On the Bandstand album. My memory is that every steel I saw on local LA television in the early-to-mid 60's was a Fender 1000.

By 1966, my image of a pedal steel was either a Bigsby, a Fender, a Sho~Bud, or an Emmons. It was a period of exciting education for me.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.

Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

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