The Steel Guitar Forum

Just got a call that my new mullen G2 is about to ship...........was asked by mike how I want it tuned............I am just getting started on the steel. What do all of you say as to how I should get it tuned?
It was recommended Emmonds tuning with franklin on the 4th pedal...............
What say you?

Thanks so much

I am absolutely NOT an expert here, but I'll offer this up as a starting point.
Two assumptions:
1) That you are a "normal" right handed player.
2) You want the Emmons set up, and not the Day.

You didn't say how many necks/pedals/knees you have on your G2.
That can make a difference.

Franklin pedal:
It sounds like you have 4 pedals, with the Franklin on one of them.
It traditionally has been on pedal #4, the farthest right.
It can be 2 or 3 strings. (I have it on 3 strings.)
When I bought my Carter new in 2001, John Fabian suggested putting it on the farthest left pedal.
The next three pedals would then be the standard Emmons A,B,C.
I wish I'd have taken his advice, since it is probably easier to get to from the A&B pedals.

Pedal C:
Usually raises strings 4 and 5 a whole step.
Somewhere I picked up having it also raise string 8 a whole step.

String 1 (high F#):
I raise it with a knee lever to G#.
It makes for a nice unison sound with string 3.
A lot of guys only raise it to G.

I believe that I had Carter do my guitar to Paul Franklin's copedent (can be found on this site).
In spite of that, I still can't play like Paul. (Yeah, I know. What a shock?)

I'll let the others take it from here.
(Corrected original post on pedal C, 8-16-2017. Thanks to Jim Smith.)

If you're just starting then I would say Emmons and the Franklin pedal can be on either the 0 Position or pedal 4 as it will all be new to you anyway.

No one walks into this thing saying I want Emmons or Day as they usually just purchase a guitar and learn to use it the way it's set up from the start.

be sure to post pictures when you get it home. You made a wise choice with a Mullen.

ajm wrote:Pedal C:
Usually raises strings 3 and 4 a whole step.
Somewhere I picked up having it also raise string 8 a whole step.

Pedal C raises strings 4 and 5 a whole step. E->F# and B->C#.

Franklin pedal is an excellent choice because it gives you a stock of 3 pull rods, 3 nylon tuners, 3 cranks and lotsa hardware to experiment with later with other changes to that pedal or others should you decide to ditch that particular change.

the standard tuning on most guitars if they have 2 necks is E9th on the front neck and C6th on the back neck If you have only one neck It gets tuned to E9th with 3 pedals and 5 levers I`m shure mike will send you a copendant so you will have A tuning chart. they are all great folks out there at mullen so don`t worry how ever I would defanetly make shure that I had the franklin pedal on the E9th Just incase you want to sell it later on down the road. I shure would like to see pictures of it when you get it. every steel player out here gets excited when someone gets a new guitar!