The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm considering adding the Franklin pedal. The two considerations are:
Position 0 or 4
Having all the pulls on one pedal or splitting with a knee
Thoughts and suggestions are welcomed!

Roger there are advantages to either set up. But I can't think of one disadvantage to splitting that change. I do have a 6 knee set-up. With the low G# to F# change all by itself. With only 5 knees it can get a little crowded depending on the additional changes. For me it's almost as important as splitting the A & B pedals.


It mostly depends on what you hear in your head and what you want to say musically. For example, if Paul Franklin is your favorite player? You'll want his set-up. Don't forget to add the 7th string whole-half tone raise.(On another knee lever ) If Tommy White's your favorite? You'll want to split it for sure. If you only want to play what you hear in your head. Let your ears be your guide.

Bobby, do you know where Tommy has his 5 and 10 string drop? I have it on the 4th pedal (Day setup) and don't really like it there. My 6th string drop is on RKR. Any chance he has it on the vertical? I seldom use the half tone drop on 5 and 10 which is on my vertical.
Jerry

Jeff put the Franklin pedal on my new Show Pro in the 0 position. I have the pedal raised higher than the others and really like it. Just now learning to use it tho. All 3 moves are on the pedal.

Jerry, AFAIK, Tommy has 5 lower on RKL And 6 lower on LKV and has Day setup.

I thought Tommy lowered his Bs on RKL. It may have changed, I suppose.

Jerry, he has it on his RKL. You need it where you can mix it up with A,B,and C pedal. In other words. Release the pull from the C# note and drop it to A. Or start with the A and pull it to C#. I would lose a lot of real estate having the B's to A's change on a floor pedal. Your mileage may vary. A quick listen to Tommy's By Request CD. is a great example of what I'm trying to convey.

b.

Bobby, where does he have the 6th string whole tone drop?
Thanks,
Jerry

Jerry, LKV. And no other changes on that knee. Having wrote that. I've been away from steel guitar for almost 3 years. Haven't heard Tommy play in at least that long. So he may be playing a totally different set-up by now. But I really doubt it.

Thank you Bobby and all who responded. Roger, please pardon my interruption to your thread, hopefully we both learned from it.
Jerry

I guess it depends on how your going to use it... for me I have them split... I think the options are more, at least for how I play...

I have it split as well, just a little different. I lower 5 and 6 on Pedal 4, and lower 10 is added to my RKR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL2j19FOE_c

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

If you do split them, put the 5 and 10 lower on a knee lever. I have it on my verticle. Putting it on a pedal loses the ability to use the 5th lower with B pedal (both A notes, makes for nice counterpoint).

I split them years ago and I'm happy! Here's my current setup.

Hi Roger.

When choosing a pedal position, make sure you can easily reach the pedal while lowering your Es. For example, if you lower Es on LKR, pedal 0 might be too far of a stretch or, at the very least, a little awkward.

As for the “to split or not to split” question, that’s dependent upon the rest of your setup. I have it all on a single pedal because I raise my 7th a whole tone, and with my setup I don’t need the 6th lower to be isolated.

Good luck!

I found more uses with it split than I did having it all on one pedal. But that's just me. Mike Johnson doesn't split his and he gets things out of it that make me swear he split them. I've never had a 0 pedal but I don't really like the idea. The Franklin pedal works great on P0 but the further from the end plates your ABC's are, the more cabinet drop.

When I first heard and saw Paul's use of his Franklin pedal, I thought, how beautiful, unique and it made perfect sense. Trouble was, I had no where to place it mechanically. I already had lowering the 5th and 10th B strings a half tone on the RKL. So, I experimented with tuning the B's lower to a full tone. I went back and forth with that for several months until the day came to replace nylon tuning nuts from constantly re-tuning. That made the decision to leave the B's lowering a whole tone. By splitting the lowers I found voicings that pleased my ear. However, had I had the space, it probably would have been like Paul's original idea. Just too late to change now!😂😊

An addendum to my above post. By having Paul's Franklin pedal on one pedal it allows for playing passages with that pedal and a single knee lever, such as with lowering the E's. As I said, makes perfect sense. For me to play those same passages I must engage 2 separate knee levers and a vertical lever at one time. Not easy but I'm used to it.😊

I find it interesting to read Tommy's comments on the "Franklin Pedal". Paul had an instruction Tape on this subject a few years ago. He brings up Tommy's set up and should you split the pedal or not. Paul's recomendation was to split the Pedal, Like Tommy, if you have the knee lever and pedal space to do so. Paul stated he had been useing the single pedal for so long that he didn't feel the need to change. But, here Tommy seems to think it may be better not to split in some musical situations. I think it may be like the way you split the A&B pedals, Day or Emmons. There is no right or wrong answer.