The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a very nice PSG if I want some twang. Does anyone have experience using benders with a C6 lap steel tuning? Are benders beneficial on that tuning or just useless “fluff”?

if you just raise the g to g# you can do all the 3 5 harmonized scales you do on e9. play g and high c then slide up one fret while bending the g to g# for a c to f cadence or down 5 frets for a g to c. low e also works as an inversion or chicken picking weldon style. together again made easy.

My issues with most benders is they get in the way of my picking hand, and you can’t pick strings when they are engaged, you can only let the already plucked strings sustain.

I do like the Jackson EDGE lap steel bender system because it is more of a “wrist” lever than a “palm” lever, and because it can move multiple strings at once, you don’t have to double the amount of energy going into the levers to move two strings and it stays out of the way of your picking hand.

I think this would be a very useful setup for a lap steel with the Jackson EDGE bender:

E
C.....D
A......Bd
G
E
C
A
F

This gives you a very useful C9th ninth chord if you play the top six strings (the same chord as the slant Don Helms’ used on tunes like Moaning The Blues). If you play single notes, ignore the A string, and pull the high E a half step with your finger, you could also get some nice Ralph Mooney type licks, similar to using the B and C pedal on pedal E9.

NOW, if you retune your E strings to this:

F
C......D
A......Bd
G
Ed or F
C
A
F

Now you can get “E9” licks, but 1/2 a step sharp in F9. Tune the fifth string to F to get a low tonic, or tune it to Ed for a seventh, which also happens to be the same as pedal 6 on PSG, and which is also Bud Isaacs’ original E9 tuning but again, it’s tuned up a 1/2 step to F.

The six string version I would use would just be the top six strings.

Chris,

I have a prototype eight string EDGE double bender that could be set up like almost like you describe except that don't have a lock lever to hold the E to F change. Right now I have it set up E9 to A13 or C# minor:

E
B Raise to C# on lever 2
G# Raise to A on lever 1
F#
E
D Lower to C# on lever 1
B Lower to A on lever 1
E Raise to G on lever 1

The way my guitar is set up, I can do lowers on the bottom 4 strings as long as there is sufficient tension to return to the home position. When I restring the guitar, I am going to change the setup I find the splitting the A and B awkward.

Chris when you get back to touring Northern California, I would love to show you the guitar.

i found an elbow bender didn't interfere with your picking position. i made a crude one that worked really well.
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I want to set up my Jackson Edge lap steel to Chris Scruggs' recommendation and I am having an issue with getting the tensions lined up correctly to be able to raise the strings in sync. Does someone have a chart that shows how much travel and tension it takes to bend notes for a given string diameter?