The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi yall. Just got my first Pedal steel (sho bud fingertip) and i am puzzled by the C6 neck. The guitar had no strings when i got it so i put some on and now i am trying to figure out what tuning this copedent was meant for. Can anyone take a look and tell me what i am doing wrong? Should use a different tuning? Different copedent? Thank you and sorry for the noob posting.


——A——B——C——D——E——F——

G.———_G#————————————
E. ——————-F——————————
C. —————————D——B—————
A. —B———————-B————————
G. ———-F#—————————————
E. ——————D#—————————-
C. ——————————————-D——-
A. —B———————————————-
G. ———-G#—————————-F#
C. ———-A——————————-A—-

H Brian, and congratulations on the pedal steel! Are you just starting out on steel guitar, or did you play a non-pedal steel prior to buying the Sho-Bud?

I play a different copedent, but it might help to look at what I think is considered more or less "standard" C6 for pedal steel: https://b0b.com/wp/copedents/buddy-emmo ... -copedent/.

You said it came without strings; is this the copedent used by the previous owner?

looks mostly correct but your 9th string should be tuned F not G, raising to F# on pedal "B" and dropping to E on pedal "F"

also,
pedal "B" should raise string 10 from C to D rather than lower from C to A.
pedal "F" should raise string 7 (C) a half rather than a whole step, to C#.

most guitars have your pedal "E" on a knee lever instead. I'm assuming yours has no levers for C6?

finally, many players (thanks to Buddy Emmons) tune string 1 to D, but G is the traditional tuning

Andrew Goulet wrote:H Brian, and congratulations on the pedal steel! Are you just starting out on steel guitar, or did you play a non-pedal steel prior to buying the Sho-Bud?

I play a different copedent, but it might help to look at what I think is considered more or less "standard" C6 for pedal steel: https://b0b.com/wp/copedents/buddy-emmo ... -copedent/.

You said it came without strings; is this the copedent used by the previous owner?

Thanks Andrew. I will check it out. I had been playing C6 on an 8 string lap steel for a couple of years and was itching to get into a pedal steel

This is indeed the copedent that the previous owner had on it

scott murray wrote:looks mostly correct but your 9th string should be tuned F not G, raising to F# on pedal "B" and dropping to E on pedal "F"

also,
pedal "B" should raise string 10 from C to D rather than lower from C to A.
pedal "F" should raise string 7 (C) a half rather than a whole step, to C#.

most guitars have your pedal "E" on a knee lever instead. I'm assuming yours has no levers for C6?

finally, many players (thanks to Buddy Emmons) tune string 1 to D, but G is the traditional tuning

Thanks for all the pointers! I knew that it wasn’t quite right, but i love the tone and I am pretty familiar with C6 on lap steels.

And you are correct, no levers on the C6 neck