Stand up pedal steel project.

[Paul Strojan]

I’m thinking about commissioning a standup steel guitar from Jackson and I am exploring what kind of setup I want to get. The music that I really like is the late lap steel music and early pedal steel music. I want to inhabit a similar space as Don Helms, Ralph Mooney, Kayton Roberts or Bud Isaacs.
I am leaning towards 4 pedals and at least 8 strings. The tuning would be standard E9.
Pedal 1 raises the Es to Fs
Pedal 2 A pedal raises the Bs to C#
Pedal 3 B Pedal raises the G#s to As
Pedal 4 Lowers the Es to D# and the D to C# for a B6 add 9

My question is 8 or 10 strings and what would I do with the extra strings?

[Tom Campbell]

On an 8 string set-up I would tune the top four string as:

1st string E
2nd " C#
3rd " B
4th " G#

This would give you the E maj.chord, The relative C# minor chord, an E6 chord and by raising the C# to a D you would have a E7 chord.