The Steel Guitar Forum

hi guys,i have an old sho bud s10 with no knee levers,could someone explain what i need to do when the tab says to use a knee lever,or where i can get tabs without knee levers,,,and also how do i make a minner chord,,Am,Em ect.with out the knee,i thank you for your time and GOD BLESS
ELDON

Eldon,
Minor chords are possible without knee levers by using your "A" pedal, ie: the pedal that raises your B's to C#.

For instance an Em is located at the 3rd fret on strings 3,4,5,6,8 and 10. Gm on the 6th fret, Am on the 8th fret and so on.

Eldon,

One of the most used levers is the one that lowers the Es. What you need to work on and it can be done smoothly with some good practice is slanting the bar. If you see the tab indicating the level that lowers the Es then to do a reverse slant to match the ton. I recommend working this out on the G scale starting with the pedals A&B down at the 3rd fret then 2 revese slants to get your 2nd and 3rd chords, then A&B again at the VI and V. This can be done with the E raise level as well doing a forward or reverse slant, which ever they are called. What ever they are called this is the way its done on No Pedel guitars. It works great, but you are limited to two chords for the most part. There are some guys that get all kinds of crazy stuff with slants but this will take care of the raise and lower Es. I do it all the time on my lap steel and I play with it at times on the pedal just to have a notion of whats going on.

Let me know if you need any more explanation.

M.

I hate to state this, but it may be wise to step up to a Steel with a few Knee levers. Considering that almost all of the TABS and teaching materials include the use of at least 1 or 2 it would be a value added upgrade.

The issue with playing out of redundent chord positions is not a bad one, but may be an inconvenient one. Most tabs are written with a focus on FLOW...one phrase leads to another.. IF all of a sudden you have to move your minor chord phrases or any other phrase which is knee lever dependent to an alternate position on the fretboard the smooth flow of energy is disrupted. The smooth glisses and sliding of phrases into each other is what separates this Instrument from others.

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 03 October 2006 at 07:47 AM.]</p></FONT>

And you could use your B and C pedals together. For instance, depress both at the third fret for an Am, at the fifth fret for a Bm and so forth.
And I agree with the above encouragement to upgrade to a steel with some knee levers...makes a world of difference.
Good luck!<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Greg Wine on 03 October 2006 at 07:24 AM.]</p></FONT>