Standard Emmon's Set-Up

George Kimery · From: Limestone, TN, USA

I know what A, B, and C pedals and the left knees do (lower and raise 4 & Cool

and one of the right knees must lower the 2nd D# to D and possibly C# with a half stop. But what does the other right knee do in a standard Emmons 3 pedal, 4 knee lever set-up? Lower 5? raise 7? raise 1?

Lem Smith · From: Long Beach, MS

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[This message was edited by Lem Smith on 29 June 2003 at 10:39 PM.]

Ernie Renn · From: Brainerd, Minnesota USA

The info page has Buddy's chart on it. I don't consider it a 'stock' chart. The chart located, HERE (minus the vertical lever) is pretty close to the stock Emmons Guitar set-up.

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My best,
Ernie

The Official Buddy Emmons Website
www.buddyemmons.com

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Today, the most common setup for the 4th knee lever is:

raise string 1 to G#
raise string 2 to E
lower string 6 to F#

But there are still plenty of variations. That's why I maintain that the "standard" copedent is 3+3. Beyond that it becomes personal preference.

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

George Kimery · From: Limestone, TN, USA

Thanks to all 3 of you guys. I play an extended E-9, which is not standard by any means. I see guitars for sale that has the standard Emmons set-up, and should I consider purchasing one, I just wanted to know what a standard Emmons set up was. I have my answer, so you can close this thread.

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

The most common setup for the forth knee lever on E9th (RKL) is raise 1 a half a tone and lower 6 a whole tone.

However this is fast changing. When Paul Franklin started pulling the 1st string a whole tone it began a new trend. Following with his raising of the 2nd string a half a tone will make this knee lever what b0b said, in the future. More and more steel players are adding these two changes on RKL as they do away with pulling the first string a half a tone.

carl

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

People love to use the word 'standard', but like we say in the IT business, "standards are great -- we have so many to choose from".

A,B,C pedals are pretty standard
E to D# and E to F are pretty standard
third lever lowers 2nd string 1/2 step and SOMETIMES a whole step and SOMETIMES has the 9th string lower as well.

Anything beyond that is a crapshoot, in my observation.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

Bobbe Seymour · From: Hendersonville TN USA, R.I.P.

The standard "Emmons set up" is the name companies have for the pedal set up that guitars are all shipped with if no other set-up is specified. This has very little to do with Buddy's present "set-up" as most companies hardly know what it is anyway and may be changable from month to month.
The standard "Emmons set-up is just a name for the set up that most manufacturers have agreed evolution of the tuning has come to. Most peoples set ups, regardless of what they are, are a minor variation of this set up. Bobby Lee in his former post, has actually pretty well summed it up in saying that the basic simple set up is really just a 3/3. Anything after this isn't necessarily a standard set up.

Every guitar that I sell on the floor, new or used, unless otherwise specified, will be shipped with a "standard set up". (3 pedals and 4 knees on the E9th neck)

Judging from the majority of customers that I have sold to over the past 10 years, over 95% of them use a "standard set up", sometimes refered to as a standard Emmons set up.

Even though my own knee levers are not in the correct "standard" order, I always play a standard set up on all of my teaching videos, so it does not confuse the student.

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

The word "standard" has never meant absolute. This should be kept in mind when seeing it in print. It is almot synonymous with the word "most".

And Bobby is correct, MOST steels being shipped (according to my telephone survey of manufacturers) are a "standard"; As follows:

A, B, C pedals left to right

LKL raises the E's

LKR lowers the E's

RKL raises 1 a half a tone and lowers 6 a whole tone.

RKR lowers 2 a half a tone with half stop; and lowers 9 a half a tone.

IF they ship the guitar with 5 knee levers, LKV will lower 5 and 10 a half a tone.

Regardless of what some players have, the above IS standard. Meaning that MOST players have it. Again, RKL is fast changing as I stated in my previous post. I predict that the PF changes on strings 1 and 2 WILL be standard in the not too distant future.

carl

Bobbe Seymour · From: Hendersonville TN USA, R.I.P.

What he said! Yes, thanks Carl, you have saved me a lot of typing and misspelled words, plus being 100% on the money. I wish everyone knew what the "standard tuning" was.
Thank goodness there is finally one emerging, every other instrument has a "standard".
This shows how well steel is evolving.

"Standard" is just a great starting spot and probably won't be the final tuning in your life, but listen to great players like Herby Wallace and you'll realize that this is a wonderful "standard". This is exactly what he uses, like many other great players do.

If you are a new player, don't start learning on some non-standard tuning, no reason to and it will hurt you badly when trying to learn from teaching materials like tab and videos,and when playing other steel players guitars,or having them play yours and it will hurt the value of your guitar at trade in time. Also, every guitar you ever get will need to be changed to "your" set-up. This means $$$$$ unless you take the time to do it all yourself.

Why don't I and many older steel players play a standard set-up? Because there was no standard when we were learning, no tab, no videos, no teachers etc. About all that was available was Buddy Emmons when he'd come through town. He scared most of us to death.

Now, again, b0b made a great point, the pedals are A B C, the three basic knees and placment is critical, the forth knee (RKL) is one that is a "wild card", The one you can do what you want to with, Raise 1 and 7 a whole tone is fine, The "Z" lever is for playing some big stuff easily, some folks raise one and lower six, not my favorite as it's just another major chord, but anyway, this is the way steel has evolved, not too badly either!

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

When I started buying and playing steel guitars in 1974 they were all Sho~Bud's and they all came equipped from the factory as follows, which all of us in the Toronto area, at that time, considered the standard setup:

P1 raised B's to C#,
P2 raised G#'s to A,
P3 raised #4 and #5 a whole tone each,
LKL raised the E's,
RKL lowered the E's,
LKR raised the F#s to G
and RKR lowered 2nd string a whole tone with a barrel adjuster half stop.

String 6 was a .22 wound string and would not drop down a whole tone without changing it to a plain string (when I added a knee lever to do that in 1975).

I still have these basic 4 knee levers on my current Super~Pro, plus 6 other custom changes on the additional knee levers I added over the years.

There was one steel player, Steve Smith, who's 1st and 3rd pedals were reversed, as were some of his knee levers (to make sense with the reversed pedals). He called his setup the Jimmy Day setup.

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Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
AIM Screenname: Wizcrafts
Sho~Bud Super~Pro with 10 and 10, L710s and aluminum fingers from Bobbe Seymour. Nashville 400 amp.
Keep Steelin' but don't get caught

[This message was edited by Wiz Feinberg on 02 July 2003 at 10:02 AM.]

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