Knee lever suggestions for 8 stringer

Dale Kath · From: Michigan, USA

After nearly a year of practice I am starting to get somewhat comfortable with my a, b, and c pedals. I have a nice Pedalmaster 8 string, tuned E9 and have have dropped the top two strings and use the lower 8. I have been looking at copedents and see the wide variety of set ups for the knee levers. Before I get "under the hood" does anyone recommend a good set up for the four knee levers? I am focusing on a setup that would allow some minor chording with a push of a knee lever.
I have printed out an Emmons setup and a few others but figured I could get a few ideas before I retune. any ideas appreciated!
Dale
_________________
Carter SD10
Steel Guitar Black Box
Heritage h535
Epiphone viola bass

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

I'd raise and lower the Es on one knee, and drop BOTH G#s to F# on one of the other knees, and drop your Bs to A# with the other.
That way, you can still have the melodic tones of the two most useful minor pockets; C#m and G#m (those are at the nut, one with the A pedal, the other dropping the Es to D#)
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

What do the 4 existing knee levers currently do?
I have a Sierra S8 with 5 pedals and 4 knee levers
LKL raises E's to F (Make a Minor of the A+F chord by releasing the F-lever}.
LKV Lowers B's to Bb (Make the AB chord into a Minor by using A+B+LKV).
RKL lowers G#'s to G (Make your open chord into a Minor chord with this lever).
RKR lowers E's to Eb (This lever makes a Minor chord one fret up from the AB chord).

Dale Kath · From: Michigan, USA

thanks Lane. Pete, current setup now is:
LKL Es to F#
LKR Es to Eb
RKL G# to G
RKR D to C#

I have no idea why
_________________
Carter SD10
Steel Guitar Black Box
Heritage h535
Epiphone viola bass

Bill Moore · From: Manchester, Michigan

Dale, I'd suggest changing the RKL to lower the 6th string a full tone,G# to F#. And change RKR to lower the 5th and 10th string 1/2 tone to Bb. Leave the left knee levers alone, you need them as they are.

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

I would say your LKL is supposed to raise your E's to F, (not F#).
You should be able to use the enplate tuners to fix that.
Standard E9th setups raise the E's to F on LKL and lower E's to Eb on RKR.

Once your LKL is set right, use it with the A pedal to get a chord inversion 3 frets up from open.
Fret3 Open is a G chord (enguage RKL to get Gmin).
Fret6 with A+LKL is a G chord (release LKL to get Gmin).
Fret10 with A+B is a G chord (Fret11 with LKR only is Gmin).

You already have the G# to G lever. So that makes any open chord into a Minor.

The D to C# is usually used in conjunction with the traditional string-2 D#, which you don't have.
You might get instructional info on the D to C#, or possibly consider changing it to lower your B string to Bb.

My main recommendation would be to spend as much time as you can with an experienced player.
I'm concerned that you've been playing for a year and don't have the knee lever functions defined and in use.

Dale Kath · From: Michigan, USA

Thanks for the info Pete,

I have had not much luck in finding a steel player to get human to human instruction. The one I did find did not answer my emails or phone calls. So my instructors are the DVD's from Bobbe Seymour, Bruce Bouton, the fang toothed Mel Bay guy (very good, a sacred steel DVD and a couple of good ole' boys who are selling their instructional DVD's. Bobbe Seymours instructional was especially enjoyable. His buzzy dvd's are very encouraging to me. He makes it seem so simple. ( it isn't!) Looking at different copedents, I was looking for patterns of use, like we see on the ABC pedals. But for the knee levers, the tuning is VARIED to say the least. You who have responded have given me a good knowledge base to decide on how to tune the knee levers. I appreciate it!
_________________
Carter SD10
Steel Guitar Black Box
Heritage h535
Epiphone viola bass

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

BTW, there's something in your sig that has me scratching my head: Are you POSITIVE the Fender is a student model? I've never seen a student SD.
Or perhaps it's not SD. SD means single neck on a double neck cabinet.
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Dale Kath · From: Michigan, USA

Thanks for info Lane. Going to delete the Fender from my profile as it is long gone to Ebay!
_________________
Carter SD10
Steel Guitar Black Box
Heritage h535
Epiphone viola bass

Fred Glave · From: McHenry, Illinois, USA

If I had an 8 string with 3 pedals and 4 knees I'd have this tuning and copedent using a 10 string styled set up from string 1 down to 6 and then remove strings 7-F# and 9-D. Then use the knee levers as shown. That's just me though FWIW.

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