6 String Pedal Steel

Wilburn Meeks · From: California, USA

I recently purchased a 6 string pedal steel on Ebay.Made by the Harlin Bros late 50's. Its really in sad shape I have turned it over to Jim the owner of Steel Guitars Of North County. If any one can put it back in shape he is the one. We were both wondering what the basic tuning would be and what tuning would be assigned for each pedal. The pedals are all on the right side in a vertical row. I am sure all they do is change the basic tuning. Appreciate any help

[This message was edited by Wilburn Meeks on 15 March 2006 at 06:39 PM.]

John Poston · From: Albuquerque, NM, USA

I saw an old post here saying they came from the factory E C# A E A E but it didn't say what the pulls were. You probably would want to do something different though.

If he doesn't see this and reply, you might try emailing forum member Al Marcus. He is a wealth of knowledge and a great guy.

John Bresler R.I.P. · From: Thornton, Colorado

Wilburn:

I have an old arrangement by the Oahu Publishing company and they show the multi-kord pedal setup as:

Open: A Major A C# E A C# E

Pedal 1: A6th A C# F# A C# E

Pedal 2: D9th A D F# A C E

Pedal 3: E7th B D E G# B E

Pedal 4: C#m B D E G# C# E

Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

Here is a version from Danny James, as taught on at the Harlin Bros studio.

I had one briefly and strung it this way, and really liked the sound.

1st .016 plain E
2nd .017 " C#
3rd..022 " A
4th .030 wound E
5th .o38 " A
6th .050 " E
-------------------------------------------
Pedal Tunings starting with shortest to
longest. 1=A6th---2=D7th added 9th---
3=E---4th=C#mi.7th
------------------------------------------
A6th raises the 4th string to F#
D7added9th lower 2nd string to C raise 4th
string to F# lower 6th string to D

E Lower 2nd string to B lower 3rd string
to G# raise 5 string to B

C#mi.7th Lower 3rd string to G#
Raise 5th string to to B
--------------------------------------------

Wilburn Meeks · From: California, USA

Thanks guys for all the information. This was exactly what I was looking for / Thanks again.Its goint to take about three week to get the parts clean and some have to be replaced altogether.

Ron ! · Posted 17 Mar 2006 12:06 pm

E-C#-A-E-C#-A is a tuning that is very often used on a dobro.It's a Barré tuning.Like D-B-G-D-B-G.Also very common in bluegrass.
If you want a nice tuning that i seen someone use on a Harlin once try this one.D-B-A-F#-D-A.

Ron

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

Actually these are very well designed and simple to work on. If any of you has a lead on the original paperwork on setup, etc. that came with these guitars I'd greatly appreciate a copy for my library.

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