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Rich Peterson


From:
Moorhead, MN
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2009 6:22 am    
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How would you adapt Sneaky Pete's concept to a double raise/double lower 5X5 10 string?

What would you leave out or combine, going from 11 changes to 10?
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ebb


From:
nj
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2009 3:00 pm    
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this is what i would do with 10 5 and 5

Tab:

    LL  V  LR  P1  P2  P3  P4  P5  RL  RR   SPLIT
D#                 E           D       C#   D
B   C      A#          A#          C#       C
G#      A
F#             G#          F                G
D#                 E           D
C#
B   C      A#
G#      A
F#             G#
D#                 E
                                         
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James Collett

 

From:
San Dimas, CA
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2009 4:35 pm    
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From what I've heard form Jim Sliff, our resident Sneaky Pete authority, Pete didn't hardly ever use P7. Jim, please correct me if I'm wrong.
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ebb


From:
nj
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2009 7:05 pm    
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P9 would be the correct answer
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John Groover McDuffie


From:
LA California, USA
Post  Posted 23 Jan 2009 9:52 am    
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The aforementioned Jim has a 10 string 3 & 4 or (3 & 5?) version of Sneaky's tuning. It has been posted on the Forum, so you could probably find it with the right search terms.
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Ben Jones


From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
Post  Posted 23 Jan 2009 10:22 am    
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I put this copedant on the back neck of my fender 1000. I had four available pedals and chose 1, 2, 7, and 8 at Jim Sliffs suggestion. I think Jim told me pedal 9 was used as a foot rest so that would be the one to loose.

I haven thad time yet to dive into it but thus far its not coming too naturally for me. I havent figured out grips or even how to find the IV and V chord changes yet. If anyone has that info or can fiugure it out (me not smart), that would be helpful. If anyone knows of any resources for tab or other learning for this copedant, ditto....
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James Collett

 

From:
San Dimas, CA
Post  Posted 23 Jan 2009 1:18 pm    
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see! I knoew I couldn't get it right Razz
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ebb


From:
nj
Post  Posted 23 Jan 2009 1:37 pm    
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for Bens 4 pedal version
i would also tune the strings 3 and 7 from G# to A in this case
below is a map from standard Emmons configuration e9(10 string) to b6(8 string)

Tab:

pedal map
A       P1
B       P2
C       P1+P3
D       P4

string map
3       1
4       2
5       4

4       2
5       4
6       5

5       4
6       5
8       6

6       5
8       6
10      8

7       6+P4

9       7(only if you tune it from G# to A)


Last edited by ebb on 23 Jan 2009 4:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Ben Jones


From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
Post  Posted 23 Jan 2009 3:14 pm    
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ebb, this makes some sense to me. I think Jim mentioned to avoid strings 3 and 7 if I didnt wanna sound "swingy". I then contemplated exactly what you just suggested, tuning the G#'s to A.

your map looks like it should be very helpful to me. I will have to try it out this weekend and see if I can make some music happen. while I am at it , I will bump up those G#'s to A's and see how that goes.
Thanks a ton!
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Jim Sliff


From:
Lawndale California, USA
Post  Posted 24 Jan 2009 12:08 pm    
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Actually it was mainly avoiding the 3rd string to keep from sounding like vintage C6 stuff...

ebb is THE genius when it comes to this stuff. Between him, me, Paul Redmond and Russ Tkac we've come up with several versions of Sneaky's copedent; I have set fols up with a 4-pedal version for those who get simple 400's and want to try it. It uses pedals 1,2,7 and 8, which gets you about 80% of the way there. Those (other than the left knee that drops the first string) seem to be the most-used changes.

I'm not sure where the reference about pedal 7 being unused came from - the least used for me is #4, which duplicates part of #8 and is in a spot where for me, at least, it isn't usable with the adjacent pedals.

1 and 2 are essentially the A&B pedals of an E9 and the most "normal" sounding ones; pedal 8 is essential for minors; and pedal 7 gets you minor chords when ombined with 1&2, is my "Stringbender" pedal for guitar-like bender licks (an essential part of my personal style) and is a key change in one of Sneaky's most used...and most recognizable..."signature" licks, the descending thing that first showed up following the word "eyes" in the first Burritos album opening tune "Christine's Tune" (aka "Devil in Disguise").

The ons he did NOT use much for sure (because he told me) were #9, which became a short experiment and then a placeholder for his foot, and the right knee lever - which for many players is tremendous, but he said sounded too "pedal steely". So many of us play with an 8+2 setup; ebb puts the left knee on a pedal and foregoes knees (correct me if I'm wrong Ed). Sneaky, remember, didn't even have knee levers until the early 70's - the first two Burritos albums are no-knee recordings, but you can hear the left knee 1st string drop on "The Blue Album", and it became a kind of signature lick for him as well.

I'm still playing around with my Fenders - both my 1000 and my two-pickup, fire-breathing "Sneakycaster II" 400 are 8+2 but I may add pedal #9 (with another change...still experimenting) and a third knee lever that I think may replace pedal 3 (for 7ths), take 3,4,5 & 6 and set them up as more traditional C6-type changes. the great thing about Fenders is you can make changes in minutes unles they involve double raises or lowers (and those are easily overcome with Shobud barrel tuners and simple "L"-shaped steel pieces for stops).

Now - as far as 10-string copedent goes, this is the one I use, and I actually have my GFI Ultra set up right now and the Fenders set aside (awaiting a few parts for mods). The copedent was worked up mostly by ebb (Ed Bierly) - as I recall Ed's a Julliard grad, a Fender player and extreme Sneaky fan - but also plays an Anapeg and a Whitney. When it comes to theory and practical application - in other words, transforming an instrument concept into something that's actually playable, and in the most efficient way possible, he is a flippin' genius (shut up Ed, you KNOW there's a Mensa card in your wallet! Hehehe).

I asked him if he thought it was possible to make a 10-string 3+4 work in B6 since I was continuing to struggle with E9 after getting my GFI from Bobbe Seymour (who is my hero - a prince of a man - saw all the problems I was having with a series of bad deals on bad used 10-string guitars and contacted ME with a trade-in offer that was impossible to pass up - and I'm not an isolated case. If Bobbe decides he likes you you have a friend for life, and I consider him one my BEST friends...although we have never even spoken on the phone - played some phone tag,though - and all our "talks" have been via email. There are no compliments worthy of him; he's one in 500 million!).

The GFI is a superb instrument, mechanically AND tonally (it has a Fender vibe with more sustain; Gene somehow channeled the 400/1000 tone into a modern instrument with much of the same ease of modification). Ed came back with something that involved using 4 splits - normally a tough nut to crack. Paul Redmond took a look (he's the builder of the Whitney, and incredible player who also uses a unique copedent, a mechanical genius, and one of the nicest guys on the planet) and suggested just a couple minor changes for mechanical reasons - things he knew would play more smoothly and still hit the goal, which was jamming Sneaky's 400 into a simple 3+4 machine.

The copedent was sent to Bob at GFI, who figured out what different and/or extra rods would be needed, and looked at it from a builder's standpoint - verifying the mechanics could do the required changes (more later) - and sent the parts out with detailed installation instructions.

I essentially dismantled the guts of my new Ultra, followed Bob's instructions with additional input from Paul, and after a few little tweaks here and there had it nailed. The one change that was a wild card was the 1st string lower - it's a huge mechanical drop and some guys have fooled with it on other guitars and gotten stymied - it would not drop all the way. On the Ultra it's a long...but smooth...throw and works perfectly.

All the splits are perfect. I still think GFI set up one in the shop to see if it would actually work! The amazing thing is how much affect the copedent has on your sound - it sounds amazingly like Sneaky *tonewise* - not just because of the licks/copedent. Setting up a GFI with the GFI II pickup in this configuration brings out more of the "Fenderish" tone - like a 400 but with more sustain. 400's, contrary to some opinions, actually have a ton of bottom end and mids; many early recordings used treble-heavy amp settings and the tone control on the guitar up all the way, but roll off the tone control about 10-20%, set up a tube...o solid-state...amp for a fairly flat EQ, with controls at "5"...and you can crack concrete. Controls on the guitar are mandatory for me, and I still don't get why they have been deleted from just about every guitar made today - so on the Ultra I use a Steeldriver II, giving me tone and volume controls and providing a better impedance match with the vintage and boutique effects I use.

Well, THAT was more info than necessary (grin). Oh, well - there's still alittle more.

It has almost everything except the little-used right-knee change and the low-B raise - one change that I have added since this was turned into a jpg file (and yes, I've also fixed the spelling of "gauge"). It's one change I use a ton in blues turnarounds and for me it turned out to be essential.

The really cool thing is how "linear" it is - playing "up the strings" or "down" you find there's just very little bar movement needed unless you WANT to move it - most of what I play is based on certain chord forms, arpeggios and banjo-type rolls, and the 8-string B6 is perfect for my type of playing; this copedent simply expands it and requires even less left-hand movement (and playing with a 1-pound, 1 1/4" bar it's pretty easy to miss your marks by a hair, so the less movement for me the better).

Is it a perfect replacement for E9? Nope - while you can sound VERY country with it it's not voiced as high in normal playing positions, so you have to go way up the neck to get a lot of the traditional "whine". But where I play, usually between the first and 12th frets, it sounds huge - a big, meaty, guitar-like kick in the ribs. and no chromatic strings means no speedy steel cliches...which for me is a plus, not a minus. I don't WANT to play those, and I can't. I'm not educated in theory, don't read, and am an ear player - and to me, this is a "sit down and play" copedent; the 8-string version I made sense of within a day after months of screwing with E9, and this was just as easy - it was a matter of learning new knee movements, mostly.

I hope someone finds it useful. I don't know if anyone else has even tried it yet, but I think for a player transitioning from 6-string to steel this is far more accessible than E9, and just as usable in 90% of band situations. The only people who know something is different are other steel players - the average non-player or even other musician simply thinks you're playing pedal steel, mash the 1 and 2 pedals, throw in the b-string raise and no one except a steel player knows the difference.




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1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional
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Ben Jones


From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
Post  Posted 25 Jan 2009 12:34 pm    
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awesome. gonna print this thread.
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Rich Peterson


From:
Moorhead, MN
Post  Posted 25 Jan 2009 1:05 pm     Thank you
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A big thank you to all of you for the ideas, and especially to Jim. Sneaky's style is so different (deliberately) that is helps to have your explanation.

My MSA Classic isn't as easy to change around, so I may not experiment with this right away. I'll let the ideas percolate and age a while.
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ebb


From:
nj
Post  Posted 25 Jan 2009 2:02 pm    
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there are 3 reasons that P4(which jim alludes to)is where it is on the original tuning.
the main reason is for playing with 2 feet on the pedals it is sometimes more convenient to use P4 or P8 depending on where your feet are going to go next.
knee levers on modern guitars could make this less of an issue.
the second reason is it is the only place to get a full 4 voice M7th chord.
if you dont care about that you could punt on this change.
the third reason is that it is the only place to play the 3rd, 7th and #9 of the purple haze chord with the left foot only.
so for a C7#9 you would play strings 2,4 and 6 with P4+P5 at the 5th fret.
you could also get this chord at fret 7 on strings 4,5 and 7 using P1+P3 so if you had P3 on a knee it would remove this reason also.
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b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2009 1:54 pm     Tranposed for Comparison
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The main feature of Jim's 10-string tuning is that it's a 4th lower than E9th. If you transpose it to E, you can see that most of the changes are familiar E9th changes:
Tab:
    LKL  LKR   P1   P2   P3   RKL  RKR
G#                  +A            --F#
E        -D#                 ++F#
C#  +D
B             ++C#      -Bb
G#                  +A            --F#
F#
E        -D#
C#  +D
B             ++C#
G#                  +A

The one thing here on B69th that you can't do on E9th is double-lower the high string (RKR). Most changers won't lower a high G# to F# because the travel is too great on that thin string.

The B69th will sound beefier than an E tuning, more like the timbre of C6th. This is an advantage for people who want to avoid the "whine" of those high E9th strings.
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ebb


From:
nj
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2009 2:42 pm    
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you should translate the splits too.
they are integral to this solution.
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b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2009 4:13 pm    
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ebb wrote:
you should translate the splits too.
they are integral to this solution.

Okay:
Tab:
    LKL  LKR   P1   P2   P3   RKL  RKR   P2+RR LR+RL P1+P3
G#                  +A            --F#    -G           
E        -D#                 ++F#               +F
C#  +D
B             ++C#      -Bb                            +C
G#                  +A            --F#    -G
F#
E        -D#                                    -D#
C#  +D
B             ++C#                                    ++C#
G#                  +A

What you have on P3 is typically LKV on E9th, to make the split easier to reach. P2+RR is usually a "G" knee lever on E9th, or the "zero pedal". The LR+RL split is similar to the the "F" lever.
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b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2009 4:52 pm     Re: Sneaky Pete's copedent expanded?
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Rich Peterson wrote:
How would you adapt Sneaky Pete's concept to a double raise/double lower 5X5 10 string?

What would you leave out or combine, going from 11 changes to 10?
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Given what Jim said about P9, here's how I'd do it:
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ebb


From:
nj
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2009 5:31 pm    
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it seems to me that you have lost a very usefull minor position.
no "C" pedal unless youre going to use both feet.
3 full tone pulls on p2 will exacerbate any cabinet drop issues.
and the very common run up the scale starting on string 7 B C# D# E F# is going to have you hopping over pedal 4.
that will make orange blossom special very labor intensive.
but im willing to be enlightened to the benefits.
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b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 28 Feb 2009 8:38 am    
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Hi Ed,

I see your points. The benefits of placing the 3rd tone lower on the "zero" pedal are well established. Sneaky probably used 2 feet to get that effect.

Is far as the "C pedal" change, changing the A note on RKR to a G# would do the trick, but it would lose that silly triple raise. I was just trying to stay true to the original tuning as much as possible. That's also why I didn't add a middle C# string.

Besides, as Jenee Keener said to Jeff Newman, "Steel players can't play Orange Blossom Special." Winking Laughing

On thinking about it further, I think that the 2 extra strings should be on the top - F# and G# - and that the F# should not be raised to G#. The new high G# could be raised to A on LKR.
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ebb


From:
nj
Post  Posted 28 Feb 2009 9:14 am    
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Quote:
The benefits of placing the 3rd tone lower on the "zero" pedal are well established

but i think that is more valuable when you dont have the 6th between the 5th and the root already in the tuning.
the p0 in that case is giving you the 7th against the p1 3rd.
this same thing can be done 3 frets up with your lkv
and 5 frets up with your lkr already so i dont see a big win here.
i never understood the triple raise and dont really hear him using it so thats why i booted it.
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b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 28 Feb 2009 10:43 am    
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The triple raise is used with pedals down. It's the Bud Isaacs change, exactly.
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ebb


From:
nj
Post  Posted 28 Feb 2009 11:52 am    
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Quote:
The triple raise is used with pedals down. It's the Bud Isaacs change, exactly

in that case with my 10 string version you would play lkv and rkl against p2 to get exactly the same thing since the 6th in the tuning is already p1 down.

are you sure it was bud issacs. i thought it was pete drake according to lloyd. the bud issacs slowly change was just the a/b pedal mash on one pedal for the 1/4 morph
Quote:
Here is, once again, the story of how I discovered the E to F knee lever.
One morning in August, 1967 I received a call from David Jackson at Sho-Bud. He excitedly told me to get down there as quickly as possible, that Pete Drake had dreamed (literally) a new pedal change the night before and they had just installed it. It was a must have pedal change!

I was there in a few hours and David showed me the change which he had already put on a "house" steel. Now, here was Pete's dream pedal.

Assume you are in the key of G. You press the A & B pedals then a new knee lever would pull the E string (4th) a whole tone and the B string (5th) a half tone. Actually, you have now pulled the 5th string a full

1 1/2 tones in addition to the whole tone pull of the 4th string. This made the pedal really stiff. If you have done this, and slide to the 5th fret....you have a G chord (strings 3, 4, 5 & 6).

I immediately realized I could do the same change by merely raising the E's to F and using only my A pedal, and sliding one fret higher. David was disbelieving until I proved it to him. Before I left Sho-Bud that morning I had my new pedal, Pete had his and David Jackson was a believer.

Within a few days Pete had cut a song with Tammy Wynette, "I Don't Wanna Play House" using his new pedal, and the very next day, August 29, 1967 I recorded D-I-V-O-R-C-E with Tammy with my new pedal. Both songs went to #1 in the charts, Pete's in 1967, mine in May, 1968.

I suppose the E to F became the pedal of choice since it is a much simpler and more logical way to play major chord triad 3rds above the starting key. In any event, Pete was still using his pedal a few years later in 1972 when he recorded with Don Gibson on Hickory Records, "Woman (Sensuous Woman)". Hell, that one went to #1, too!

Had I not sensed the easier way to achieve this change I'm certain we would all today have Pete's pedal change instead. But the word spread rapidly about this new pedal I was using and within days most of the steel players in Nashville were coming by my sessions to see what this thing did. After D-I-V-O-R-C-E became a big hit the pedal became part of the language for most steel players around the world and was integrated into the E9th configuration.

This is a very condensed version of the events that occurred but are truthful and accurate.


Regards,

Lloyd Green

youll notice i addded the actual f lever equivalent on lkl on my 10 string expanded
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b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 28 Feb 2009 7:03 pm    
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I guess you could say that. What I meant was that, since you have E major with pedals down, the knee lever raises it to an A chord like the Bud Isaacs pedal. Pete Drake took an A chord (pedals down) and raised it to D major.

So we're both right. Note-wise, Sneaky's lever from pedals down position is the Isaacs change. Concept-wise, it's the same as Drake's, which also started from the pedals down position.
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Jim Sliff


From:
Lawndale California, USA
Post  Posted 1 Mar 2009 9:47 am    
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As Ed mentioned, those splits on the 3+4 are really key; also it was part of the challenge theoretically and mechanically - to see how much of the copedent could be accomplished on a 10-string 3+4; but not just as an experiment, it had to be a useful, playable instrument.

b0b IS right about the one mechanical "kicker" - many guitars can't hit the first-string lower...but note you mention with skinny strings; I use a .015 or .016 (depending on my mood) and that helps tremendously - with a .012 it won't make it.

But you play with heavier strings on this whole contraption anyway, since,, as noted, it's tuned a 4th lower - and that IS an extremely important element of the sound. I've talked to others who have done it (or parts of it, sometimes sacrificing the big lower, which Pete did not have on the first two Burritos albums and early sessions) and no matter what guitar it changes the character. You end up with more beef, much more sustain, a vastly improved overall tone (larger gages will always improve tone) and you find yourself right in 6-string frequency range. It makes "trading fours" with a guitar player in a "real" jam (not one of those "each guy playing against a recorded track" steel things...I just cannot call those "jams"..."meetings", maybe) much more fun.

The weird thing is how much your ear also gets fooled into "hearing" a Fender tone. It demonstrates how much a particular setup affects what we recognize as "style" - and what too many recognize as "tone" (sort of an offshoot of the widely disproven "tone is in the hands" argument laid to rest 20 years ago in the 6-sting world). With this setup on ANY guitar it "sounds" like Sneaky...and so your ear (at least those I've surveyed) takes that input and processes it as "Fender Tone" - which is funny in itself because Pete didn't play with a tone you can get from a stock-wound single pickup.

Back to the 1st string lower - the GFI just makes it with a .015, and it's easier with a .016. Just to make it a bit easier I added a helper spring - slows the return by a tiny amount, but no slower than on a Fender, and it helps kep the guitar stable (with the Ultra's light weight hitting that change hard CAN move the guitar, so you have to learn how to drive...).

It IS a long throw on the lever, but it also seems to have a natural half-stop that's a "feel" stop...just a tiny hitch that helps you recognize it, so you can use the knee instead of the 2+RK split - handy in some spots. This change is why I'm fairly sure GFI set a guitar up in the factory - otherwise they would not have known it was possible, since in "normal" configurations (and string gages) it's not. Same goes for the split - they told be exactly where to place the rod hole-wise to make it as smooth and even as possible. I can't say enough about those guys - or the guitar, which in this iteration DOES have a Fenderish tone (even with the GFI II), but on steroids.

____________________________________________________________________________

The Beginner's Guide to B6:

For Ben and others hunting for grips with any of the B6 copedents (if any have adapted to Russ Tkac's "Day" version, pedal numbers need to be changed accordingly...but it's still just as simple) -

Lesson One: The simplest right hand grips are strings 4, 1 & 2 or 5, 4 and 2, plus sometimes 6,5 and 4 (for a huge sound - and on the 10-string version it's strings 7, 5 and 4). Just grab any of those grips or alternate between them; then play at the 8th fret ("open" G), mash pedals 1+2 - there's your IV chord ("C"). Hold the pedals down, move up two frets - the V chord("D").

Mix in pedal #7 for "licks" and even if you know nothing about playing pedal steel you'll sound like a pedal steel player to non-players as long as you can get close to the right fret position and toss in a little bar-wiggle vibrato.

Sidebar - sheesh, if we could only get everyone to play B6 I could publish this as the One Minute Pedal Steel Player....Laughing

Lesson 2 - Grab strings 4, 2, and 1, and play a forwards or backwards roll - then just hit the 2nd pedal alone; There's a very useful tool -the sus4 "Take it Easy" intro.

Lesson 3 - mash the 8th pedal (#4 in my "mini" 4-pedal setup) , play one of the the same upper two grips but slide it back two frets (after playing the open-G). That's your iim chord. So, play open-G, then slide back 2 frets and hit pedal "8", then go back up to where you started but mash 1&2 - You've played I, iim, IV. Then release the pedals and play the I chord again. That's the chord progression to "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (NOT the intro Lloyd Green played, but Sneaky Pete played something totally different from Lloyd and several of his recorded versions sound like they are based on these positions...and this is a simple "get a way with it" method).

Lesson 4 - Your first two-foot lesson: We'll do the "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" thing again, but a different way - play the 4, 2, 1 grip at the 8th fret and some kind of roll for four beats; then hit pedals 1&2 with your left foot and pedal 7 (#3 on the 4-pedal version) with your right foot.

That's your iim chord - play it for four beats. The release the 7 (or 3) pedal to play the IV chord for four beats, then release the 1&2 pedals to go back to the I chord.

Ta-da! You have just played an entire song without once moving the bar. Now do it but experiment with rolling on and off the 1 pedal when playing the iim, screwing with the 1 pedal (while holding the 2) when playing the IV chord) - typical E9 stuff you'll want to work hard to unlearn (grin). Then also play with the 7 pedal (meaning engage/release it wherever you feel like it might sound good) in the open position OR when playing the IV chord to play different licks. You'll find all sorts of fun things.

Lesson 5 - A new grip: - Bar at the 8th fret, strings 3, 2 and 1 = Em. Here's a simple song example - play the open Em, then shift to grip 4, 2 and 1 and mash pedals 1&2...then press pedal 7 with your right foot while holding 1&2. The intro to Neil Young's "Southern Man" (Skynyrd fans please - no hate mail. They're actually buddies.)

Lesson 6 - A do-it-yourself "hint" lesson - on the 8-string version the strings repeat in groups of four, so for a "kick in the gut", big, fat-tone version of the same things you play on the lower strings - the main difference being you do not have use of the 7 pedal, so you use the pedal 8 method only for the iim, and also use it when you want to do the same 1-step "Stringbender" thing as with pedal 7. The "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" zero bar-movement version would be (using the 4, 2, 1 grip) open, pedals 1,2 and 8, pedals 1&2, and back to open (since on the lower 4 strings the 8th pedal serves a different function than on the top-4).

Disclaimer - I am not theoretically oriented. I'm a 99% ear player and very often cannot tell you on ANY instrument what chord I'm playing, and there's even less of a chance I could tell you what single note I'm hitting. So if there are any theoretical mistakes above, please email or PM me so I can correct them (rather than post the corrections - followup posts sometimes get missed).

Last notes, tonally-related - I suggest for the best tonal "vibe" that no matter what electronics you use you try two things:

1. Do not use reverb. Don't play "dry" though - use a small amount of delay (analog is best, but digital will work..it just sounds a bit sterile). I'll use anywhere from 100-200 milliseconds, have the repeats set so it decays quickly but still has some "body", and the intensity (or "mix") very low - 80-90% dry signal, with just a little of the delay. You get less ugly treble (most spring reverbs only affect the upper frequencies), no "washout" and a clearer, more gutsy tone, even when using distortion. My current pedalboard resident is an SIB "Mr. Echo" - but I'll also use an H&K Replex tube delay, a Line6 DL-4, or an old Ibanez EM5 Echomachine (a digital unit that has a "crap factor" built in to emulate analog delay)...and if really brave I'll use my old Sireko Echoplex tape machine.

2. Get a phase shifter. If you only get one effect, make this it (I don't see how a player can NOT have a distortion device...not overdrive, which is a different effect) - it'll take you a long way towards a "Sneaky" sound. Keep the speed slow, and if you have a mix knob keep it below 50% (if not, don't worry about it). The cheapest good one is the protoypical MXR Phase 90, which does a great job. The king is the one Pete used - the Mutron BiPhase - but those are collector's dreams and run about a grand used! The closest sound to a BiPhase I've discovered is the Electroharmonix Flanger Hoax, mis-named as it's actually two phase shifters in one box. It has a huge learning curve and is difficult to dial-in, but sounds wonderful. Note - ALL phasers have some hiss, some a LOT. Don't worry - you never hear it with a band.

Combining a Phase 90 with an analog, mono Chorus (I use a Way Huge Blue Hippo but those are also about a grand used) gets near a BiPhase sound - and a cheap envelope filter like the Boss AW-2 Auto-Wah, if set in a VERY subtle way, also gets an amazing phase sound - but if you hit a string too hard it "quacks", so you have to play with a light touch.

The other "swirly" thing that sounds wonderful is a Leslie - not the organ type with a horn, but the Leslie 16, 18 or Fender Vibratone. A used Korg G4 simulator nails the sound - yet it also costs about as much as the real thing. It IS easier to drag around, though.

3. Distortion - this is a complicated subject, so I'll try to keep it simple - generally you don't want to use anything called "overdrive" unless you are using a tube amp cranked way up. Instead get a Distortion pedal. Fuzz may be OK as well - you have to try different ones out. But my favorite cost-effective Distortion device ( one that does the big blast Sneaky used on "Wheels" AND the violin-like fuzz sound) is the MXR Distortion+. I have industrial Velcro mounted under my 400 and 1000, and attach the pedal upside-down. Then I can hit it with a knee as needed (really perfect for "Wheels") and quickly adjust the level/distortion amount. Also, the nice thing about a Fender is it actually has a tone control - and rolling off a little treble when going into distortion mode really smooths out the sound.

That gives you enough, hopefully, to get started with B6 and get a bit of the Sneaky sound if you wish.
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Ed Bierly is the king of the 3rd pedal, and I have not learned his 2&3 pedal position yet - something I need to explore But as he has mentioned in past discussions, IF you are going to play the abbreviated (4-pedal) version it may make a lot of sense to tune the G#'s to A - because when I'm playing blues that 3rd pedal is used like mad for an open-7th chord. I'm going to mess with that a bit later today myself, as I play more rock/country rock than straight country or swing - and with pedal 9 on my 8-string setup I can hit that and get right back to the "stock" B6 tuning. Ed's raised 3rd and 8th string seemingly create a sort of Sacred Steel-like tuning., and it's also a bit like Al Perkins' old 1000's E7 - also a vary fun copedent and a REALLY easy one to play when just starting out (I used it initially on my first Fender that had only 6 pedals, and used 2 pedals as Al's knee lever changes.

One thing I think gives an ear player a great advantage using this copedent is you don't over-think it and get worried about the 6th knee lever you think you might need, or where to put your Franklin pedal, or why the 1st pedal pulls to a unison note - you can just play the thing, and it's very intuitive - especially for beginners who have not gotten used to chromatic strings. Last weekend at the LA jam Mike Perlowin showed me a bunch of stuff using Chromatics, showing why they are so important - and he was right...for what HE plays. I understood that just fine - but my little point here is not EVERYONE needs those strings, or a high, whiney tuning, or a cluster of knee levers. And anyone who sits down at this copedent (or the 10-string version) seems to find their way around almost immediately.

Hope that helps some folks with the basics. I'm gonna post the same thing over on the Fender Steel Forum.
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No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional
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