Tuning E9

Adam Olson · From: Virginia, USA

Wow I feel scared and overwhelmed it seems my knee levors do different things than I have seen in videos and books. A friend of mine just bought a Fender Pedal Steel for me from eBay becouse I messed up my hands and can't play guitar for too long.

The first picture is what mine does. The second is the set up from a chord chart I bought on Amazon.

Is there a most common E9 pedal set up? If so I would like to learn how to set mine up to do that. Coming from standard tuning on guitar this just feels like the wild wild west!

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

There are two differences between your two charts, Adam. First is the names of the levers, which is somewhat arbitrary in any any case. Secondly, you have the more modern 6th string lower.

I think your copedent is fine. It has the standard E9th changes. See my page at http://b0b.com/infoedu/e9theory.htm for an explanation of the 3 standard knee levers.
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Peter den Hartogh · From: Cape Town, South Africa

A lot of confusion comes from the fact that levers are sometimes described by their NAME and LOCATION and not by their FUNCTION.
In other words, it would be easier to remember what they DO and not WHAT they are called.

So if you read a TAB instruction to lower your E's, just teach your instincts that on YOUR guitar you move your right knee inwards to the left (which is the F lever on YOUR chart, or the D lever on the Amazon chart).

Once you learn this trick for one lever, the other levers will follow more easily.

Good luck.
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Adam Olson · From: Virginia, USA

Thank you both for your helpful replies and Bobby your page was an excellent read and very helpful and INSPIRING! I am thick skulled and just want to make sure I understand what both of you are saying about the levers. So they can have different names but the functions are the same.

So is it

Scenario A: If I learn a bunch of scales, chords, licks etc when I sit down to play on another E9 pedal steel guitar or buy a new one will I have to figure out what the “Function” is because now I may be moving my left leg out instead of my right leg in.

Or

Scenario B: The position of the levers is pretty standard but what they call the levers is not. Meaning I will still most likely move my left leg out but someone may call that lever F when another calls that lever D.

I am praying it is Scenario B but I am pretty sure it is scenario A which makes for a difficult transition from one E9 pedal steel to another (not like this is probably done all that much). On guitar I think I know my notes very well and can think of every note I play when I solo; but at the same time there is also an extreme amount of so called “muscle memory” and if the position of the strings were switched around on me (or the knee levers) it would be quite difficult to quickly make that transition of “Function” since the position physically of that function has changed.

So Bobby my knee levers D, F & G are the standard ones and E is all over the place. On others pedal steels does just the first string raise and not have the 6th string lower at all? Sounds like it is probably all over the place.

David Nugent · From: Gum Spring, Va.

Adam....The most common lever setup I believe is what you will see referred to as the "Emmons" setup.
On a four lever guitar the levers would be setup as follows:

Left knee left---Strings 4&8 1/2 tone raise (E-F)
Left knee right--Strings 4&8 1/2 tone lower (E-Eb)
Right knee left--Strings 1&7 1/2 tone raise (F# to G)
Right knee right-String 2 lower 1/2 tone (D# to D)

Note: String 2 may be configured to lower string one whole tone to C# as well, if a half stop can be installed on your guitar.

There are additional changes that have become common on many setups, but I have included only as many as can be accomodated utilizing the existing hardware on your guitar.

While as a beginner, learning with your existing setup would not cause any difficulty, should you decide to purchase a different instrument at a later date however it would be much simpler to locate one with the setup I described above. Since you are located in Virginia, a trip to Billy Cooper's shop in Orange may be worthwhile. He will set up and adjust your guitar so that it plays its best and can also correct any problems as well....Best of luck.

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

Don't lose any sleep about having to adjust to a different knee lever setup, I have instruments with both setups and the switch is not really a problem at all, once you get familiar with the functions of the levers themselves.

There ae number of advantages to having the E string changes on your right knee, many top players still use the ShoBud convention of using the RKL to drop the E strings to Eb. Having both the Eb and F on the right knee makes for a very speedy action, particularly nice if you like to play with the dominant 7 voicings....

There's lots of good advice here, but the bottom line is go get on that guitar and start playing it, all the rest is just distraction...

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

Adam, as you guessed, it's Scenario A.

And also as you guessed, three of your levers, your D, F, and G (location aside) are very standard (that tuning chart off the web is old), and the fourth lever (and any additional ones) is where the Wild West comes in. Smile

Adam Olson · From: Virginia, USA

John Peay · From: Cumming, Georgia USA

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

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