6 String Pedal Steel Guitar

Hank Ruf · From: Little Elm, Texas USA

Wondering what you guys think of a 6 string pedal steel guitar.

Ken Metcalf · From: San Antonio Texas USA

Jim Flynn makes them at Lone star steel.
They work pretty good

Morgan Scoggins · From: Georgia, USA

Hank,
I recently went from playing nonpedal steel to E9 pedal steel. I started out with ten strings, so I wouldn't want to go back to just playing six strings. I can see however, that there is a lot of music to play on a six string instrument. I am curious about how many pedals and knee levers the six string steel has. The two A & B pedals are an absolute must. I would also want to have the two knee levers that raise and lower the E strings. With that setup, you can play a lot of music. The C pedal would also give you some nice minor chord posibilities.
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Marvin Born · From: Ohio, USA

Check out the Lone Star e-Lite. There is a thread in pedal steel about it.

It is a 10 string push pull

Martin Weenick · From: Lecanto, FL, USA

I just built a six string for a friend here in Florida. Martin.

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Danny Letz · From: Old Glory,Texas, USA 79540

Doesn't Jerry Fessenden make one?

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

I'd like to hear what they sound like. Is there anything on the internet to listen to?

By the way, Harlin were making 6-string MultiKord Pedal Steel Guitars long before any of the 8 and 10 string pedal steels were available from anyone else. In fact it could be said that the pedal steel guitar started out as a 6-string instrument.

(Harlin Brothers did also make 8-string and double neck pedal steels.)

Steve English · From: Baja, Arizona

Nice build Martin!

Do you have any pics of the underside?
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Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Jeff Mead · From: London, England

Jerry Fessenden makes one called the six-shooter for around $600 new. Very light and portable (the legs fold into the body and you have the separate bar with the pedals attached and the rods of course).

http://www.fessendensteelguitars.com/guitars.html

2 pedals - each raises 2 strings. No lowers, no knee levers.

I think if you're going to have multiple pedals and knee levers, you might as well go for a 10 stringer and be done with it.

It's a lot of fun when there's not much space on stage and lets me play a few of the more cliched A/B pedal licks. From the factory, it is set up in a straight E tuning that changes to A when the pedals are pressed.

I've got mine set up in a sort of stripped down E9 tuning but the big plus for me is that with both pedals down, I have the exact A6 tuning I use on my six string lap steels (E on top).

Of course, it's never going to replace a pedal steel but when you think how you can get the flavour of a steel guitar with a regular guitar and a b-bender, this is the lap steel equivalent.

Jeff Mead · From: London, England

Mark Eaton · Posted 19 Jan 2014 5:21 am

Bill posted a link above of Zane King on a Jackson 6-string pedal steel which can be used for standup playing. No knee levers on this guitar, and obviously if there were they wouldn't be happening in a standing position, but I like the standup thing. Here is another video with Zane playing "Amazing Grace." There are threads on this unit on the forum if you do a search:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0LyIOOM9I0

Robert Randolph has been playing one in concert as well but the videos I've seen in the past seemed to have disappeared. Maybe someone else will have better luck finding one if they are so inclined.
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Niels Andrews · From: Salinas, California, USA

Why?
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Tom Barrett · From: Maryland, USA

On another thread Jim Flynn said the site was down while it was being updated. You should be able to pm or email him through the forum.

Martin Weenick · From: Lecanto, FL, USA

Steve, I don't have a picture of the underside of the six string I built, but here is a couple of pics of a 10 string I just built for my Grandaughter 3 or 4 months ago. Same mechanics as the six string. Martin.

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Jim Williams · From: Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!

I could have bought a six shooter recently for a good price...kind of wish I had of. I think it would be nice to take to jams for basic chords / fill in stuff. They weigh almost nothing and would set up in about five minutes.
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GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal.

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Thanks, Bill Hatcher, for the links on YouTube.

This question, about 6 versus 8 strings, usually arises in the Non-Pedal section, and I suspect that in many cases it's brought up because someone has already bought a 6-string lap steel and is looking for justification. After all, human logic is usually backwards; instead of putting together the evidence and then coming to conclusions we come to conclusions without evidence and then look for evidence to support the conclusions we've already derived. But, without getting sidetracked into psychology, my answer to the question is always, "Yes, you can produce great music on six strings, but, if you're in the process of building a lap steel, you might as well build it with the extra strings because it doesn't cost much more. Anything that can be played on a six-string can be played on an eight-string, but it doesn't work the other way round."

That having been said, the 10-string pedal steel started out with 8 strings, and the two re-entrant strings in E9 were added later. If you don't use the top two strings, (and pedal steels existed before the top two strings were introduced), your 10-string is effectively an 8-string already. Most steel guitar work is on the upper strings, so, with a 6-string instrument you can play mostly the same as with an 8-string instrument.

Buddy Emmons once explained on the Forum why the string spacing was reduced. It was because, when they added the top two strings, they continued to use the same width of neck. To my mind, modern pedal steel guitars have their strings spaced too close together. I prefer the wider spacing that you usually get on non-pedal console steels.

I have to add that I've been building lap steels since 1963, and I started out building 6-string lap steels, but nowadays I wouldn't build one with fewer than eight strings. But I've come up against another problem. I like to build double-course instruments with octave courses, (like the lower strings of a 12-string guitar), but with 8 courses you end up with 16 strings, and the lower strings are two low to be of much use, so any future double-course lap steels that I build will be with six course, i.e. twelve strings.

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

martin..pretty stuff, as always.

Jim Williams · From: Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!

I agree with the string comment. Playing a lap steel is so much more comfortable.
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GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal.

jim flynn · From: Salado,Texas

LSG is still in business. Just been really busy and
the web site expired, I intend to open another soon.

The 6"lite" is the most versatile pedal steel. The copedent provide all the changes of the 10 string.
Is completely copedent friendly and easy to change.
Below is the standard for E-9th

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

you will enjoy dealing with jim flynn at lone star. good guy.

Russ Wever · From: Kansas City

Ya have 'The Cadillac'
right ~> HERE Wink

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Lee Wilber · From: Davenport, Florida, USA (near Orlando)

Martin built the 6 string pedal steel that you see here for me. Martin did a great job . The finish is beautiful and it plays beautiful. I can not say enouth good things about this man. If you want a great 6--8--or 10 string give him a call. Lee

Jim Williams · From: Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!

Someone has a Harlan Multi Kord on Ebay for $500 starting bid. Most people put these on at $1000 or more (TDH). One of the more modern ones would probably be a better choice though I would think.
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GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal.

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Harlin Multi-Kords rarely sell for as much as $1,000, unless they're the more rare double-neck eight-string models. They usually sell for $400 to $600.
By the way, you can play them like a modern pedal steel, pushing the pedals as you play. The idea that the pedals are just for changing the tuning, and are intended to be held down through the whole number, is just a myth. If that were the case the pedals would be fitted with a lock-down mechanism. You'd get very tired after a few hours holding down a pedal permanently.
I'm planning on fitting one of mine with regular pedals and maybe knee levers.

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