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Topic: C6 Origins |
Richard Nelson
From:
Drogheda, Louth, Ireland
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 29 Nov 2016 11:28 am |
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From what I read, the C6 setup as we know it today was created by Buddy Emmons when he worked with Shot Jackson making Sho-buds. If there were any other early efforts I'd be interested to hear of them.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Ed Boyd
From:
Illinois, USA
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Richard Nelson
From:
Drogheda, Louth, Ireland
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Richard Nelson
From:
Drogheda, Louth, Ireland
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 29 Nov 2016 12:36 pm
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(copying an old post of mine)
What I've read is:
The pedal that is usually on P7, raising C and A to D and B, was used by Alvino Rey in the early 1940's. But his tuning was E6 rather than C6.
The other modern C6 changes were on Ernie Tavares's pedal guitar designed in 1943 and built in 1946. His tuning was B flat 6.
| Tab: |
1 2 3 4 5 6
D +Eb
Bb +B
G +Ab
E +F
Db +D
Bb +B
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altho 123456 is probably misleading since his narrow pedals allowed him to combine these 6 in any way.
This is very close to modern pedal C6, except that strings 4 and 5 are already lowered, due to the restriction that the changer can only raise, not lower. In other words, he has B flat 6th when pedals 4 and 5 are mashed, raising strings 4 and 5.
To see how close this is to the choices that Buddy Emmons made 15 years later, just
- transpose up 2 frets from Bb6 to C6,
- combine two pedals (P1 and P5)
- change the pedal order
- make 5 and 6 already raised with a pedal that lowers, instead of already lowered with a pedal that raises,
and you have
| Tab: |
knee knee pedal pedal pedal
E +F
C +C#
A +Bb
G -F#
E -Eb
C +C#
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 29 Nov 2016 2:55 pm
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Thank you for that, Earnest. I have never played non-pedal, but I'm dimly aware that the pedals that lower strings 5 and 6 and raise 7 are doing what was previously done by slanting the bar. P7 is the odd one out, and it's interesting to discover quite how old it is.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Bill Cunningham
From:
Atlanta, Ga. USA
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Posted 30 Nov 2016 7:03 pm
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Interesting. I seem to remember an old post where Buddy attributed several of the basic C6 pedals to Chalker. Someone with lots of time might want to search the forum archives. 
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Bill Cunningham
Atlanta, GA |
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Richard Nelson
From:
Drogheda, Louth, Ireland
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Richard Nelson
From:
Drogheda, Louth, Ireland
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 2 Dec 2016 9:16 am
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It has always been my understanding that Jerry Byrd came up with the non-pedal C6th tuning.
The original Hawaiian tuning was an A tuning, either high or low bass. |
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Michael Maddex
From:
Northern New Mexico, USA
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Posted 2 Dec 2016 9:42 am
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Richard, you have probably heard this already, but just in case not, here goes: You need to get hold of a copy of The Evolution of the Pedal Steel Guitar by Carl Dixon (aka patdee, aka c 'pat' dixon). He has organized the history of PSG like no other, created charts for the tunings and changes, and found photos to illustrate the story.
I believe that I got my copy directly from him about eight years ago. Mr Dixon is (or used to be) a member here so you may be able to contact him through the SGF although I do not recall seeing a post from him for quite a while now.
Good Luck with your Project! There are plenty of knowledgeable people here willing to help out. 
_________________
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert." -- Arthur C. Clarke |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 2 Dec 2016 11:53 am
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| Richard Nelson wrote: |
| where you got that copedant of Ernie Tavares ? I need to quote sources in my research project . |
Basil has a lot about the Tavares brothers on his site at:
http://waikiki-islanders.com/assets/TAVARES/
.. including some pictures of the 6 pedal guitar that Ernie invented and built:
Also there is a Freddie Tavares version of Ernie's Bb6. In Freddie's hands it had evolved to 8 strings by adding 2 low strings, and up a whole step to C6. But the pedals were still raise-only, no lowers, so instead of G and E strings, he had F# and Eb strings.
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Richard Nelson
From:
Drogheda, Louth, Ireland
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Michael Maddex
From:
Northern New Mexico, USA
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Posted 2 Dec 2016 4:50 pm
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Richard, you can try this:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=199
His last post was just over a year ago. I hope that he is OK.
If that link doesn't help you out, please send me an email or PM and I will see if I can give you some personal contact info from the book. I do not want to post personal info on a Public Forum.
_________________
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert." -- Arthur C. Clarke |
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Richard Nelson
From:
Drogheda, Louth, Ireland
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basilh
From:
United Kingdom
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Posted 10 Dec 2016 8:42 am
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| Richard Nelson wrote: |
| Micheal I sent you an email . Has anyone got that photo of all the kids in high school with their lap steels ? |
I have Richard, it came from a postcard I bought on E-Bay..
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