History of the "Es Raise" Lever - from Lloyd G.

Joey Ace · From: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

I've recently been involved in some discussions concerning the origin of the E9 Knee Lever that raises the E strings.

Some say that Pete Drake originated it. I recall a conversation with Lloyd Green where he explained he was the first.

To clairfy the history of this pedal, I requested that Lloyd tell the story here.

Here it is:

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

Thanks for your time, Lloyd.

Frank Parish · From: Nashville,Tn. USA

Interesting stuff there Joey for sure. Funny to me that before that E to F raise that everybody must've been slanting the bar and it was right under their noses.

Drew Howard · From: 48854

Thanks, Joey, for posting this. Great read.

Drew

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The Saltines

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Very cool, and interesting, for me, that I new both songs well enough to imagine the playing even now decades later.

I am not surprised that Lloyd had this epiphany, he is a very inteligent man.

From now on it is the "LG lever" for me

Walter Stettner · From: Vienna, Austria

This is what makes this Forum so great - getting first hand information from the players who created the patterns and sounds we all use today as standard!

Thanks Joey and, of course, thanks, Loyd for sharing this with us!

Kind Regards, Walter
www.austriansteelguitar.at.tf

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[This message was edited by Walter Stettner on 25 March 2004 at 01:40 PM.]

Gary Spaeth · From: Wisconsin, USA

this story always bothered me because if my memory is correct hal rugg used an e-f change on loretta's "don't come home a drinkin." that came out in the fall of '66. i've tried doing that intro another way with hal's tuning but the only way i could find it possible was with an e-f change. corrct me if i'm wrong. i don't mind.

Al Udeen · From: maple grove mn usa

Gary! You are absolutely correct, Hal Rugg was using the 4th string half raise even before he cut "Dont Come Home a Drinkin" in 66 au

Gary Spaeth · From: Wisconsin, USA

maybe pete drake's dream had hal rugg in it. i read somewhere else on this forum that buddy emmons used the e-f change on a jim reeves song in '64. i can't imagine him not immediately seeing the e-f possibility the minute he split the pedals. but the split pedals were probably such a shiny stone it was probably hard to put it down for a while.

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

It's not that great a stretch from a back slant on the low E string -- which many players were doing on the E7 or E9 tunings before knee levers -- to dream up the F lever, at least for the diminished chord. The addition of the A pedal to get the Major chord is pretty logical as well.

Whoever found it first -- THANKS

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

I had an old ShoBud at one time which only had two knee levers, one lowered the E's and the other lowered the 2nd string to D and the 9th to C#. A steeler in LA (James O'Rafferty) showed me how to do the intro on D.I.V.O.R.C.E by just sliding up three frets and using the C pedal and the knee lever together which lowered the E's a half. In the open position you'll have the notes G# F C# G# on strings 3 through 6. It'll be in tune on some guitars and not on others and impossible on a push/pull. I've had the regular E to F lever for many years now but sometimes I still find myself doing that....JH in Va.

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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

Steve Dodson · From: Sparta, Tennessee, USA

Gary Spaeth,I think your right. After reading your post, I went and pull out a book called (Pedal Steel Guitar A Manuel Of Style)the book came out in 1980 Which had 4 top player's in it. Terry Bethel,Jimmie Crawford, John Hughey, and Weldon Myrick. For those of you that have this book go to page 90 of Weldon Myricks interview. The last question Weldon was asked was. What about the E to F change? He said he started pulling the E to F in 1966. He said he had heard a change that Hal Rugg was using on the opry ,and he said I asked him about it.And Hal Rugg told Weldon he was pulling the E to an F instead of F#.

Steve Dodson · From: Sparta, Tennessee, USA

After reading a little more in the ( Manuel of Style Book)about the tunings and set up's that the above players where using. In Jimmie Crawfords section of the book,it show's one of his pedal set-up's from 1963 and he was using the E to F change in 1963.So it looks like that change came along before 1967 or 68.

Willis Vanderberg · From: Petoskey Mi

I use a reverse slant on my " Danny Boy" intro ,just to confuse folks. It is much easier to raise the E's but the reverse slant gives it a little different sound.
When you come off the slant and end with a G chord on the 10 th fret, A & B Down it has a nice ring to it. At least it is on my Emmons.

David Doggett · Posted 15 Jan 2006 8:30 pm

It's called convergent evolution, and it has happened many times in scientific thinking. Once the prior foundations of knowledge or technology are laid, two or more individuals discover the same idea or phenomenon, unbeknownst to each other. Sometimes historical research shows that a supposedly new idea was discovered many years before, but went misunderstood or unnoticed. This happened with calculus, Bayes theorem for combining probabilities, the theory of evolution, and Mendel's explanation of genetics. Maybe it happened with the invention of the F lever - two or more players thought it up from scratch between 1963 and 1967. And they didn't know about each other's discovery, because they didn't have the Steel Guitar Forum back then.

[This message was edited by David Doggett on 15 January 2006 at 08:32 PM.]

Jody Sanders · From: Magnolia,Texas, R.I.P.

Nothing. Jody.

[This message was edited by Jody Sanders on 15 January 2006 at 09:07 PM.]

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

I put it on my first pedal steel in 1972. Didn't hear or read about it anywhere - it just made musical sense to me. http://picturehost.net/b0b/myFirstE9th.gif

This is why I always think of it as a "discovery" rather than an "invention". I never understood why it wasn't the first knee lever put on a steel guitar. It seemed as obvious to me then, as a beginner, as it does today.

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Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
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Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Supposedly, Alexander Graham Bell beat a competitor to the patent office by just 10 minutes to submit his 'phone idea.

John Steele · From: Renfrew, Ontario, Canada

quote:

i can't imagine him not immediately seeing the e-f possibility the minute he split the pedals.

quote:

I never understood why it wasn't the first knee lever put on a steel guitar. It seemed as obvious to me then, as a beginner, as it does today.

Thank you, thank you, for saying that....
I've thought the same thing for years.

Having said that, I can't contribute anything to the conversation about which
steel player invented the major triad,

so carry on...

-John

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

I have it on good authority that Buddy Emmons invented the major triad. I believe that Carl Dixon told me that.

just funnin' you, Carl . . . just in case you're lurking

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

John Bechtel · From: Nashville, Tennessee, R.I.P.

Well, truth be known, it may have actually been Bobbe!

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“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
’05 D–10 Derby
’65 Re-Issue Fender Twin–Reverb Custom™ 15”
Current Equipment

richard burton · From: Britain

Clarence Clue was using this change in the late 50's.

He had it on a lever, and he liked it so much, that he also had it on a pedal as well, just in case one or other broke on the job.

His steel had a history of letting him down at critical moments, much to the chagrin of his bandleader partner, Norman Norfolk.

John Steele · From: Renfrew, Ontario, Canada

Richard, one of my favourite groups.

I've been emulating Norfolk's work with Giggs lately.

-John

[This message was edited by John Steele on 21 January 2006 at 12:23 AM.]

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

The audibility of the E to F change is prominent, thereby allowing concerned musicians to validate the true origin of the 1/2 tone raise through recordings. This would eliminate trial and error configurations which differ from the E9 chromatic tuning. Please; let us not stray away from concepts.

Bill

Don Barnhardt · From: North Carolina, USA

I'm not smart enough to have thought it up on my own so I salute anyone that was instrumental for it being on my guitar. The more I use it the more little pleasant tricks I learn. I'm growing real fond of lowering E too.

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Bill good point.
I suspect a F was put in place by someone, sometime on lapsteels etc.

but the question for me is :
did the F lever as it is commonly used today
get invented by Lloyd.
I still think this is the case.
A pedal won't be used in the same way.

I don't have my manual of style handy :
Was the F pedal for Crawford put on Pedal 0
so it could be used with pedal A?

And Bill, it's great to see you posting today!

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 21 January 2006 at 06:12 AM.]

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