Questions on Remington Steelmaster and Profex II

Nelson Checkoway · From: Massachusetts, USA

I recently stumbled onto an extraordinary chance to acquire a D-8 Remington Steelmaster from Guitar Center online for $499. Natural ash in nice shape with a minor mod--two bolts on the bottom (which I have removed) that a prior owner had installed to secure a bracket for what they said was a "reverb unit".

GC threw in the unit "for free" and it turned out to be a working Profex II loaded with the Jeff Newman settings and a new battery. So now--as a lap and pedal steel player--I'm the proud owner of my first D8 console and the fabled Profex II.

I have a couple of questions that forum members might be able to weigh in on.

Steelmaster: I plan to carry over my 8-string lap C6 tuning to one neck--what is a recommended tuning for the other neck? I'm playing mostly swing, country, a little jazz.

Profex: I knew little about this unit before opening the box but done some reading since. Is the battery-less mod I've heard about a "must do"? And will I lose Newman patches in case the battery fails or is disconnected unless I download them to a "cache card"? (They appear to be all in the "A" bank of effects.)

Thanks in advance for your counsel ...

Nelson

Frank Welsh · From: Upstate New York, USA

I have the same guitar and use a C13th on the inner neck and a B11th on the outer neck. I play some jazz standards, pop standards, and Hawaiian tunes and use the B11th neck about half the time; sometimes both necks for one tune.

For example the melody for "Blue Bossa" on the C13th and a chord style improvisation with lots of three note chords on the B11th neck and then back to the C13th to return to the straight melody. B11th is very chord rich and is actually a combination tuning worth trying.

Another option could be an E13th tuning which has served Western Swing players very well.

Nelson Checkoway · From: Massachusetts, USA

Thanks, Frank. I was thinking of a 13th tuning since it comes up a lot - but I like the idea of chord comping on the B11 -- I think I'll probably try both with the C6 on the other neck (with which I'm most familiar and comfortable).

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