I Bought A Marlen D10 -

David Jeziorski · From: Illinois, USA

Since I am new to pedal steel – and I mean really new. My first. I could certainly use some advice and help from the forum.

1. Is there a 'factory' copedent? I'm working thru the E9 setup using the info from Bob Lee at b0b.com. His notes can be found here: https://b0b.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Marlen-Pull-Release.pdf. Not even thinking about C6 yet

2. Based on my testing, this is what my copedent looks like (attached). I will have to update his specifics to match.

3. Need some advice adjusting the nylon tuning nuts. Some of the nylon tuning nuts are painted/colored red. What does that mean? Which do I turn? That is just on the E9 neck. The C6 are all white.

4. Couple of screws for the C6 pickup are loose and it doesn't seem to be attached at all. It works just fine so haven't messed with it yet. The first task is to get this guitar tuned - E9.

5. Note the switches in the pictures. They work in some combination to be determined. As long as I get sound out of it tho I am a happy guy.

6. The right knee levers are loose and kind of flop around. Is that normal? Can they be tightened up in some way?

7. In Bob Lee's info he says to use .022 wound for the sixth string. The .020 plain that usually comes w/the E9 string set won't work. What has anyone else experienced?

Seems the list got pretty long. My apologies. Just wanna get this thing tuned so I can start playing and learning. I will try to attach pictures.
DaveJ

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Tim Toberer · From: Nebraska, USA

I would be interested to see what is going on underneath that old beauty. I used bOb's tuning directions on my homemade pull-release and it worked perfectly once I got everything under the guitar adjusted correctly. Congratulations!

David Jeziorski · From: Illinois, USA

Grateful for bOb and his instructions for sure. I did figure out which tuning nuts to turn and his instructions worked perfectly even with the different copedent on the Marlen. The first time was a struggle but it should be better with time.

Here are some bottom pix from the previous owner. Got them thru the shop that sold the guitar. Hope they tell you something. I'm still working on my pedal steel mechanical engineer degree.
DaveJ

Dan Kelly · From: Boston, MA

Question 3 - Typically, steelers use color coded tuning nuts to help identify those particular tuning nuts associated with a given "pull." For instance, the typical "pull" for the LKL lever would be to sharpen strings 4 and 8 by a half step or from E to F. So, for speed and accuracy in identifying those two tuning nuts involved, a steeler might dye those two tuning nuts to a particular color, say green. This helps differentiate them for all the others nuts there... especially from the C pedal pull raising the 4th string a whole step to F#.

Typically all the tuning nuts are not colored the same as on your guitar.

And, although it may sound like a pain right now, may I suggest that you make a change or two on your copedant, to bring it in line with what is considered "Standard Emmons E9th." Once you learn to play a particular copedant, it can be pretty hard to change later. And, by bring your copedant in line with the Emmons E9th, you will be saving yourself a lot of time and headaches "Transposing" whatever TAB or Lessons you use along the way. It is a temporary inconvenience for a permanent improvement.Basically the changes would be to switch the pulls on your left knee levers. Not a huge deal, either way. Just a suggestion.

I had a Marlen Pull-Release and loved the sound. Once the pulls were set up and tuned, they stayed tuned. Just keep the same gauge strings on and your tuning efforts should be limited to the tuning keys on top.
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Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

I'm hoping to clarify a couple of things to reduce confusion but it is entirely possible that I've confused what I'm reading and I'm adding to it instead.

All related to the E9 neck:
IF I'm reading your posts right, you have a good Day setup, knee levers included, and you are good to go. Emmons setup (P1 P2 P3 == A B C) or Day setup (P1 P2 P3 == C B A) are equally good, with enough Day players in the world to call it quite mainstream. Very fortunately the left knee levers are consistent with Day (LKL & LKR would need to be exchanged if the pedals were converted to Emmons). I had the task of switching knee lever functions on a pull-release Marlen for a client whose guitar more closely resembled the one in b0b's chart and I learned that this was NOT a simple task. Unlike on an all-pull guitar, raises and lowers have very different needs re: parts and connections.

So, you seem to be in great shape. If you've got the tuning procedure at least a little understood, brilliant. Way to go.
I adapted b0b's and several other people's instructions to create the following sheet. I handed it to my client with apologies. As in "sorry, man -- this is real, I'm not making it up, and you need to learn this because you can't bring me the guitar every time it needs to be tuned".
I don't know if it is any clearer than Bobby Lee's tutorial. As in my first sentence, above, clarifying was my motivation. Muddying the waters may have been my result.

Dan Kelly · From: Boston, MA

Shoot John, you are right. That IS a "Day Set-up."

The confusion is on my part. I did not look at the copedant chart closely enough. Sorry.

OK. So the work required to change over to an Emmons Set-up would be significantly greater. The work would not be insurmountable, but not for the faint of heart, either.

And, since the OP did not question which set-up is "better," my previous comments are not germane to the subject. So, it may be best to leave it here.
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Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Dan - I had to look at that long & hard to see if you were seeing something that I was missing Surprised

.

The original b0b setup with F lever on the right knee....that's a rough situation if you are wanting something more 'standard'. I changed a client's guitar from that to the 'standard' Emmons left knee lever setup and boy, that guitar really didn't want to change. But I was successful.

Emmons vs Day ---- I'm betting that a good number of players play Emmons or Day simply because that's how their first guitar was set up.
I would confidently advise the OP to accept that life has decided that he is going to be a Day setup player and go for it. A forum survey years ago established that something like 30% of players (IIRC) play Day so it is a large minority. When reading tab, just remember that your A pedal is P3 and your C pedal is P1.

Dan Kelly · From: Boston, MA

Right. The "transposition," if you will, becomes second nature. No problem. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Smile

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