Benders in Cma11 tuning ?

Stanislav Paskalev · From: Bulgaria

Hello all, greetings from a new player. About 17 years ago I first wanted to learn lap steel but never really got into it. Now almost two decades later I plan to make good on my former self's wishes. This time I have a few years of guitar playing and experiment with various tunings - which seems to be popular in the steel world as well.

I got myself a 50s Framus 6-string lap steel (finding a steel in Europe is tricky) which I altered with a wider nut in an attempt to get more of a parallel string spacing. I initially I set it to C6 but a few days of messing around with it and reading this forum got me to Cma11. The later I grok a bit more as I've played regular guitar tuned in alternating thirds so I see the chords, straight and slanted, a tad easier at that.

To the folks that dabble in it - do you feel that a bender would be of use or are you happy with regular slants and behind-the-bar finger bends ?

Cheers!
Stan

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

With non-pedal steel, precise picking and string muting is fundamental to playing cleanly. Hand operated string bender levers get in the way of all that. You'll always have to be adept at slanting, but my thinking is if you move to an 8 string instrument, you can have enough chord extensions built into the core tuning so there's more musical headroom and less struggle. There's a name for a steel guitar with string benders - pedal steel.

Lee Gauthier · From: Göteborg, Sweden

If you aren't after a pedal steel-ish sound I'd go sans-benders personally. Echoing Michael, there is a unique vibe and style with lap steel not bending. Even figuring out to play mostly without slants will teach you so much. Behind the bar bends are cool but also don't think you need them.

I do have specific experience with benders on a lap steel tho. I think benders are great specifically on 6 string lap steels if you want to capture some pedal steel sounds, or just have an on the fly tuning alteration. In my opinion muting on 6 string with benders is no problem you have enough free fingers to keep things under control without palm blocking, but any more strings it becomes a nightmare. For me it was a nice financial bridge between jumping on a full pedal steel and I had already played lap steel for years before trying benders.

If you are interested, I played C6 with the C# as the lowest string. I had a bender on the high E -> F to get some pedal-ish sounds, and I had also A -> B to get an extra minor, a fuller voiced maj7 and it my whole tone bend again for a pedal steel-ish feel. When I decided on the changes I didn't know what any of the pedals were on a real PS. Laughing

One off topic thought... these days my dream single lap steel would probably be 7 or 8 strings and have a some hip shot tuners for quick changes between songs or sections. Anyone try that out before?

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Edit: sorry, I went off topic—I don’t have any experience with benders, though at one time years ago I thought it was something I’d want. I don’t feel that way now, but when you see how people love the videos of Luke (can’t remember his name), makes me think I missed the boat. Just kidding, but it is a specific thing that really is designed to emulate pedal steel, so a tuning close to a pedal steel tuning is most effective.

I am someone has checked out many, many tunings, orignally eschewing the C6 tuning for something more exotic. But after a lot of years of playing and learning, I have come to view C6 as sort of Eighth Wonder of the World. The tuning has built into it the three inversions of the C major triad and three inversions of its relative minor, A minor. You might say, “so what?” Well, having the inversions of the triads is far more beneficial than having one inversion of different triads.

It is very easy to turn a minor triad into a major or a diminished, and it is easy to turn a major into diminished, minor and augmented. All it takes is slanting, which becomes easier the more you do it.

I think if I sat down with you and showed all the differents chords I can easily achieve with the C6 tuning, you’d be very surprised. But like was said above, precision in picking and bar movement is paramount. Better to work on those things than to spend time on trying to figure out which tuning is best.

Here is a video of a pedal steel tune I adapted for C6. It is very slant heavy.

https://youtu.be/Hpdraa6zK0U?si=nEtKqpTSJ56oGRH6

I know I sound like a cranky old man now, like the ones I encountered when I started playing, but it’s partially because I am. Laughing

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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links

Stanislav Paskalev · From: Bulgaria

Gents, thank you all for your opinions on the matter!

Michael, you are absolutely correct - on both having more strings as well as on bending being the definitive pedal steel feature. I have made some orders and I should soon have an 8-string instrument which would certainly give me more harmonic options, straight and slant-bar alike.

Lee, thanks for the insights. My background so far is mostly in classical guitar and the short sustain of that instrument as well my preferred way of muting by the fretting hand has left me rather scarce on right hand blocking on the steel. I don't have benders either and I was wondering if they are a necessity for 6 strings but as I mentioned - I should have an 8 string in some weeks. No benders on it either.

Mike, great playing on that song! I agree that there's a lot to learn just by staying on the beaten path and C6 does seem like the most popular tuning. I can be a bit stubborn in my ways occasionally but I thoroughly enjoy going off the tracks to where there's less to no instructions and repertoire and then have fun discovering stuff. I spent some time mapping an 8-string version of the Cma11 according to my needs so I think I'll keep with it for now. I don't plan on getting rid of the 6string though so who knows - perhaps I'll heed your advice some day on it.

Cheers!
Stan

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