Pedal Steel Music

This is Bob Hempker with today’s newsletter.

I’ve had several comments pertaining to the newsletter comparing the Emmons versus Day setups on the E9th neck. One individual had an injured left knee and using the left-left knee lever to flatten his fourth and eighth strings was less painful on his knee.

This could be a reason for changing your setup either way. Someone else may experience more comfort or less pain with the Emmons setup. It would just depend on the individual.

I started playing when I was twelve years old, then started using pedals when I was fourteen. The Jimmy Day setup was more common back then than it is today. As a result I learned to play that way.

I thought of changing down through the years to the Emmons setup, but I know I would pretty much have to start from scratch and learn to play all over again. As a result, I’ve stayed with my original setup, that being the Jimmy Day setup.

I do a couple of outside the box things. For starters, I raise my fourth and eighth with my right-left knee lever and lower my fourth and eighth strings with my right-right knee lever.

My reason for doing this like this is because I don’t like the knee lever with the second string half stop on my leg that is on the volume pedal. I have a hard time feeling the half stop that way so I put it on my left leg. I have it on my left-right knee lever.

I lower my sixth string a whole step with the split tuner bringing it back up a half step along with raising my second string a half step on my left-left knee lever. I don’t raise my first string like almost everyone does. The prominent lick that it’s used for, it in my opinion, has gotten extremely redundant.

I do use a half step raise on the first string but I pull it with my little finger behind the bar. If you’re a brand new player, you should practice pulling strings behind the bar because it really makes you use your ear.

It’s great for ear training because you actually have to listen for the string to go into pitch rather than just push the knee lever until it hits the stop. Bar slants and reverses are also an aide to making our ears listen to what we’re playing. Half pedaling on your “A” pedal is also beneficial.

I lower my fifth and tenth strings a whole step with my fourth floor pedal. I can half pedal it on slow ballads if need be for a half step lower. I can take my allen split tuning wrench if I think to, in time, and turn the tuning screw on the split tuner of the fifth string a half turn and that is real close in the ballpark to the Bb note.

That fourth pedal is hooked up to both necks. It pushes a little harder and does travel a little farther than I like but you can’t have everything and I want that change there.

Sometimes we have to choose the lesser of two evils in order to get something we want. I like this change and sometimes I use it with my left-left knee lever. I would rather have the change with the pedal traveling a little much and pushing a little harder than to do without the change. In case you haven’t noticed, the steel guitar is an instrument with a lot of compromises.

I also lower my tenth string with my “C” pedal. I lower it down to A. With my “B” and “C” pedals depressed and my ninth string lowered a half step, I have an A6th tuning on the tenth through the third string. There are also some neat things to play with the fourth, sixth and tenth strings.

The change is also completely out of the way when I play anything else. Again, the pedal travels a little bit farther with that string added. I set the pedal a little bit higher than the second pedal which is my “A” pedal. They bottom together pretty well that way.

I raise my seventh string a whole tone with an up lever on my left leg. I like the sound of the major seventh being in the middle of the chord with the “A” and “B” pedals down or the major thirteenth with the “B” and “C” pedals down.

I’ve heard it said that a guitar will have slightly more cabinet drop using the Jimmy Day setup because your “A” and “B” pedals are closer to the center of the guitar. First of all, I play an Emmons LeGrande III which has the counter-force so I can tune out the cabinet drop with that.

I’ve had numerous other guitars and have worked on many other guitars with the Day setup on them and I find that the statement of more cabinet drop with the Jimmy Day setup is completely erroneous.

In my opinion, someone just starting to play should consider the Emmons setup because it is so much more widely used and you can sit down to someone else’s guitar usually and be able to play it without a lot of problems.

Having said that, if you find a physical trait that makes it easier for you to play the Day setup, by all means go for it. We need to be as comfortable as possible when we’re playing our beautiful instrument.

Our instrument needs to be tailored around us and not the other way around. If I ever have another guitar specially built for me, I will definitely be there to sit behind it with my playing shoes on and with my pack-a-seat before any knee levers are mounted on it so they can be fit around me.

It is much like having a suit tailor made to fit you.

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(615) 822-5555
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Closed Saturday and Sunday

Today’s newsletter comes from Dave Thomas. His reply to my previous newsletter is brilliant as far as I’m concerned.

Bob,

Thanks for your newsletter and ideas for “breaking out of the rut,” we often create for ourselves. Working for a music store, you may not be able to offer these suggestions, without them sounding self-serving, but one way I’ve found to stimulate my playing, interest, keep me practicing and learning is to simply, “go out and buy a new guitar.” Seriously, try it, and I’ve worked in more than a few retail music stores!!

How long have you been driving an automobile? Decades I bet; but remember the last “new” car you bought? Whether it was a beat to death, oil burning, 4-door sedan; or a brand new, luxury van to haul your equipment; for the first six months, you washed it weekly, rotated the tires, changed the oil religiously, and read the owners manual cover to cover. It was your pride & joy. After a year, it became just transportation, and after five years; that windshield chip, the rust on the fender, the noise when you turned left…well, they didn’t seem that big an issue.

New cars, like new guitars, need only be “new to you” to re-stimulate your interest in using them. In fact, it need not be a new car or guitar…often a repair or new accessory will do the trick. Get tires, an alignment & tune-up…fix the chipped windshield, repair the rusted fender and replace the worn out brake rotor…and see how much more you enjoy driving that five year old gas guzzler.

Similarly for guitars, try a new effect pedal, stomp box or amp…get an inexpensive lap steel, add a knee lever, learn the C6 neck, or even if you’ve played and taught for 40 years, take some lessons…and see how much more interesting it becomes to play, practice & learn the guitar.

A couple other ideas?

1) Teach. Most of us do, or at some time, have taught. It need not be teaching “Stairway to Heaven” to 30 teenagers a week, in black Metallica T-shirts at some national chain music store. Nor does it need be a lifetime commitment, or pay union scale for an hour lesson. Choose your venue…private lessons, group lessons, seminars, workshops, online video, whatever… Prepare for the lesson, take pride in the skills you’ve acquired and often; the benefit you receive, will far outweigh the effort and service you have provided.

2) Play unorthodox jobs. Mirroring your recommendation to sit in with bands that play differently than your normal style, try playing other, previously unfamiliar venues. Too often, when we play for a living, it becomes “just a living-what’s it pay, can I get leader or doubling fees, who’s the contractor, will they pay mileage or per diem?” I’m not advocating setting up on lower Broadway with a tip jar, spending every Sunday afternoon playing nursing homes, convincing the symphony that your rendition of “Yackety Axe” would be a hit for their Pops series or hitting the wedding circuit with “Trumpet Voluntair” or “Canon in D by Pachabel.”

Instead, grab a couple friends, and provide school convocations…funding cutbacks have nearly eliminated field trips, and often the arts in education. Call a prison and see if you can play a free concert…you’ll never find a more appreciative audience. Solicit and play MPTF jobs at the lunch hour…shucks, go back home for an evening and play hymns for an elderly parent. Playing unorthodox jobs is not about a studio player, switching to roadwork and stage performances. It’s about getting us out of the rut, and like teaching; the benefit you receive, will far outweigh the effort and service you have provided.

Just my 2 cents worth…

Dave Thomas

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Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday

This is Bob Hempker with today’s newsletter and some answers to questions we’ve received through emails.

I’ve been asked to compare the advantages and disadvantages between the Emmons and Day setups. In truth, they’re just two different ways to get to the same place. I would recommend that anyone starting out use the Emmons setup because nine out of ten players use it. That way, if you sit down behind somebody else’s guitar, it’s most likely you’ll be able to play it without any problems. All our guitars on the floor are setup the Emmons way.

If you’re already playing the Jimmy Day setup and are comfortable with it, by all means stick with it. I play the Day setup, have for fifty plus years and don’t see any reason to change.

We had someone ask about the best amplifier for a steel guitar. I haven’t found it yet. Personally I like the sound of the highs and high mids of a solid state amp. I like the sound of the lows and low mids of a tube amp.

Older is not always better. To me, dollar for dollar, the Peavey 112 can’t be beat. It’s not big and heavy. The size and weight of it allows a person to carry two amps if he so chooses. They don’t take up a lot of room on a small stage.

For those just getting started who may not know this, the Peavey has an effects loop in it which a lot of older amps don’t have. An effects loop reduces noise for one thing and the effects work cleaner. It makes it easier to insert more units in the effects chain.

Newer amps also have an XLR output which enables you to run directly into the sound board. I personally like the sound of a miked speaker better because I want the sound of the speaker with my tone. Going direct out through an XLR doesn’t give me the sound of the speaker.

However, understand there are situations where they demand that you go directly into the sound board. You’ll find the XLR output on the back of the Peavey 112.

If budget it not a concern, a tube preamp with a solid state power amp in a rack with a rack mounted effects processor can sound good. Some guys are opting for self-powered speakers and they’ll use a preamp with them. There are many options out there and different ways of going about this. Use your ear, your imagination and know what fits your budget.

I’ve been asked about tone. Tone is all so subjective. It depends on what style of music you’re playing, the limits of your equipment and your own personal tonal preferences. The room you’re playing in makes a difference.

I’ve played a show in the afternoon and been totally elated with the tone I got, then came back two hours later to play a second show and I hated the tone I got. Nothing had been moved or changed in any way.

I hate to paint anything with a broad brush and say this sounds like this and that sounds like that. Not necessarily. Everybody has an idea in their head what they want their instrument to sound like. We can’t really explain it but we know it when we hear it.

There is no Holy Grail of tone. As long as your tone is not bothering you, sometimes it’s best not to get concerned about it and just play it. Don’t get discouraged if on occasion your tone isn’t what it’s supposed to be. It happens to each and every one of us regardless of what equipment we use.

If it becomes a normality that you always hate your tone, it might be time to look at some different equipment. When you get new equipment, get the best equipment you can afford. The better you like your equipment, the better you’re going to like playing it.

Check out our Christmas Specials at www.steelguitar.net/christmasspecials.html
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday