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Topic: Crawford Cluster Adjustments on Left Knee |
Jeff Rady
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 13 Jan 2019 3:27 pm |
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Hi All,
I recently bought a new E9 steel with a Crawford Cluster on the left knee, basically two inner knee levers, a vertical knee lever and of course the standard E lower and raise levers. How do you adjust the inner and outer knee levers for optimal use and any technique tips for not catching two levers at once? Any advice would be great! Thanks! JR
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Williams Guitar Purveyor, Owner of jeffsguitarandsteel.com |
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 13 Jan 2019 4:03 pm
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This comes from Winnie Winston's great book, Pedal Steel Guitar: A Manual of Style, page 43:
Jimmie and later some others used LKL-Rear and LKR-Front as the "main" levers (for Crawford, LKL-Rear was E>F; LKR-Front was NOT E>Eb, but string 2 D>C#, and string 6 G#>F#).
So he'd push his knee forward to grab the staggered lever LKL-Front, and pull back to grab LKR-Rear.
Mickey Adams and I both use just 1 staggered LKL-Front, using that as a secondary lever. If I had 2 on LKR, I'd pull back the way Crawford did.
Buck Reid pulls back for both of his dual staggered levers, and they're spaced very close to the main levers in front of them.
Other players do the opposite, it just works better or feels right that way. So all this is a highly personal choice, one of the things I like best about pedal steel: near infinite variety in tunings, & pedal and lever setups.
Of course, that does create confusion and bewilderment in many beginners, which is way so many players just stick with a pretty stock setup.
Hope this helps, Jeff!
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E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net |
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Jeff Rady
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 14 Jan 2019 9:34 am
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Hi John,
Thanks for the advice. My rear LKL raises string 1 a half step and lowers 7 a whole step. My rear LKR lowers G#'s to G on 3 and 6. The only way I can get it to engage without engage my main LKR lower e's is to get on my the ball of my foot, which seems nuts, but maybe that's normal.
What does your Cluster do?
Your LKL front which is normally and E raise, does something else and then you lower with your rear staggered?
Thanks,
Jeff
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Williams Guitar Purveyor, Owner of jeffsguitarandsteel.com |
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 15 Jan 2019 5:57 pm
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Here's my current extended E9 copedent, Jeff.
A staggered lever on the LKR is probably the hardest of all to use. Note my LKForward, which is a bear to use.
In my next copedent, I'm rearranging changes a bit, trying to stick with "just" 6 levers and get as much as I can working as well as possible. It's a tricky balancing act.
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E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net |
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John Macy
From:
Rockport TX/Denver CO
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Posted 15 Jan 2019 9:56 pm
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Here are Jimmie’s thoughts...
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John Macy
Rockport, TX
Engineer/Producer/Steel Guitar |
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