Which neck do you guys play blues on?

[Glenn Demichele]

I play a D10. There are piles of "blues jams" in the Chicago suburbs, where everyone who owns a guitar shows up. I've done my share (willingly or not) as part of the house band on bass, or killing time on steel when I get tired of practicing at home. I'm not talking about "night life", "stormy monday", western swing or jazz changes - that stuff is obviously C6. I mean like "Crossroads" or Stevie Ray stuff.
Maybe this is a poll question.

[Pete Burak]

Think of it as the Robert Randolph zone.
On E9th use your F-lever, 3 frets up from open.
On 6th go 3 frets up from open with the lever or pedal or behind the bar bend that raises your C('s) a half step.
Slide into Arpegios over the 7th based chord forms, there is a thumb-strum thing he does, use maybe a slightly Bass-ee'er tone and Distortion to taste. Try to use the Distortion to crank the solo Volume up a bit more without being too Treble-ee.
I try to do some of these on my gigs on the Crossroads jams.

[Glenn Demichele]

Thanks Pete: Good tips. With practice, one can play any note on any neck, but I guess I am asking where pepple think it "lays" better. What's your go-to neck fot the blues stuff?

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

Extended E9. (E9/B6 U-12)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkSnoeT ... e=emb_logo

[Bill Hatcher]

i have a little 6 stringer that i can play some blues on. here is an old video of just jamming on some freddie king blues. im sure yall play this one at your blues jam. i need to learn stevie ray licks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKdeid_MBqo

[Glenn Demichele]

"Messin with the Kid" groove - just what I'm talking about. Nice Mike, I liked your ultra-low note ending and the crowd dug it too!
I've got a D10, and "Extended E9" to me means just taking a longer solo on the front neck.
I tend to play more single note lines on C6, but more "lick oriented" stuff on E9 (stuff like (in E) letting open E ring on string 4, and fretting on 3,2,1,0 on the strings below it.)
On E9, i have to be careful to avoid the country cliches, and on C6, the "6-bomb" can be fatal.
There are only a few country songs where I have trouble deciding which neck to use (like "Family Tradition"), but for ALL of those blues tunes, my head kind of spins when I try to decide. I wish I could sound more like Bonnie Raitt. Maybe that is more of an E9 thing, especially if a tune happens to be in E or A (how common is that at a blues jam?). i can cheat and use all the open string stuff.
I'm going to a blues jam on Tuesday - we'll see.
I am genuinely interested in everyone's opinions. Thanks[/b]

[Glenn Demichele]

Bill - that was great!!

[Douglas Schuch]

Lately I've been playing some delta blues style stuff on dobro - I use a 7-string dobro, tuned either GBDEGBD (G-6) OR GBDFGBD (G-7). Strings 2-7 on C6 pedal steel matches the first tuning except, of course, in C rather than G (all 7 first strings match if you use a high G on C6). I have a knee lever that raised the A string to Bb, which gives me the second tuning (Buddy had this lever on LKR in the coped here on the forum). So I should try taking some of those licks from the dobro over to C6 - have not tried it yet.

Bruce Boulton has a video promoting his "Rockin' Lap Steel" that sounds more blues than rock to me:

https://youtu.be/61SLYVw9wes

He uses a standard Dobro tuning (GBDGBD), and evidently used this tuning on Boot Skootin' Boogie by Brooks And Dunn.

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

If you want to play blues on a steel, especially a lap steel or dobro, you should listen to some of the old Mississippi bottleneck guitarists. Especially Fred McDowell.

There are a lot of videos of him. Here are 2 of my favorites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWIiagS ... e=emb_logo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64T6ugy ... e=emb_logo

[Pete Burak]

Thanks Pete: Good tips. With practice, one can play any note on any neck, but I guess I am asking where pepple think it "lays" better. What's your go-to neck for the blues stuff?

I play S12U so in Blues mode it is like One Big Tuning and anything from E9 or C6th is open game. I typically go for wide open 7th-chord positions, and come up with some blues-ee single note pockets around each 7th-chord position. It can be either E9th or C6th.
Another one I like, out of the AB down E9th position, is go up 3 frets with AB still down and use string-7 as the root and strings 4 and 5 as your blues-ee notes that you can squeeze the A-pedal into. Play strings 4-5 in this position like it's a Dobro lick (alternate thumb-middle really fast), then slide up two frets to the 4-chord.
Half pedaling the AB position makes for a blues-ee sounding 4-chord, too.
Two frets back from open on E9th with the B's lowered (LKV for me) is another 7th pocket I like to slide up or down to.
The thing is, you have to establish a third tuning within the confines of your existing D10 pedal and lever combinations, that allows you to go full on Robert Randolph at the drop of a hat.
I hope Dan Tyak will chime in. He is the local expert.
This player Roosevelt Collier is on my list of guys to watch and learn from for this style.
Check it out when he gets going around 1min 30sec. He would have no problem shredding through a Crossroads jam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nalfI4P-bkg

[Bill Hatcher]

i think one of the main things to work on when playing blues on the pedal guitar is that you need to lift up the bar a lot and do some "pointing";-) lots of single note stuff is done totally different than most pedal players who play traditional things. notice the bar that guy is using in the video...also RR uses that kind of bar. cuts on both side so you can grab it and lift it and point for single note stuff.
i like the shubb bar with the hook nose. easy to play single note lines with that. i wish i could find a longer hook nose bar for 10/12 strings. SP does not make one.

[Earnest Bovine]

i like the shubb bar with the hook nose. easy to play single note lines with that. i wish i could find a longer hook nose bar for 10/12 strings. SP does not make one.

Same here. Anybody know of something like this but a little longer than 3 and 3/8 inches?

[Bill Hatcher]

i like the shubb bar with the hook nose. easy to play single note lines with that. i wish i could find a longer hook nose bar for 10/12 strings. SP does not make one.

Same here. Anybody know of something like this but a little longer than 3 and 3/8 inches?

i talked to SP about making a longer version. they said they had received no demand for it, but if there was then they would.

thought about taking a RR bar and just machining a hook on the end and have that chromed. i also had some round bars made with grooves cut in the side, and one with grooves in the side and on the top for easy "lifting/pointing".

[Pete Burak]

I wish they would make an SP2 that is the length of the RR bars.

[Bill Hatcher]

I wish they would make an SP2 that is the length of the RR bars.

NO! bovine and me get ours first!!

[Larry Bressington]

E9, crank up that pre-amp a few notches.

[Jacek Jakubek]

i have a little 6 stringer that i can play some blues on. here is an old video of just jamming on some freddie king blues. im sure yall play this one at your blues jam. i need to learn stevie ray licks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKdeid_MBqo

Sounds great, Bill. The talent of people on this forum, including yours, blows me away sometimes. Mike's clip was good, too.

I can't speak from experience on the E9th vs. C6th for blues since I only play one neck. But, based on hearing others play, I think your choice of neck would depend on whether you want to add a little twangy country flavor (E9th) to your blues or a little smooth jazzy swinging flavor (C6th) to your blues. If you don't want to add anything and just play straight blues, I guess you could pick any neck and be careful to avoid any identifying pedal moves...or go with lap style, Bruce Bouton style.

Personally, I love it when players add the twangy country (E9th) flavor to blues and can't get enough of it. I want to hear them take it to the limit and only play country licks in blues, with a "blue" note thrown in here and there. In a different thread, another forum member called this "sounding like an E9th country guy trying to fake the blues" That's my thing at the moment and I don't care for straight blues anymore, though I admire when others can play it well.

[Glenn Demichele]

Hi Jacek:
Yeah, both necks have their traps that give it away that youre playing steel. I guess each neck has a different "accent". On which neck is it easier to speak the blues without an accent?

[Jacek Jakubek]

Hi Jacek:
Yeah, both necks have their traps that give it away that youre playing steel. I guess each neck has a different "accent". On which neck is it easier to speak the blues without an accent?

I would say the C6th neck...The E9th tends to sound a bit too "happy" for straight blues. Also, the C6th neck's lower register makes it sound better for blues.

[Travis Toy]

Well, you’ve got the same 12 notes on both tunings (E9th/C6th), or ANY tuning for that matter. As always, your ability to play different styles on any tuning, falls back to whether you have studied that style, and developed the correct repertoire that’s needed to play it legitimately. Either you have, or you haven’t. That’s pretty much it.

-t

[Douglas Schuch]

Same here. Anybody know of something like this but a little longer than 3 and 3/8 inches?

I tried an RR bar for pedal steel when I was having some hand issues to see if it was easier to handle. I used a grinder with a sanding pad to round one end so I had either a hard corner or a rounded "bullet" style end. When my hands got better, it sat unused. Then I bought a dobro. So I took the grinder back out and cut it shorter, then round the shape to something I liked. Here's the result (could use some more polishing, but works fine for now):




As you see, it is about 3" long - good length for my 7-string dobro. I kind of wish I'd left it slightly longer, actually.

To do this, you need sanding discs in a range of approx 60 to 200. Then you switch to wet/dry sandpaper. If you use it wet, try adding a drop of dish soap to the water - it keeps the water from drying off too fast and keeps the paper from clogging. But dry works. You will need 200, 400, 600, and 800 at least - even finer is better - 1000, 1200, 1500. Then use a good polish to finish. Or, of course, if you have a buffing wheel, that works.

So I'd suggest getting an RR bar and modifying it.

[Kevin Fix]

I play Blues on E9th and C6 both. Depends on the song or material. I like C6 mostly.

[Brian Hollands]

Greg Leisz - Extended E9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk4mtNFJL50
No idea what track this is or if it was ever released but obviously Leisz has put the time in and has the correct repertoire as TT says...

[Joseph Napolitano]

Looks like Roosevelt Is using a thumb pick, but no fingerpicks ?

[Bill Dobkins]

I play RY Cooder, Allman Brothers stuff with A&B Pedals down on my E9th neck.