what would you do with 8 strings and 5 pedals?

[Mark Perrodin]

just curious and looking for opinions. i have a sneaky pete B6 fender 400 and was wondering what to do with another guitar that has 8 strings and 5 pedals. maybe a sacred steel variant? i dunno. please let me know what you think and why.
thx.
mark

[Rick McNamara]

Hey Mark,
You can probably guess what I’m going to say, but anyway! Tune it to E9 the bottom 8 so you have a G# on string #1and low B on string #8.

Pedal #1 raises the E’s(string #2 and #6) to F. - the F lever
Pedal #2 raises the B’s(string #3 & #eight) to C#.- the A pedal
Pedal #3 raises the G#’s(string #1 and #4) to A.- the B pedal
Pedal #4 lowers the E’s(strings #2 and #6) to D#.- the Eb/D# lever
Pedal #5 lowers the G#(string #1) to F#.- when used with pedal #4 gives you the
chromatic strings D# and F# of the 10 string guitar.

Apologies to Mr Green on not having the C pedal!

Apologies to you for having to spell out 8 because when I type #8) I get!

[Mark Perrodin]

thanks rick,
i thought i was gonna get skunked and get no answers but you came
through with a good tuning. thanks my friend.

[Ian Rae]

I don't know anything about Fenders, except that there are a lot of them around and they are much loved!

You'll always get encouragement on here.

[Fred Treece]

b0b had an unusual and interesting setup on his Desert Rose S-8
https://b0b.com/tunings/blee.htm

[Ian Rae]

Ingenious for sure, but Mark doesn't have five knee levers.

[Dennis Montgomery]

Hey Mark,
You can probably guess what I’m going to say, but anyway! Tune it to E9 the bottom 8 so you have a G# on string #1and low B on string #8.

Pedal #1 raises the E’s(string #2 and #6) to F. - the F lever
Pedal #2 raises the B’s(string #3 & #eight) to C#.- the A pedal
Pedal #3 raises the G#’s(string #1 and #4) to A.- the B pedal
Pedal #4 lowers the E’s(strings #2 and #6) to D#.- the Eb/D# lever
Pedal #5 lowers the G#(string #1) to F#.- when used with pedal #4 gives you the
chromatic strings D# and F# of the 10 string guitar.

Apologies to Mr Green on not having the C pedal!

Apologies to you for having to spell out 8 because when I type #8) I get!

I knew Rick would have the answer! Good to see you posting old buddy

[Rick McNamara]

Hey Dennis,
Good to hear from you. Hope all is well with you and the missus. I followed your vinyl wrap escapades with great interest. I hope to do a couple myself and was planning on turning to you for lessons learned.
I had been thinking about a 5 pedal copedent myself every since I started playing with Fender. I like the smoothness of rolling on and off the pedals versus a pedal and a knee!
So, Mark’s question was perfect timing for me!
Regards,
Rick

[scott murray]

I would set it up as close to Ralph Mooney's copedent as possible

[Dennis Montgomery]

Hey Dennis,
Good to hear from you. Hope all is well with you and the missus. I followed your vinyl wrap escapades with great interest. I hope to do a couple myself and was planning on turning to you for lessons learned.
I had been thinking about a 5 pedal copedent myself every since I started playing with Fender. I like the smoothness of rolling on and off the pedals versus a pedal and a knee!
So, Mark’s question was perfect timing for me!
Regards,
Rick

Hi Rick! We're doing good...though it's a little scary sitting at coronavirus ground zero up here near Seattle. Hope you and the family are all well.

Just let me know when you're ready to start your vinyl project and I'll get you heading in the right direction and help any way I can. I've just ordered a new piece of vinyl for my Mullen so I can redo the arm pad deck and back face. I just drastically cut down and reduced the size of the arm pad and now the vinyl that was under the original has some noticeable marks and scratches. Luckily I won't have to pull the neck or disconnect all the tuning rods underneath so this should be a simple operation

[Donny Hinson]

I would set it up as close to Ralph Mooney's copedent as possible

That would be great...but only if you really liked Ralph Mooney and the way he played.

[Fred Treece]

Ingenious for sure, but Mark doesn't have five knee levers.

It was just meant to get the wheels turning away from standard E9 stuff. With 6th tuning you could go something akin to pedals 4-8 on the back neck of a D10, or get more out there like b0b did.

[b0b]

I had a Fender 1000 and set it up like this, using 4 pedals on each neck. It's not hard to come up with a 5th pedal for either of them. One great thing about those Fenders is that it's so easy to try out new ideas.
<center>

</center>
Today I would go for a D6th because that's where my head's at.
[tab] P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
F# +G
D ++E -C#
B ++C#
A -G#
F# -F
D +D#
B
G ---E -F# [/tab]

[Ian Rae]

I take your point, Fred. What b0b has on the floor is pedals A,B,5,6 and 8 - but you could just as easily have 5,6,7 and 8 as he demonstrates. Fenders were programmable before the term existed.

We tend to regard the B6/E9 as the standard universal tuning, but Buddy Emmons viewed the C6 tuning as an E tuning down a third, rather than an Es-lowered B tuning up a half step.

b0b's D6 universal tuning embodies that philosophy (whether consciously only b0b can say) at an ideal intermediate pitch.

Sadly I'm too far gone down the 12-string B6 route to turn back now.

[Donny Hinson]

It's all personal taste, but if I were doing anything like E9th based country music, I'd have to have the chromatics on top. Whether or not you had 9th on the low end is optional for most country stuff.

[Dom Franco]

I added Knee levers to my Fender (cable actuated) pedal steel.

It's very easy, Just a simple 1x2 pine lever, small door hinge and a bicycle cable... They worked very well, (just as quickly and accurately as the pedals)

[Dennis Montgomery]

I added Knee levers to my Fender (cable actuated) pedal steel.

It's very easy, Just a simple 1x2 pine lever, small door hinge and a bicycle cable... They worked very well, (just as quickly and accurately as the pedals)

Yup. I did the same thing to my 400 with about $30 worth of parts from the Home Depot hardware aisle

[Ian Rae]

That's how the pioneers did it!
Without the invention of the wire coat hanger we'd be nowhere.