Best tuning for a D8 Multikord

[Kendell Scott]

Hey folks, looking for a little advice here. I just retook possession of an old Harlin Bros Multikord I traded to a buddy of mine for a mandolin about a decade ago. Was thinking I’d throw Helm’s E13 tuning on the front neck and Remington’s A6 on the back neck and pull off the pedals and cables, but before I do that I thought I’d ask the hive mind here what they all think. Am I destroying any potential resale value by doing that, or is there a good tuning I can put on the neck with the changer to utilize it for a few different tunings. Or should I just stick with my original plan to utilize it as a D8 console steel?

Thanks!

[Noah Miller]

The Multikord dates from an era before the modern pedal steel. Obviously they had steels with pedals, but the pedals were intended to change tunings for the whole song (or part of one), not to bend individual notes. Effectively, it was like having a console steel with multiple tunings available in each neck.

Heavy pedal use can strain the cables and even snap them, but they work fine if you treat them as a modified console. a 6th tuning works great - you can change it to a 7th with ease, or a minor 7th, or whatever open chord you want. Nothing wrong with E13 either.

[Kendell Scott]

Also, if anyone out there collects these things, I’d be interested in trading it off on a regular old console steel of some kind.