E9 / B6 10 String?

[Derrick Phillips]

Hey Folks,

I've been leaning towards getting an Emmons - and been looking for a 12 String, not having much luck. I'm not at the point of giving up the tuning, but If I find a nice D10 Emmons, might be hard to pass up.

Another thought was to setup an Emmons 10 like the top 10 strings on a 12 - remove string 9 (D) and have a G# B E as my bottom 3. Lower my Es and I'm good!

On my Mullen SD12 Uni I've gotten very comfortable with the Full Tone lower on my String 8 (E) to get the D note. But to obtain that setup would require updating of the guitar - and I'm not sure how hard those Emmons are to work on - or adding the additional pedals to get the C6 P7 P8. Changes on my Mullen SD12 are a breeze.

Any thoughts on this setup? Bad idea / great idea?

How hard is to find and add pedals and the required plumbing to make changes work?

[Max Lee]

I'm still getting up to speed with 12 string E9/B6 but you might reach out to forumite Jon Jaffe about this (Paging Dr. Jaffe. . .). I think that he spec'd his Ross-Sierra to be a 10 string E9/B6 copedent as you have described. At least he definitely drops the low bass strings off and keeps the basic newman pedals and KLs.

I'll let him provide specifics, but I do know he gigged the full 12 string setup for years before paring down to the 10 strings he needs for his gigs. So the concept must have merit!

[Ian Worley]

I have an S10 PP that I set up this way, it works really well as long you don't need those low notes. It's much simpler than a typical uni, 4+4, but covers a lot of ground. There are a lot of discussions about the general concept on the forum, lots of different ways to skin the cat. Have a look at this one from a few years back: viewtopic.php?p=3047730#p3047730, I posted an explanation with the rationale for this particular copedent.

[Bob Hoffnar]

One thing to keep in mind is that lowers can be a bit more difficult on a PP. For a versatile 10 st tuning you might want to look at some sort of E13 tuning.

I used to play a U12 and had a fantastic Emmons PP set up by Bobby Bowman. You can put any changes you want on them if you are willing tune from the undercarriage. Those Emmons 12st steels pop up every once in a while.

Excel made a very very cool 10st that can switch between tunings that might be worth looking at. Dave Easly uses one and its impressive.

[Dennis Detweiler]

Ian's tuning would be a good compromise and close to what I would do. I would add a Bb lower on the 5th string LKV and tune my 2nd string to open C# and raise it on a knee (just a preference option). Putting the Eb and F lever on the right knees gives one extra knee combination to the B6 tuning.

[Andrew Frost]

E9/B6 on 10 strings is a good tuning.

The low G#/B/E on 10/9/8 can morph into a number of different pedal/lever configurations that compliment the rest of the tuning..

I do think there's an elegant functionality to having the standard BDE on the bottom, but I switched to E9/B6 (w G#/B/E ) a few years ago and find it to be very practical and intuitive.

I raise string 6 G#-A# on pedal zero. It works great on its own, and with the A pedal and/or E lowers/raises it creates a sort of F# tonality across all strings-
F#9/F#6/F#13/F#maj7 etc...
A bit like ped4/ped7 on C6 but its really its own thing...
I like how Ian raises both 6 and 10 to A#.
I've found dropping string 10 G# to F# on that same zero pedal along with the A# raise to be a great way to have a low root on a handful of voicings.

[Len Amaral]

I had a 10 string Justice made with E9/B6 that had 5 pedals and 6 knee levers. Sorry I sold it. However, I had an order in for an Emmons D-10 Resound and changed the order to two 10 string E/9-B6.

I have played a 12 string with the Jeff Newman setup for many years. The 10 string will have the basic Newman setup minus the pulls on that were to be on the 11th & 12th string.

Looking forward to receiving these guitars. If you want that Emmons sound, you have to have an Emmons.

Lenny

[Steve Lipsey]

You might consider getting a Shoji...it isn't an Emmons, but the solid metal internal body and things like solid metal pedal stops inside the body do lend some additional tonal benefit (I love mine)...and Toshiyuki can make you one with however many strings you want and it can be Uni or he can add a simple B6 shift lever or even a really clever sophisticated E9/C6 shifter that repurposes the levers for the tuning...
https://www.shoji-workshop.com
shojikobo@gmail.com