OK b0b, I'll bite.
I'm surprised to see the webmaster start a thread with such baiting comments. Is there some kind of dire need to prove it to be a wrong statement, or call me a liar? Just like calling it a "reverse universal, which got your undies twisted because "universal" in pedal steel context has "rules" - and adapting the term breaks the rules. Heavens! Can't have that, can we?
b0b - I run the Fender steel forum. It's a small forum with limited activity, but growing nicely. I get 5-10 emails a week from members (or Steel Guitar Forum members) looking for advice on 1) finding playable Fender steels, and 2) setting them up once they have them.
2/3 of the setup questions concern B6, not at my prompting, although when I am asked, I DO suggest it to 6-string players transitioning to steel via a Fender...because they have a thing for vintage instruments...and for a 6-stringer it's an easy tuning to grasp, as is the copedent. Most E9 players I recommend various E9 or D9 versions since they're used to them, although many of those are specifically asking about B6 and "shorthand" versions for 4 or 6 pedal guitars.
Other players seem to send folks to me for advice on these guitars - not because 'm any great shakes as a player, but because I've built 3 from various loose parts and modified half a dozen of so others (plus serviced a few personally and "talk-teched" my way through repairs or mods with a couple dozen players by phone or email).
So I think I have a decent handle on what's out there, including many players who have never visited either forum (there are many, many guitar players and other musicians that do not frequent internet forums) but have been referred to me.
B6 is *one* of the popular tunings, and simply because of Sneaky Pete, whose name is pretty familiar in the country-rock and alt-country circles, plus in much of the classic rock world. To many players in those genres, he's the only player's name they are familiar with, and I can't count how many times I've corrected the impression he played the steel parts on the Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo (all the members of my current band, guys in their 40's & 50's thought that was the case).
So what I've found is Fender players coming from traditional steel usually want some type of E9 or D9 - if not that, they want B6 and very rarely "normal" C6.
A few try the A6 in the Fender manual but don't stay with it long.
Players coming TO steel for the first time via Fender seem to gravitate to B6, some instead choosing E9. Many of those players, though, get run off by 10-string E9 players who insist they are "crippled" by the lack of chromatic strings, the need for modification to add absolutely critical knee levers, the lack of double-raise and lowers...so if they stay with the Fender they switch to B6, usually because they can find guys who can support them with it (many of us on the mechanical/setup/mod end, and the absolute genius Ed Bierly who posts tab in B6 pretty much on request.
I wonder how many people it takes to make a copedent "very popular". I might be wrong, but I doubt that there are more than dozen players worldwide who use this copedent on their main axe.
"How many" is enough that I'm answering the inquiries noted above; and your "dozen players" is off by a wide margin, although I can't give you an estimate that would be accurate.
Polling the Steel Guitar Forum will get YOU the answer YOU want though - because you're preaching to your choir, b0b. Many of the B6 guys I know are not members of the forum - they do not feel a warm welcoming committee is exactly hanging out waiting for them when they've looked at the forum's history. It does not take a lot of reading to see what most "real" steel players think of B6...or Fenders in general, for that matter. At the LA steel "jam" (a weird term for what actually occurs) I had a friendly but pointed lecture about how crippling 8 strings and the B6 tuning is. I left with the feeling I was glad I came - once.
This thread continues more of the same old thing: a "real" steel player baiting the hook and creating conflict where the folks on the other side...the "not real steel" players...couldn't care less what you think but certainly will take the opportunity to expose the incredible ignorance.
