For the past year I had the E's split, now they are both back on the left knee. It seems to me that , although I did like the E lower on the RKL, future opportunities were being eliminated. I think it was Buddy who stated in a earlier post on this same topic that when the E's are split, it now takes two knee's to do the job of one. I recently acquired another guitar which has the E's on the left knee and I decided to leave them there as I have been fooling with some additional RKL changes which work nicely with both the E levers on the left knee. The unison pulls that are on the RKL are a nice addition to this guitar, a change that I can grow into.
Re: Bob, (2)Bad cause.../...Bob,maybe raising both E's with RKL works well for me because I use three finger picks,but it sure is nice having those extra Maj chords,Dim chords,& 7th's,via RKL. Remember, that is Lloyd Green's main lever. Just food for thought:Jimmy Day used the split E's,and apparently,so does Jimmy Crawford;therefore find which combination is the most useful to YOU! After you have bounced back and forth for a while and thoroughly tried them both ways,make an agonizing decision and stick by it! Only one alternative:Buy two steels;one with the split,the other without. Steel confused....W.C.
<SMALL>2) Bad 'cuz it wastes a lever( you would never raise and lower the E's at the same time.</SMALL>
Perhaps, but IMHO, just put them both on the right knee, and be done with it! From my point of view, and because these are (usually) the two most-used levers, it makes sense to get them both away from the left knee...kinda "divides the work more evenly" among both legs on the E9th.
Of course, the ADVANTAGE of splitting is that you can make the two-note swing (E flat to F or vice-versa) without a pause in the middle. This is a nice change sometimes....
On a push-pull, you can REALLY get it smooth -- you don't even have to let off the Eb lever since raises predominate. In the A+F position, you can get the same whole tone movement (3rd to 2nd scale tone) you get pedals down by releasing the A pedal or in the open/no pedals position by lowering the 6th string G# to F#.
I don't use it often because there are other ways to do the same thing, but it's one advantage of having the E raises and lowers on different knees. My personal feeling is that you will probably play what you started with, but, for a U-12 setup, I think there are some serious advantages. I know there are uni players who lower E's on LKR, but I always try to convince new universal players to lower E's on their right knee (RKL or RKR both work fine).
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<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro
Curly Chalker didn't lower his fourth string with eighth, in fact, he didn't lower it at all. When the eighth was lowered, the fourth was raised to F# and Lloyd doesn't lower his fourth either at all. It could be a throwback from the old permanent tuners that moved up or down, not both.
If you split the E's it might be a good idea to raise 9th string D-Eb together with 4th string E-Eb (compare w/P6 C6)
Along with the 8th string E-Eb you might have Eb-C# on 2nd string if that is not on another knee-lever.
Just my thoghts
Donny, just curious, Do you have both E's on the right knee ? Do you have the second string 1/2 step and full step lowers on your Steel and where are they so that you can use them with A or B pedal ?
By putting them on separate knees, you gain a full-tone change in the AF position. I use that all the time. It's very fast, like a pedal. You release one while you engage the other.
I lost one useful position for an augmented chord when I switched. I haven't noticed any other combination that I lost. The gain of that full-step change outweighed the rarely used augmented, so I kept it.
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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)
Roland Handsonic
