Crawford cluster on C6

Parr Bryan · Post by **Parr Bryan** » 1 Mar 2006 7:10 am

I saw it somewhere but can't find it.

What are the pulls on the Crawford cluster that many of you are using on P4 on the D10?? I only use P4 with P8 for a Chalker chord on Tenderly and want something more useful.

What chords/progressions can be done with this??

Thanks for the help, yall, you guys.

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Danny Hullihen · Post by **Danny Hullihen** » 2 Mar 2006 4:13 am

Parr. The "Crawford Cluster" that you are asking about is a set up consisting of 10 knee levers, and 10 pedals. This set up was named after Jimmie Crawford. The Crawford Cluster didn't necessarily consist of any specific set up as an "industry standard" for the raises or lowers, as this was a matter of personal preference to what the player wanted. As an example, Jimmie used the 10th pedal for a raise on the E-9th neck that he found effective for him to use on his recording of Foggy Mountain Breakdown to give him the Banjo effect. In this case, he would take his right foot off the volume pedal to use it on the 10th pedal, and his left foot would still be used for pedals 1,2, and 3.

Although this may not be suitable for everybody, it definately worked well for him. Jimmie was a very innovative player, and was always experimenting with new things for the steel guitar. He was doing some really cool string changes over thirty years ago that many guys today think is actually something "new", when in fact, it isn't.

In any case Parr, what you might want to do with any particular knee lever or pedal is pretty much up to the individual player, and of course, the guitars mechanical capabilities and/or limitations.

There are many innovative players here on the Forum that have experience with some really great pedal and knee lever set ups that could probably give you some good ideas regarding the 4th pedal changes.

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 2 Mar 2006 5:56 am

You know, I've been considering adding a 0 pedal to my Carter to get the Fanklin changes. I also wanted to add a couple of pull to my knee levers.

But I hadn't even considered a right foot pedal 10. What an excellent idea. Now I just need to figure out what to put over there. Any suggestions?

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Gary Shepherd

Carter D-10

www.16tracks.com

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 2 Mar 2006 7:03 am

On pedal 10, in addition to the C6th changes, Jimmie raised the 1st string to G and the second string to E. On pedal nine (also in addition to the C6th changes) he raised the fifth string B to C# and lowered the 10th string a half step to B flat...

John McGann · Post by **John McGann** » 2 Mar 2006 7:09 am

Two very nice changes:

Doug Jernigan and others use:

lower 9 a whole
raise 8 7 6 and half

which gives an Eb7#11 chord in a different voicing than you'd get from p5 with a to Ab lever.

John Hughey uses this LKL; I put it on my p9:

Raise 10 a whole
Lower 5 a whole

That's a beautiful Dm9 chord; the 5th lower comes in handy for lines as well.

Then there's the 6th string lower which also great!

Check out the "tunings" section of the Forum for setups- there is a lot to daydream about there. You can also do searches for unusual setups used by Chalker, Hal Rugg etc.

One thing everyone seems to keep are the trad p5, p6 and p7. Those are the bread and butter pedals of C6 IMHO.

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http://www.johnmcgann.com
Info for musicians, transcribers, technique tips and fun stuff. Joaquin Murphey transcription book, Rhythm Tuneup DVD and more...

[This message was edited by John McGann on 02 March 2006 at 07:11 AM.]

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 2 Mar 2006 7:43 am

I have Jimmy and Doug's P4 John mentioned above,
Doug suggested it at ISGC,
and I went home and tried it.
I later saw it in the "manual of style".
It remains.
He showed me some nice hip turnarounds for it when I had a lesson with him the next year.

As I understand it a "Crawford Cluster" is
A right knee grouping of
LKL 1r & 2f, LKR 1r & 2f and LKV.

I believe that I have seen his steel with "2 Clusters",
one for E9 and one for C6,

Plus RKL, RKR and many pedals.

Ideally you can play most things with the 2 rear LKL LKR levers,
but also add the front levers by shifting forwards.

Jimmy seems to have been a master at
shoe horning in shafts and rods under his steels.

It appears that 12 levers is the practical limit.
How you choose to group the voicing possibilities,
is worthy of a lifetime of steel theory choices.

Parr here is an old forum thread on the CC http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/005371.html

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 02 March 2006 at 08:03 AM.]

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 2 Mar 2006 9:21 am

Jimmie only used the 'cluster' on his E9 levers. He used 10x10. Two clusters plus two levers on the right knee would be 12. His C6 'cluster' was just a LKL LKV LKR setup, as I recall.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 2 Mar 2006 9:36 am

That is correct, Larry, plus pedals 4-10...

I have played Jimmie's setup since 1979, with a few changes over the years on two of the knee levers.

Don't forget he tunes the second sting to a D...