The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi All:

My S10 Carter is set up with a half tone lower on the 7th string (F# to F) which is on the A pedal. I could tighten the nut to lower 7 by a whole tone, but would have to adjust the pedal travel. So I think the previous owner intended the A pedal to raise 5/10 a whole tone and lower 7 a half tone .

I am trying to figure out the utility of this 7th string change. I have been reading a lot of historical posts on the forum but most of the 7th string discussions relate to raising F# to G or G#, often as an alternative to lowering the 6th string.

I have a B-Bb change on LKV which, if activated while pressing AB pedals, gives me (from strings 10 up to 3) C-D-E-F-A-C-E-A. But that doesn't seem particularly useful.

Would greatly appreciate the input if anyone has thoughts on this.

David

My guess is that it is supposed to function as a tuning compensator rather than a half tone lower. So it should only lower the 7th string by a few cents, to make the 6th of an A6th chord with A and B pedals down sweeter for example.

Thanks Niklas - I would not have thought of that…

The compensater is probably right, but as is it gives you something close to the P8 on C6. Thinking of it as C♯7alt -

High to low:
If you have D♯ → D on str 2 that puts the ♭2 in a more useful spot.

Agree, almost certainly a tuning compensator. You can tune that 7th string micro-lower by ear. Use the 5th string with the A-pedal down as your standard, and then tune the 7th string nut so that it sounds smooth against it. That's a fifth interval.

You only need the 7th string to drop a small amount to get it to work with string 5A. But this can open up chords and intervals you may have avoided in the past. Now you can really dig into that 7th string and it will be more in tune with certain other strings. Any chord with the A-pedal or AB down will like having that F# note compensated to be slightly flatter than it was before -- i.e. A6, F#m, DMaj7.

Of course, this all assumes you are NOT tuning to Equal Temperment. No compensation needed if you just tune everything 'straight up' on a guitar tuner. But most pedal steelers use a different tuning system, and we can get a tad more in tune with the F# string compensated slightly flatter for those times we step on the A-pedal.

Thank you gentlemen - extremely helpful. I am going to dive into the possibilities on that perfect 5th with the A pedal down.