The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi everyone,
I am about to go back to a D10 after years of B6th. I see lots of players have a whole raise on the 1st, a half raise on the the 2nd and a whole step lower on the 6th.

How do you use this?
Thanks in advance,
Rick

The 6th string lower is so useful you can regard it as essential.
Raising 1&2 is more of a gadget, not a basic change.

The G# to F# lower on 6 gives you the same movement in the no pedals position of releasing the 3rd of the chord to the second for that classic "country" sound that made the PSG famous, similar to releasing the A pedal in the A&B pedals down position.

Used with the lever that lowers the Es to D#, it gives a 5 chord (B) in the open (and 12th fret) E positions. Nice resolve from 5 chord to one chord.

If your guitar can do "splits", you combine it with the B pedal to give a G note. This makes the E chord an Em, and with the A&B pedals gives an A7 with a nice movement lower of the root note to a b7 note.

With that lever, you have the possibility of moving the 6th string through a 4 note range, F#-G (with the split), G#, A. I use this for some melody type moves. This is my 3rd most used knee lever and a necessary one for me. I would gladly give up the 2nd string lowers if I was restricted to 3 knee levers, and keep this one.

As for the 1st and 2nd string changes, I use them more for licks. One nice resolve from a 5 chord to a 1 chord happens when using strings 1, 2,5 (no pedals) which is a B chord, hit that lever and it resolves to an E chord.

There will be others chiming in with other uses, I'm sure.

I have always considered this pedal to be kind of a "two for one" combination of two pedals or two changes on just one knee lever. One change is the top two strings, the unison change. It raises the two chromatic strings to the same pitch as strings 3 & 4 high register strings. There's a lot of tricks and magic there. And the other change is the sixth string whole step lower G# to F#, which is used apart and not in combination with the unison change. As Ian and Richard are saying the full tone lower on string six is the more fundamental of the two changes. An example of a descending C major scale in fifths, using this lever, would be, at the 8th fret striking strings 4 and 6, no pedals; then simultaneously engaging E-flat knee lever (lower string 4) and the G# to F# knee lever, is the next note (down in the scale to B), then slide down two frets with both knee levers still engaged is your 6th note A, then down three frets no pedals same two strings is G, then down two more frets 1st fret, no pedals is F, and same two strings 4 and 6 with both knee levers engaged is E, (and just to finish the scale, play 5th string and 8th string at the first fret with A pedal engaged , and then release the A pedal and engage E-flat knee lever back to C.) So its possible to melodically lower both strings 4 and 6 at the same time without moving the bar, engaging the sixth string knee lever G# to F# lower simultaneously with the E-flat lower, is one use for that pedal.

Also, you need the 6th string lower and the E lowers on different knee levers to use them together.

Here's a recent discussion with a bunch more suggestions or comments about the two changes, and especially the G# to F# lower, used simultaneously with E-flat lower. They definitely have to be on different knees. For many people its a "squeeze", lowering E to E-flat with LKR, and lowering G# to F# with RKL at the same time. (Editted to correct, I lower my E's with LKR)

viewtopic.php?t=408455

Richard Alderson wrote: 4 Jun 2025 10:25 am Here's a recent discussion with a bunch more suggestions or comments about the two changes, and especially the G# to F# lower, used simultaneously with E-flat lower. They definitely have to be on different knees. For many people its a "squeeze", lowering E to E-flat with RKL, and lowering G# to F# with LKR at the same time.

viewtopic.php?t=408455

Or, for me being a Day setup player, I spread my legs. E lowers on LKL and the 6th string lower on RKL.

Thanks for the input. I was mostly curious about the raises on strings 1 and 2. I see lots of uses for the 6th string lowered a whole step.

I look at the F# to G# and D# to E raises on the top as a way to continue the motion of the bending up the scale. On String 2, from a lowered position, you could strike a C# raise it up 3 semi tones to an E and then hit an E on string 4 and raise it to an F# with the C pedal and then hit an F# on string 1 and raise it up to G#.