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Author
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Topic: What is involved in changing an E9 set up to C6?
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Evan Elkin
Member From: New York, New York, USA
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posted 19 March 2005 05:30 AM
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Someone considering buying my GFI asked me and I'm not sophisticated enough about pedal steel mechanics and set up to give a quick answer. I think they are also wondering about cost. I appreciate any help you guys can offer here. thanks[This message was edited by Evan Elkin on 19 March 2005 at 10:32 AM.] |
Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 19 March 2005 05:59 AM
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Cost? $zero if the buyer is interested in doing the conversion himself. No new parts should be needed, I think. Or very minimal. (I've never studied the number of pulls on a standard C6 setup vs. E9).
Great way to learn steel guitar mechanism. But if he has no experience, it could be frustrating and borderline futile to get the right changer and bellcrank holes selected. A bunch of homework would be recommended. If it were me I would contact Gene Fields and see if he could provide me with a chart of this data (hole choices for C6) before starting.
I've done a fair amount of setup change and adjustment work on my Carter but never anything this extensive. I would estimate your total conversion job as a 4-5 hour task for me, maybe less. (Someone with more experience than me may chime in and say "in you dreams!")There's my answer--in my opinion very do-able. And best considered on a modern guitar like yours that is friendlier to setup changes (an assumption on my part--I don't know the GFI's underbelly).
[This message was edited by Jon Light on 19 March 2005 at 06:01 AM.] |
Evan Elkin
Member From: New York, New York, USA
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posted 19 March 2005 06:10 AM
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Thanks Jon - that's helpful. I wanted to be pretty realistic in my response to this potential buyer of my steel - he is a hawaiian slide player and a uke player who has never touched a steel |
John McGann
Member From: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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posted 19 March 2005 10:27 AM
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About 15 years ago i tried tearing apart an MSA (one of the easier ones to work on at the time) and learned how much i didn't know..with no one to bail me out locally, i shipped it off to Roy Thomas at Stringmaster who set it up right for me.To say that you need mechanical aptitude is an understatement. I used to work on my own car when it was a '71 Volvo, but nowadays, fuggedaboutdit...I can handle making basic changes on my Carter but would leave the real precision mechanical decisions to the experienced. Just my .02 ------------------
http://www.johnmcgann.com
Info for musicians, transcribers, technique tips and fun stuff. Joaquin Murphey transcription book, Rhythm Tuneup DVD and more...
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mike nolan
Member From: Long Island City, NY USA
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posted 19 March 2005 11:00 AM
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Evan,I believe that your GFI is setup 3 pedal and 4 knees. More or less standard C6 is 5 pedals and 2 knees. You can keep the 4 knees... there are lots of possibilities.... and add the 2 pedals. You could put 2 of the regular C6 pedals on knees and have all of the standard changes that way. For the first solution, you would have to buy and install the pedals , then rerod the guitar for the desired setup. For the second solution you would have to rerod the guitar for the setup. I don't believe that Gene uses guaged roller nuts, so the string guages shouldn't be a problem. Some C6 players actually like P5 or P6 on a knee, and many of them take P4 off.... so it could be done as 3 and 3. |
Evan Elkin
Member From: New York, New York, USA
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posted 19 March 2005 11:05 AM
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Thanks Mike, the Hawaiian musician who emailed me thru ebay with the C6 question did not end up bidding - appreciate the insights as usual |
Jay Jessup
Member From: Charlottesville, VA, USA
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posted 20 March 2005 05:08 AM
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This comes up from time to time on the forum and in case anyone else is thinking about it, you would need a few extra bell cranks and rods to convert a standard E9 to C6. You would have to do without the standard C6 4'th pedal and decide whether you want to 6'th or 7'th pedal on a knee lever. Doable but the Hawaiian player would have most likely found the scale and string spacing issue on a pedal steel not too slant friendly. Several real nice sounding Hawaiian tunings are available on standard E9. |
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