C6 pedal 4 options

[Ryan Forster]

I know some folks use the standard P4 strings 4/8 A-B raise but I find it’s an under utilized pedal for me. I like the combination of P5 & P7 but not sure I want to double foot if I can avoid it. I have an old 73 sho bud with just the 1 knee lever on C6 which was set up originally to lower string 3 to B but found that raising it to C# was much more useful for me so I also made it raise string 7 to C# aswell. Anyway If I switched P4 with P7 I could then use it easily with P5 without double footing and could possibly change P7 to Raise string 4/8 from A-Bb for a solid dom chord as I don’t have another lever to put that change on. Would I be losing anything crucial by putting P7 on P4? Bit of a conundrum

[Andrew Frost]

You have to go where your heart says go, and do what works for you...
That said, I think the pedal 6&7 combination is pretty valuable. The string 2&3 action is similar to how BC pedals on E9 move, and can be very useful. There's also a Min(Maj7) voicing that is pretty crucial too in my view. Its min(maj9) actually..
C-Eb-G-B-D w/ 6&7 down.
The Dom 13 chord w 5 & 7 is cool but you can get that in other ways.
Leaving the original pedal 4 intact is one way.

[Ryan Forster]

Yah that’s a good point, I guess if I just have P4 raise the 4th string. A-B and don’t have it raise the the 8th string that would give me the Dom 13 I’m after. Never thought about those other combinations, I will have to play around with those.

[Dale Rottacker]

You have to go where your heart says go, and do what works for you...
That said, I think the pedal 6&7 combination is pretty valuable. The string 2&3 action is similar to how BC pedals on E9 move, and can be very useful. There's also a Min(Maj7) voicing that is pretty crucial too in my view. Its min(maj9) actually..
C-Eb-G-B-D w/ 6&7 down.
The Dom 13 chord w 5 & 7 is cool but you can get that in other ways.
Leaving the original pedal 4 intact is one way.

I agree ... I wouldn't want to give up that 67 combination, or having to double foot 4&6 to get it would be more difficult than the 5&7 combo.

If you don't use the 4th pedal as it is very much, might I suggest maybe changing it to a reverse 6 pedal. You may find it more useful AND, you can incorporate it with your 5th as well.

[Rich Cottle]

Is this guitar a double ten , with 8 & 8 ?

[Ryan Forster]

You have to go where your heart says go, and do what works for you...
That said, I think the pedal 6&7 combination is pretty valuable. The string 2&3 action is similar to how BC pedals on E9 move, and can be very useful. There's also a Min(Maj7) voicing that is pretty crucial too in my view. Its min(maj9) actually..
C-Eb-G-B-D w/ 6&7 down.
The Dom 13 chord w 5 & 7 is cool but you can get that in other ways.
Leaving the original pedal 4 intact is one way.

I agree ... I wouldn't want to give up that 67 combination, or having to double foot 4&6 to get it would be more difficult than the 5&7 combo.

If you don't use the 4th pedal as it is very much, might I suggest maybe changing it to a reverse 6 pedal. You may find it more useful AND, you can incorporate it with your 5th as well.

What do you mean by reverse 6 pedal?

[Ryan Forster]

It a D10 sho bud 1/1 changer with only 1 knee lever I can use on the C6

[Greg Cutshaw]

Pedal 6 raise the high E string and lower the low E string. A reverse pedal 6 lowers the top E string and raises low E string.

There’s another great option you can do on a D-10. You can take the traditional pedal three which is used only on E9th and add at least the top C6 A to B raise on that pedal three and then repurpose pedal four for something else as discussed above. The pull force required a
On pedal three is not bad at all. After all many people already have three strings on pedal 3 if they raise the third and four strings and also the eighth string on E9th. I took the eighth string E ninth raise off of pedal three and added the C6 fourth string whole tone raise on pedaland now I have the original pedal 4 change on pedal three and pedal four is freed up for whatever..

[Dale Rottacker]

You have to go where your heart says go, and do what works for you...
That said, I think the pedal 6&7 combination is pretty valuable. The string 2&3 action is similar to how BC pedals on E9 move, and can be very useful. There's also a Min(Maj7) voicing that is pretty crucial too in my view. Its min(maj9) actually..
C-Eb-G-B-D w/ 6&7 down.
The Dom 13 chord w 5 & 7 is cool but you can get that in other ways.
Leaving the original pedal 4 intact is one way.

I agree ... I wouldn't want to give up that 67 combination, or having to double foot 4&6 to get it would be more difficult than the 5&7 combo.

If you don't use the 4th pedal as it is very much, might I suggest maybe changing it to a reverse 6 pedal. You may find it more useful AND, you can incorporate it with your 5th as well.

What do you mean by reverse 6 pedal?

I'm sorry Ryan, but yes what Greg says below ... raising the 6th string E>F and lowering the 2nd string to Eb ... I think of it as a "Sus" pedal, which on C6th is not as available as on E9th. Putting that F in the middle of the tuning helps with that. Reece did that by lowering the 5th string G>F, which I also have.

[Andy Brown]

As others have stated, losing 6+7 might not be worth the switch. I typically don't use my volume pedal when playing C6 so I use 5+7 a lot. If you're looking for a different change on P4 I currently have mine setup to make a D minor 9 chord, basically pedal 5 but minor instead of major. For a time I also had P4 raising the high A up to Bb and lowering the the low A to Ab - this helped fill in some altered dominant chords when I only had the one knee lever on the back neck. Happy picking.

[Greg Cutshaw]

Here's an example the C6 reverse pedal 6 (which I mislabeled as pedal 7 on tab):

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/Tab/C6%20Re ... 302025.mp3

Tab in pdf:

https://www.gregcutshaw.com/Tab/C6%20Re ... 302025.pdf

[Ryan Forster]

Lots of great ideas here, I guess another bonus with keeping the original change A-B is if I use it with my C-C# lever (only lever I got on C6) I get a full Em6 chord on strings 1 thru 8 aswell as still being able to grab the 13 on string 4 with P5 (with that pesky rub of B and C on strings 3/4) just have to avoid hitting the 3rd string. The reverse P6 does sound interesting too

[Brett Lanier]

I just redid one of my guitars and landed on a unique setup for C6 that’s working quite well. I’m raising 4 a whole step on RKR, with the half tone at the feel stop. In order to get the whole step in tune I set it up to raise past B, then another rod on the same bellcrank in a lower slot. Same like you’d do for the 9th string when there’s no final lower screws. It took a bit of trial and error with the rod placements but both the D on E9 and Bb on C6 land in tune well. For pedal 4, I put a half tone raise on string 5, which is a change I’ve been thinking about for a while.

IMG_6830.jpeg

[Dan Beller-McKenna]

A little off topic as Ryan has only one knee, but one way to get the 6+7 combination and the 5+6 combination without double footing is to move pedal six to a knee lever. That also opens up a pedal to whatever floats your boat. I've had the following coped for about ten years:

coped.jpg

Note that I only have four pedals on C6: I use pedal 4 on E9. The following run down will be annoying because when I say "pedal 6" I mean the traditional function of pedal 5, etc. etc.

Putting the C-C# raise on the pedal to the left of pedal 6 (traditional pedal 5) allows me to have my tonic three frets above open with easy and immediate dom. 7 (release pedal 6), or minor (release pedal 5). From what I have read on the forum in the past, this recaptures some aspect of the high g string(?) With the sixth and second string changes moved to a lever, I can combine with pedal 7, but I can also easily combine traditional pedals 5-6-7 (my 6-7-RKL). I have become so used to this copedant that I probably forgetting other combinations it opens up.

One very big disadvantage to this is that I can no longer sit behind someone else's steel and play C6

[Andrew Frost]

Lots of great ideas here, I guess another bonus with keeping the original change A-B is if I use it with my C-C# lever (only lever I got on C6) I get a full Em6 chord on strings 1 thru 8 aswell as still being able to grab the 13 on string 4 with P5 (with that pesky rub of B and C on strings 3/4) just have to avoid hitting the 3rd string. The reverse P6 does sound interesting too

Ryan, I would offer that the rub with the 3&4 string, B and C notes, is actually very cool in the D13 chord. Having the 13 and upper b7 together can yield a beautiful voicing, Its there if you want it, and is definitely handy for melodic stuff.