Fender 1000 Copedent

[Lee Rider]

Hey: I recently acquired a short scale Fender 1000. I'm going to have Gene Parson add 4 or 5 knees to it. He also devised a way to add additional adjustable pulls since this guitar is single raise/single lower. He'll also add adjustments to the return springs. Played it a bit and it sounds great. They have their own sonic signature that I find very pleasing.

I play a Bowman SD-10 3x5 push/pull now. My mind just can't wrap itself around the high chromatic strings (rarely use them, do exercises working on them, but I think my 70 year old mind thinks in a more linear pattern), so, since the 1000 has (2) 8 string necks, I was going to leave those two string off and do the same copedent (E's on left, RKL raises 7 and raises 1, RKR lowers 9 and 2, RLV lowers 5 and 10). Since I'm leaving off 1 and 2, Ill have some extra pulls on those levers. I'd also like to do a Franklin pedal. Please chime in if this seems crazy.

On C6, I'll have either 4 or 5 pedals plus room on the right knee levers for changes. I have played a bit of C6 pedal steel in the past but it is not ingrained into my head, so a bit flexible on that side. Again, not looking for string 1 as a re-entrant, but would like to use the right side knees on C6. Would like to play western swing and some American Song Book stuff on it. Any help on copedent for the C6 side of things would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks to all,

Lee Rider

[Andrew Frost]

Hi Lee

I've experimented with a C6 set up that has F as the lowest string. No low C. This might work well on your 8 string back neck.
You could leave off the re-entrant D on the first string. So just the inside 8 strings of standard C6. FACEGACE

I think a lot of the richness of C6 actually comes from having the F underneath it, arguably more so than the low C.

Just my 2 cents here, but I found with that F on the bottom, I could drop it to D on pedal 5 a bit like a boo-wah.
It becomes the root of the D9 on P5. There's a sharp9 chord at the top p5&6 as well, and that F to D drop works great with it.

Sounds like a great guitar.

AF

[Lee Rider]

Hi Lee

I've experimented with a C6 set up that has F as the lowest string. No low C. This might work well on your 8 string back neck.
You could leave off the re-entrant D on the first string. So just the inside 8 strings of standard C6. FACEGACE

I think a lot of the richness of C6 actually comes from having the F underneath it, arguably more so than the low C.

Just my 2 cents here, but I found with that F on the bottom, I could drop it to D on pedal 5 a bit like a boo-wah.
It becomes the root of the D9 on P5. There's a sharp9 chord at the top p5&6 as well, and that F to D drop works great with it.

Sounds like a great guitar.

AF

Thanks Andrew, that is the exact kind of advice and direction that I am looking for.

Best,

Lee Rider

[Paul Strojan]

I have a Fender 800 and 1000. The first thing to understand is that the knee levers are a bit firmer than a more modern steel guitar so I would recommend adding a center set of knee levers for the C6 neck.
On the E9 neck, I would recommend putting the Gene Parson’s reverse Franklin change on Pedal 0: Raising string 6 G# to B and string 7 F# to G#. And putting the Franklin change on your RKL. That way you can have 4 and 5 half steps of movement available.

[Lee Rider]

Thanks Paul. Did Gene set your steels up?

[Paul Strojan]

Correction, I have an 800 and 2000. Single and Double 10 guitars.
I took my 800 to Gene to give it a going over. Fortunately, the guitar was not in need of any work. I could set up my 2000 on my own but I would like to see how Gene’s knee lever set up is.

[Paul Strojan]

A quick thought, on the F raise lever you might want to have the top raise go to F# instead of F to compensate for the lack of the chromatic strings.

[Lee Rider]

Thanks Paul. Fortunately it is pretty simple to change copedents so I'm sure it will be a work in progress! Had dinner with Gene and Star tonight for my 70th!

Best,

Lee Rider