The British Steelies Society

Hello BSS. I love the sound of pedal steel, lap steel and all things 'slidey'. All I need now is the right instrument..... (sorted in the lap steel department thanks).

What are the advantages/disadvantages of the 12string universal types as opposed to a twing neck ten please?

Ray

Hi Ray,

welcome aboard!

I am a recent uni convert but only from a single neck E9.

The advantages of a uni are you get most of both necks on one neck. You will inevitably lose a bit of both necks, but the single tuning you end up with offers more than either the C6 or E9 on its own.

But you also gain extra bits (like the use of the C6 pedal 7 in the E9 context which is great)

You also get a bit of extra range on the Uni: the E9 side of things you get an octave lower and depending on your setup some of the E9 changes can extend right down.
And you get and extra 4th on the top of the C6th.

The uni will be smaller and lighter than the twin neck.

You only have to change 12 strings rather than 20

There is less instructional material available for unis but it's not to hard to apply E9 or C6 lessons to a uni.

Unis are less standardised

hope this helps!

My first pedal steel was a 10 string 3x3 E9.

I consider it a great starting point and I am still using it for gigs:

Not too many changes (it's quite overwhelming starting pedal steel) and the 3 pedals 3 levers gives you a lot of changes.
Cheaper
Mechanically simpler to understand
Lighter


Henry

some info from Maurice Anderson

http://www.b0b.com/infoedu/future1.htm

Thanks Henry

I found this really useful, especially the link. As I'm used to playing lap steel in C6 and my Carter starter was in E9 I'm probably going to go for a D10. As you say, there is more instructional material available. However the idea of a universal is interesting.....who knows? I'll keep you posted.

Best wishes

Ray

Just like to say a huge thank-you to Brian and Kate who delivered the Curnow and assorted bits on Sunday. I now have a great steel!