by henry » Thu Apr 11, 2013 1:31 pm
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