Sierra Crown 25 Gearless 12 String

[Mr Bassman]

My son is a pro guitarist / teacher who has lost most of his work due to covid lockdown. On top of that he damaged his left hand index finger doing some casual landscape gardening.
He's into country music and had owned a pedal steel a few years ago so I suggested we look out for one to share, (I would be funding it).
5 weeks ago we acquired a used GFI Expo, which hasn't left my house yet, (I've been bitten!) so we've been on the lookout for another.

I now have a Sierra Crown 25 Gearless 12 String on loan with an option to buy. It belonged to a local musician who sadly passed earlier this year.
I'm not sure about the setup but we'd prefer to set it up to extended E9 so we can compare the two.

I've noted the current setup if anyone would like to comment on it. All advice welcome.

[Ken Byng]

Hi Keith
You will receive a lot of different advice about the setup you should have. Personally I would have the bare bones of an E9 setup on pedals 1, 2 & 3.

Pedal 1 would raise strings 5 & 10 a full tone to C#.
Pedal 2 should stay as it is - i.e. raising 3 and 6 to A. I would also raise string 11 on the same pedal to A.
Pedal 3 would raise strings 4 & 5 a full tone to F# and C#
Pedal 4 would lower strings 4, 6 & 10 a full tone.
Pedal 5 would raise strings 1 & 7 a semitone to G, and lower string 11 to G.
Pedal 6 would raise strings 5 & 10 to C
Pedal 7 would lower 3, 6 and 11 to G.
Pedal 8 would raise strings 5,6 & 7 a semitone, and lower the 9th string a full tone.

LKL I would keep as it is
LKR would lower 4, 8 and 12 to Eb
LKV would lower 5 & 10 a semitone to Bb.
RKL would raise string 1 a tone to G#, string 2 a semitone to E and string 7 a tone to G#.
RKR would lower string 2 a semitone to D, and go on to lower a full tone to C#. It would also lower string 9 to C#.
The Hand lever would lower the 6th string a full tone to F#.

Hope this helps, but be prepared for more suggestions.

[Mr Bassman]

Thanks for quick reply Ken

I'll have a poke around this evening