I usually tune my 6-string lap steel to open-E (EBEG#BE,) and I will often slide up to the V chord, then with my 3rd and 4th left hand fingers, I will pull the 2nd and 3rd strings up. I can bend the 2nd up a whole step (from B to C#) and the 3rd string up a half step (from G# to A,) which then makes your I chord. It's a basic thing to do that on a pedal steel, just push your A&B pedals down, but I don't think you can get it on a lap steel, even with a slant.

I can't be alone on this, in fact I know for a fact that I stole the idea from Junior Brown. Anybody know who he stole it from? I play pedal too, but I like to be able to take just a little 6-string lap on gigs, and this little trick lets me get some licks that would otherwise be impossible.

Thanks everybody
Matt Farrow

Matt

It might be worth trying a 6th tuning: the bending possibilities more than double. With a six-string it means less range, of course.
Since you play pedal steel, you already have the knack of skipping strings, which can be a problem when playing blues and rock in a 6th tuning. You might try an E6 tuning (adding a C# somewhere) or a G6 tuning, both a little more like open E than the standard C6.

At any fret, you can get I6, I7, vi7, VI7, and IV chords by bending just one string, a o7 by bending two at once, and a IIIm or IM7 if you can manage a whole tone bend, plus various suspensions and incomplete 9ths and so on.

[This message was edited by John Kavanagh on 15 February 2001 at 07:50 AM.]

I first started doing it in the 1950s on my Dobro. Seems to me Kenny Haddock, dobro player here in the Washington D.C. area also did it, but I think it was first tried on steels/dobros right after Bud Isaacs arrived and changed the world with the PSG, which was about 1952.

I can recall the surprise it got one night after I had put on heavier replacement strings before a gig. The first time I tried a pull, I got quite a look from the guys since I couldn't even make it up a 1/2 step. I also thought my finger was also going to explode while trying! I gave it up that night and figured out what my mistake was the next day. It had never entered my mind the difference a slightly heavier string would make.

On some licks, I pull and release quickly only for the count of the single note I'm playing. Try that on the third note of "Faded Love" Pull on the third note and release for the fourth.