Plain 7th Chords on C6th Pedal Steel

If you've ever tuned a non-pedal steel to E7, you probably discovered these handy tritone positions that work over the 3 chords of a blues progression (key of G):

      C7  G7  D7   C7  G7  D7
G#____2___3___4____8___9___10___
E ________3________8_______10___
D ____2___3___4____8___9___10___
B ________3________8_______10___
G#____2___3___4____8___9___10___
E ________3________8_______10___
D ____2___3___4____8___9___10___
B ________3________8_______10___

Many pedal steel players have a knee lever (usually LKR) that raises both A strings of the C6th neck to Bb, forming a full C7 chord with the same intervals as the E7 non-pedal. Strings 2 through 8 then have the same “magic” tritone positions (key of E, # means raise):

       A7   E7   B7     A7   E7   B7
1   __________________________________
2 E ___3____4____5______9____10___11__
3 C ________4___________9_________11__
4 A ___3#___4#___5#_____9#___10#__11#_
5 G ________4___________9_________11__
6 E ___3____4____5______9____10___11__
7 C ________4___________9_________11__
8 A ___3#___4#___5#_____9#___10#__11#_
9   __________________________________
10  __________________________________

The Bb lever is engaged in all of these positions.

The standard P5 pedal lowers string 5 a half step, G to F#. Many players have a lever (usually RKR) that raises strings 3 and 7 from C to C#. If you use P5 and the C# lever together, you can fill in the gaps in the tritone positions. (In this tab, # means raise the string, b means lower it)

       A7   E7   B7     A7   E7   B7
1   __________________________________
2 E ___3____4____5______9____10___11__
3 C ___3#___4____5#_____9____10#__11__
4 A ___3#___4#___5#_____9#___10#__11#_
5 G ___3b___4____5b_____9____10b__11__
6 E ___3____4____5______9____10___11__
7 C ___3#___4____5#_____9____10#__11__
8 A ___3#___4#___5#_____9#___10#__11#_
9   __________________________________
10  __________________________________

Again, hold the Bb lever for all of the chords. Add P5 and the C# lever to create the full 7th chords in the tritone positions.

These positions are very useful for comping rhythm parts over blues changes while someone else is soloing. If you have a rotary effect, they sound very organ-like because they are similar to what keyboard players play with their right hand. This is an easy-to-learn system system that's fun to play in any key. Try it!