Which eight?

[Tony Boadle]

Having repeatedly tried to make some progress on pedal steel (four attempts over the years, four defeats!), I decided to try one more time. I purchased a Hudson six string, two pedals and two knees. Tuned to the middle six of E9, it's been an absolute revelation. With just six strings to focus on, everything is suddenly easier and makes more sense. I'm actually amazed at my progress.
I recommend to anyone starting out and struggling, cover the top and bottom two for a while and try with six.
I've already switched my six-string square neck reso to E9, next I'm planning on doing the same with my eight string Goldtone....
which brings me to my question. With eight strings now available, should I add the E9 top two, the bottom two, or one of each?
Hopefully it will progress to a ten string PSG eventually, in the meantime, I'll be happy to pick six and eight.
PS: I know this might all seem a bit unorthodox, but it's working for me!

[Barry Anderson]

I would add the top 2. They give you scale tones that are otherwise hard to find, and if your ultimate goal is getting to 10 string PSG, wrapping your head around those strings would be more valuable than having the lower octave B on string 10 and the dominant 7 on string 9. In other words, you get more different stuff by adding the top 2 as opposed to the bottom 2. Plus, you might start to understand the value of having the knee lever that drops string 2 a half tone once you start playing around with those strings.

At last that's my take.

[Bobby D. Jones]

Against a 6th string E.
Adding 7th B, 8th G#, Would be a lower octave of 4-5-6 on a 10 string E9th.
Edit:
This set up would only be useful with pedals to pull to 7 to C# and 8 to A.
On a non pedal 8 string guitar, 7 C# and 8 A would fit better.

[Paul Strojan]

A lot depends on whether you have benders. I tuned my guitar: G#, E, B to C#, G# to A, F#, E, D, C#. But the low notes only really work with the benders. The thing that I find missing is the scale notes. I would recommend finding a place to put the C# in the tuning some where whether it be a C# minor F#, D#, G# E, C#, G#, F#, E or a E6 F#, D#, G#, E, C#, B, G#, E or F.

[Steve Lipsey]

Tony-
Thanks for posting this...it got me thinking! (so I'll hijack this thread because you all are thinking also)

Using multiple instruments with different tunings for the same material is a challenge, especially for melodies and unique riffs for the tunes..

I've been keeping my lap steels in dobro tuning so that I can go back and forth between them without having to think....but now I'm in pedal steel bands where the lap will only go to duo gigs that the pedal is too big for.

I tried Vestapol, open-E, which was pretty good but still too different from pedal steel tuning....so I dropped the bottom E and added the top G#, and wow, all of a sudden all my melodies just play the same on both. The classic 6 string grips is the way to go, and has an interesting and useful repeating pattern like on dobro (lo to hi): B E G# B E G# (this is the tuning for Jackson 6-string pedal steels also). and they are strummable!

A forward slant on strings 3/4/5 gives me the A+B pedal (with split slant for the minor, B+RKL), backward slant on 4/5/6 gives me RKL+LKR. ..Now I need some other ways to duplicate more pedals/levers.

Any ideas?

p.s. To answer the OP's question, I'd think more about how to string and slant to duplicate pedal steel stuff....

[Tim Toberer]

I tried Vestapol, open-E, which was pretty good but still too different from pedal steel tuning....so I dropped the bottom E and added the top G#, and wow, all of a sudden all my melodies just play the same on both. The classic 6 string grips is the way to go, and has an interesting and useful repeating pattern like on dobro (lo to hi): B E G# B E G# (this is the tuning for Jackson 6-string pedal steels also). and they are strummable!

A forward slant on strings 3/4/5 gives me the A+B pedal (with split slant for the minor, B+RKL), backward slant on 4/5/6 gives me RKL+LKR. ..Now I need some other ways to duplicate more pedals/levers.

I have no help for the original question, other than if your goal is to play the standard 10 string Nashville tuning probably the highest 8. If you are happy with 8 strings and a few changes maybe also check out Bud Isaacs copedant. More of a classic country sound and no high G# which to me is a little bit too high.
This reply also got me thinking a cool 8 string lap steel, resonator, or pedal steel tuning would be (lo to Hi) E-G#-B-E-G#-B-E-G#. I like that it is strummable and has a wider range than a typical 10 string pedal steel, and for soloing it is repeated intervals. I have never heard of anyone using this.

[Tony Boadle]

Thanks team! Plenty of reading here and some interesting comments. All much appreciated
Regards from Ireland!