Hi Pastor:
Thanks for the response. You are the only one here whose tuning resembles my own. I find my G-major eight-stringer quite intuitive to play, a glorified Dobro tuning.
I have no formal music training, but picked up some info by using a number system for the chords, and pretending I am playing in the key of C, no matter which root fret I use. All the moves are relative, so I learned to play in only one key instead of twelve.
For instance a C is 1,5,3, an F is 1,6,4, an Am is 1,6,3, a G7 is 2,5,7,4 with 4 being the flat seventh, etcetera. I convert regular piano sheet music to my number system, and prepare some tab. I made a slide rule out of cardboard to simulate the tuning, and move the slides to see where the notes I need are, and what pedals to push. Some chords are achieved in several ways, but some configurations are simpler than others. I also made a computer program in Qbasic to sort out all the different configurations.
About 20 years or so before I built a PSG I bought a Mel Bay book by a guy named Don Sharp. Don's whole book use triads for every chord, except for a few single notes here and there. I don't think he ever used strings 1 and 2.
Meanwhile I raised the nut, and tuned a regular guitar up as DBGDBG. I got familiar with how to get a few tunes out of it.
I finally started off with building my first PSG as a single 12-string 3+5 traditional E9, and tried out Don's tab. I kept getting lost as to which set of strings to pick, and did a poor job on E9.
I took off 2 strings and bought a few more tutorial books. I made the fourth string bronze, and colour-coded the right-hand end of the fretboard with dabs of acrylic paint to help keep track of where I was. My playing still sucked.
I said bad words, added two more pedals, and retuned to traditional C6 with a wealth of knee-levers. Now I was all set to play something nice. What a laugh! I could fumble a few tunes on open tuning, but the grips were worse than the E9. More bad words.
I left the C6 to rot, and decided to use 8-string dobro tuning and built my second PSG. After experimenting with all kinds of pedal pulls, and adding the extra pedals, I came up with the copedant below. I have not swapped V and X pulls yet due to mechanical constraints, but intend to build a third PSG using Mac's double-ender design to facilitate easier tuning.
Meanwhile, I tuned the first PSG back to E9 to have another try. All the guys on youtube and in this forum play it so nicely, BUT MY E9 PLAYING STILL SUCKS BIGTIME!
I can finally play something on the GM, that doesn't sound too bad to me, but would never try to play before an audience. Some of the pedals and levers I don't use very much, remnants of the experiments.
My so-called C pedal provides a nice sequence of chords, playing in triads from top to bottom. The top 4 strings can be alternately used effectively in playing triads for that old style tune, "I'm In The Mood For Love", on the "funny, but when you're near me" line, progressing left from root plus two.
![GM-2011.jpg](./download/file.php?id=1071&sid=c27ab28871a613c9855b672a38f5f947)
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