Copedent is a table used to describe the tuning and pedal arrangement on a
pedal steel guitar

Pedal steel guitar

The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...

. The term was coined by Tom Bradshaw in an early 1970s article in Guitar Player

Guitar Player

Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...

 magazine. It is short for "ChOrd PEDal arrangemENT". According to Bradshaw, the term is pronounced "co-PEE-dent". A complete copedent includes string gauges, and whether a string is plain or wound. A complete copedent also indicates the degree to which a string is altered, using "+" to indicate a half-step raise, and "-" to indicate a half-step lower.

A standard E9 single-neck pedal steel guitar's copedent is charted below. Pedal steel players who play country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 most often use an E9th tuning. The particular copedent first listed below is commonly referred to as an "Emmons set-up." Another common copedent, the "Day set-up," is almost identical, except that the functions of Pedal 1 and Pedal 2 are reversed. Another common copedent utilizes the C6th tuning. Most steelers use one or both of these two copedents. However, many steelers create their own unique copedents.

String	Gauge	Pitch	P1	P2	P3	LKL	V	LKR	RKL	RKR
1	.012p	F#	-	-	-	-	-	-	++G#	-
2	.015p	D#	-	-	-	-	-	-	+E	-D/--C#
3	.011p	G#	-	+A	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	.014p	E	-	-	++F#	+F	-	-D#	-	-
5	.018p	B	++C#	-	++C#	-	-A#	-	-	-
6	.022p	G#	-	+A	-	-	-	-	--F#	-
7	.026w	F#	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	.030w	E	-	-	-	+F	-	-D#	-	-
9	.034w	D	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-C#
10	.038w	B	++C#	-	-	-	-A#	-	-	-

Most pedal steel guitarists play steel guitars with two necks. These instruments use the E9 copedent shown above on the neck farther away from the player. The neck nearer to the player is tuned to C6, and five more pedals change the pitches of the strings on this neck, as shown below. Steel guitarists use the C6 neck for playing in a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 or Western Swing

Western swing

Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...

 idiom. The tuning makes it easier to play the more complex chord voicings commonly associated with these kinds of music, and the heavier strings contribute a "thicker" or "fatter" tone.

String	Gauge	Pitch	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5	P6	P7	P8	LKL	V	LKR	RKL	RKR
1	.012p	G	-	-	-	-	+G#	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	.014p	E	-	-	-	-	-	+F	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	.017p	C	-	-	-	-	-	-	++D	-	-	-	-	-B	+C#
4	.020p	A	-	-	-	++B	-	-	++B	-	-Ab	-	+Bb	-	-
5	.024w	G	-	-	-	-	-F#	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	.030w	E	-	-	-	-	-	-Eb	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	.036w	C	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	+C#	-	-	-	-	-
8	.042w	A	-	-	-	++B	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	.054w	F	-	-	-	-	+F#	-	-	-E	-	-	-	-	-
10	.070w	C	-	-	-	-	++D	-	-	---A	-	-	-	-	-

Pedal steelers refer to Pedal 8 as the "boo-wah", the "doo-wah" or the "splat" pedal, because of the sound the low C string makes when it drops the minor third to A.

In an effort to combine the advantages of each tuning into a single-neck instrument, Jeff Newman (now deceased) developed a 12-string "universal tuning" in the mid 1970s using the E9th as the basic tuning. At approximately the same time, Maurice Anderson developed a 12-string "universal tuning", but the basic tuning was a Bb6th. Both steelers publicized their efforts, with the E9th "universal tuning" being the most common employed today by those preferring to use a "universal tuning."

String	Gauge	Pitch	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5	P6	P7	P8	LKL	V	LKR	RKL	RKR
1	.013p	F#	-	-	-	-	+G	-	-	-	-	+G	-	-	-
2	.015p	D#	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-D
3	.011p	G#	-	+A	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	.014p	E	-	-	++F#	-	-	+E	-	-	+F	-	-Eb	-	-
5	.018p	B	++C#	-	++C#	-	-	-	++C#	-	-	-	-	-Bb	-
6	.022w	G#	-	+A	-	++A#	-	-	++A#	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	.026w	F#	-	-	-	-	-F	-	-	-	-	+G	-	-	-
8	.030w	E	-	-	-	-	-	--D	-	-	+F	-	-Eb	-	-
9	.038w	B	++C#	-	-	-	-	-	-	+C	-	-	-	-Bb	+++D
10	.046w	G#	-	+A	-	++A#	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	.056w	E	-	-	-	-	+F	-	-	-D#	-	-	-	-	-
12	.068w	B	-	-	-	-	++C#	-	-	---G#	-	-	-	-	-

The universal copedent is the one with the most variations from player to player.

External links

• GFI Musical Products who produced the table above.
• Steel Guitar Forum.
  • Article 005642 on the origin, meaning, and pronunciation of copedent, including arbitration by Tom Bradshaw.

• Particular copedents:
  • 12 string copedent used by Terry Downs.
  • Basic C6th 10 string copedent.
  • C6th 11 string copedent used by Jeff Lampert.
  • GFI copedents: C9th 10 string 8 pedal, E6th 10 string 8 pedal, C9th 10 string 3 pedal, universal 12 string 7 pedal.
• Steel Guitar Tunings at Bobby Lee
  Bobby Lee (musician)
  Bobby Lee is a pedal steel guitar player and active promotor of the instrument, including founding and participating on a number of Internet websites and discussion forums....
  
  's website.
• Copedent calculator for 10 string C6th or E9th setups.
• Discussion of mean tone copedent tuning by Bobby Lee
  Bobby Lee (musician)
  Bobby Lee is a pedal steel guitar player and active promotor of the instrument, including founding and participating on a number of Internet websites and discussion forums....
  
  .