GFI E9/B6 pedal 6 not reaching pitch

[Patrick M. Nolan]

Hello all,

I became the owner a GFI e9/b6 (left handed, as a matter of fact) about a year ago, and it is my dream instrument. The only downside is I can't get pedal 6 to reach the correct pitch for the life of me. Supposedly, pedal 6 is meant to move the 8th string from E to D, but the most I can get out of it is a D#. I've tried everything I can think of. Cranking on the nylon nuts to give the pedal that extra 1/2 step causes the open E to travel out of tune, of course. After making sure that the knee levers weren't engaged and messing with my attempts, I tried adjusting the length of the pull rod. No luck, and the changed length threw the open string out of tune again. I tried changing the bell crank hole. No dice.

I'm pulling my hair out, and the nearest techs are at least an hour away. The lack of access to this pedal has really kept me away from exploring the B6 elements of the instrument, which was one of the biggest draws to my purchase in the first place!

Any help or words of wisdom you can provide would be a huge help. Perhaps it's something glaringly obvious that I'm too inexperienced to spot. Thanks for your time

[Lee Baucum]

It has been many years since last playing E9/B6 U-12 guitars,
.
Shouldn’t string 8 be lowered to D after first being lowered to D# with a knee-lever?

Just a thought.

~Lee

[Bob Carlucci]

Sounds like you need more pedal travel to pull that wound string down a full tone.. Check to see where the pedal stop is.. There will be an adjustment there to allow more travel,,, Full tone lowers on wound strings can be tricky, and typically you need a lot more pedal travel.. Might be an issue depending on how close to the floor your pedals are.. You might even have to raise the pedal in question first to gain more travel.. bob

[Ian Rae]

Bob could well be right. The important thing is that 5&6 bottom out together, so if 6 ends up higher in the rest position, that's fine.

[Bobby D. Jones]

First thing. Are you using a 6 hole or 7 hole bell crank? Trying to make the lower on string 8 to D.
There is a few pulls on a 12U tuning you need a 7 hole bell crank, To accomplish 3 or 4 pulls on the 12 string uni. tuning.
A LITTLE GFI HISTORY:
At one time GFI used 6 hole bell cranks. And only used 7 hole bell cranks for just 3 or 4 long pulls, On 12 uni. tuning.
Later builds, GFI guitars have all 7 hole bell cranks. Last time I was on GFI site they did not list 6 hole bell cranks for sale.

[Patrick M. Nolan]

Sounds like you need more pedal travel to pull that wound string down a full tone.. Check to see where the pedal stop is.. There will be an adjustment there to allow more travel,,, Full tone lowers on wound strings can be tricky, and typically you need a lot more pedal travel.. Might be an issue depending on how close to the floor your pedals are.. You might even have to raise the pedal in question first to gain more travel.. bob

Bob, you were spot on. Finally got my hands on a wrench that could help me adjust the pedal stop and now the pedal has no issue reaching pitch. You're a lifesaver!