Guide to Ralph Mooney's tuning / copedant

Ethan Shaw · Post by **Ethan Shaw** » 5 Dec 2023 11:42 am

I'm doing a feature on Ralph Mooney, one of my steel guitar heroes, on my next episode of Raising the Bar on Steel Radio. I'm probably one of the only people other than him to use his unique pedal steel copedant, but I love it! Here's some info for anyone interested in his copedant/tuning and how he used it. Hear the show and get to hear his contributions to music Friday @3, Saturday @11pm, and next Tuesday @11am CST anywhere in the world at steelradio.org.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2U1Wb7fR-A

scott murray · Post by **scott murray** » 5 Dec 2023 2:38 pm

very cool Ethan! that's dedication.

it would be a lot of fun to have an extra steel around the house with Ralph's exact copedent... something to think about.

Michael Sawyer · Post by **Michael Sawyer** » 5 Dec 2023 5:47 pm

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 6 Dec 2023 3:53 am

Thanks for sharing, Ethan. This is good information for people who are interested in this sort of thing.

Ethan Shaw · Post by **Ethan Shaw** » 6 Dec 2023 1:05 pm

Thanks, y'all! It's definitely a different approach, but definitely a valuable one, even just from a historical perspective. Thanks for watching!

Brendan Mitchell · Post by **Brendan Mitchell** » 10 Dec 2023 4:31 pm

Thank Ethan I loved the YouTube show on Ralph’s tuning! Unfortunately I missed the radio show, is there anywhere else I can listen to it?

Brendan Mitchell · Post by **Brendan Mitchell** » 10 Dec 2023 4:32 pm

I loved the YouTube show on Ralph’s tuning! Unfortunately I missed the radio show, is there anywhere else I can listen to it?

Ethan Shaw · Post by **Ethan Shaw** » 11 Dec 2023 9:45 am

Thanks Brendan! Unfortunately, the shows aren't archived for on-demand listening. But there will be a new one later this week-I hope you can catch it!

Ethan Shaw · Post by **Ethan Shaw** » 11 Dec 2023 9:53 am

Actually, that show will be re-broadcast tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11am CST. I don't know how that works out for you, but hopefully you can catch it!

Dean Parks · Post by **Dean Parks** » 17 Dec 2023 2:05 pm

Thanks, Ethan

Robert Miller · Post by **Robert Miller** » 27 Nov 2025 10:41 am

I know this is a couple of years old, but it seemed to be the most appropriate place to ask the question. After a handful of years living with it, what do you you feel the most useful part of the copedent is? I've got G#-G on a lever for the dominant stuff around the A pedal and E-F# on pedal 6 (double duty) and they really seem to change the flavor, but I have yet to take the leap to splitting the B pedal.

Is it that much more useful? Does it put the kibosh on a lot of your vocabulary?

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Guide to Ralph Mooney's tuning / copedant

Guide to Ralph Mooney's tuning / copedant

Re: Guide to Ralph Mooney's tuning / copedant