Songs using the Franklin pedal

[John McClung]

Has anyone compiled a list of commercially available songs with prominent use of the Franklin pedal? Love to see it if so. Trying to help a student configure his guitar.

[Bill McCloskey]

I'll be following this thread closely. I find myself using the Franklin pedal all the time now that I have it in the zero postion next to the A pedal. When it was in the 4th position, I really didn't use it at all. It works in conjunction with the A pedal in particular, that even Paul says Zero position is the logical place for it. Paul has a few lessons in his method dedicated to the Franklin pedal, which helped open my eyes to it.

[Greg Cutshaw]

One of my favorites is with Mike Johnson backing Rhonda Vincent here at 0:08 and at about 1:50 and 2:24 and on the ending at 4:05:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd_EUWK ... rt_radio=1

I have this change on most of my guitars and it really stands out in the studio or in a band where the steel is out front in the mix. You have to have a lot of reserve on the volume pedal to keep the guitar loud throughout the whole sequence.

Another one here at 6:58 with a double press:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofnNeNl ... rt_radio=1

[Joel Jackson]

One of my favorite is with Mike Johnson backing Rhonda Vincent here at 0:08 and at about 1:50 and 2:24 and on the ending at 4:05:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd_EUWK ... rt_radio=1

I have this change on most of my guitars and it really stands out in the studio or in a band where the steel is out front in the mix. You have to have a lot of reserve on the volume pedal to keep the guitar loud throughout the whole sequence.

Another one here at 6:58 with a double press:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofnNeNl ... rt_radio=1

Wow. Mike Johnson's playing on that one. He's just so good.

[Joel Jackson]

One of my favorite is with Mike Johnson backing Rhonda Vincent here at 0:08 and at about 1:50 and 2:24 and on the ending at 4:05:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd_EUWK ... rt_radio=1

Wow. Mike Johnson's playing on that one. He's just so good.

[Bob Carlucci]

I could be wrong, but I heard mostly string 6 being dropped a full tone, which is a standard change, not so much string 5 along with it.. Not trying to contradict, I'm really not sure. . Mike might see this and let us know.. I had the Franklin pull on a few guitars over the years, and personally just did not like them together all that much.. I much preferred the string 6 full tone lower on its own on a pedal, and the string 5 lower with a half tone feel stop.. So much more flexibility that way ,at least for me. Try as a I might I just never found dropping 5 and 6 together on a pedal was of much use to my playing.. I know others really like it, as I do, but separately , not together.

[Greg Cutshaw]

I can hear the low B string being dropped and that's what gives it such a full sound.

MIke's copedant:

https://fileswift.com/sites/default/fil ... pedent.pdf

[David W.D. McCormick]

One of my favorites is with Mike Johnson backing Rhonda Vincent here at 0:08 and at about 1:50 and 2:24 and on the ending at 4:05:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd_EUWK ... rt_radio=1

I have this change on most of my guitars and it really stands out in the studio or in a band where the steel is out front in the mix. You have to have a lot of reserve on the volume pedal to keep the guitar loud throughout the whole sequence.

Another one here at 6:58 with a double press:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofnNeNl ... rt_radio=1

I wanna be like Mike

[Rich Ertelt]

I could be wrong, but I heard mostly string 6 being dropped a full tone, which is a standard change, not so much string 5 along with it.. Not trying to contradict, I'm really not sure. . Mike might see this and let us know.. I had the Franklin pull on a few guitars over the years, and personally just did not like them together all that much.. I much preferred the string 6 full tone lower on its own on a pedal, and the string 5 lower with a half tone feel stop.. So much more flexibility that way ,at least for me. Try as a I might I just never found dropping 5 and 6 together on a pedal was of much use to my playing.. I know others really like it, as I do, but separately , not together.

I sat down and worked on that intro and solo, spent a lot of hours on it. It is a great lesson, you can see pretty well where his hands are, or at least the movements. Used that to work out the best I can what he is doing. What I hear is using the pedal to lower 6th string. I don't hear him using it on the 5th string at all. I didn't catch lowering the 10th to A, I'll go back and work on it some more. I don't have that move on mine, just the 5th and 6th.

I had the 5th full step lower, just added the 6th string, after seeing that vid, so just taking it one step at a time. I have yet to find a really good use for using both lowers at the same time, but individually, have found a lot of interesting stuff, alternating with the A/B raises.

[Marty Broussard]

Folks,
Pretty sure that on Billy Currington’s recording of “Let Me Down Easy” that pedal is being utilized on the intro, turnaround, and outro. Hope this helps the discussion.

[Brett Lanier]

Folks,
Pretty sure that on Billy Currington’s recording of “Let Me Down Easy” that pedal is being utilized on the intro, turnaround, and outro. Hope this helps the discussion.

Interesting! I play with Billy, and have been playing an old Marlen with a very basic copedent for the past few years. Using a Marrs this year though… I think I’ll put this change on my guitar soon and mess around with this. It’s taken a lot of work to get Paul’s parts to sound right with such a simple copedent. Trying to make things a little easier on myself going forward. Thanks Marty.

[Marty Broussard]

Brett, would love to know how you’ve been playing it and how the PF works for you. I sat in on a gig several months ago and felt like I found that certain lick I’m referring to utilizing the PF changes—but I couldn't get it as smooth as the cut because I had that change split(similar to Tommy White) because of a Cajun tuning experiment, and I simply lost some chops from not playing regularly. I’d like to see how close I was on finding it. Email me if you want to talk shop.

Best regards,

[Brett Lanier]

Hi Marty,
I thought it'd be easier to just make a quick video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRzpo8cXbTY

**** EDIT**** (a day later...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfGG3naN6NI

[Marty Broussard]

Brett,
First, you/your rig sounds REALLY good.

After hearing both methods you demonstrated I feel like the voicing he used is indeed above the 12th fret. The other voicings you demonstrated sound too thin to my ear.

I’m stating the following with utmost respect, especially, because I didn’t find your method. I was stuck on the PF pedal. lol

I really hope to sit down and work on it this week. I haven’t been this curious in awhile…lol.

Thanks for the vid. I learned from it and now I’m interested again.

Best regards,
MB

[Brett Lanier]

I agree with everything you said Marty, strings 9 and 8 sound more right to me too, tonally. Another big plus that I failed to point out in the video is that when playing it down an octave you get the bonus of resolving on the first fret (strings 9 and 5).

Also worth mentioning that this lick is possible without the Franklin pedal.... if you have a string 5 lower on a verticle, just tune it up to lower a whole step and it's all there.

Thanks for bringing this tune up! I always had a feeling there was something different about the way Paul played it.

[Dave Grafe]

Maybe I am missing something but I'm just not hearing the "Franklin" change anywhere in the Mike Johnson clip. I hear the 10 string B>A at the ends of the solo and outro and the 6 string G#>F# once or twice, but never the combined 5+6 lowers, so this doesn't represent to my ears use of the "Franklin" pedal.

FYI with P0 or P4 lowering strings 5+10 B>A and RKL lowering string 6 G#>F# this change is available with considerably more versatility than with them ganged together. This is how I have set up my Zum, I use one or the other regularly but rarely together, still it is available should I hear it coming down the pike. YMMV.