Should you buy a pedal steel guitar

rob aylestone said:
I thought I'd start by explaining a bit about pedal steel guitars, and why they fry your brain.

Seriously - we often talk about chords, chord progressions and then get confused when some people talk about chord numbers, rather than letter names. If you want to play pedal steel, you really need to get your head around the names and the numbers. I've also tried to explain how the pedal steel is one instrument nobody can ever borrow, and why you probably cannot play somebody else's!

This video just deals with the mechanics of what the various pedals and levers do.
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After watching that video it's clear to me that while I was able to make reasonably pleasing noises on the pedal steel, I was by no means "playing a pedal steel". :ROFLMAO:
 
dogooder said:
My first stab at playing the PSG on one of my tunes?
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Cool effort. I like the bass part and the PSGs. All of the esses are clear, but in the "And I still miss you" bit, it sounds like you're saying "mith." A similar thing used to happen when I'd put the vocal through a compressor, so I stopped using them on vocals. Backing vocals, no problem. Leads, not any more.
By the way, you look pretty perky for 71. You look younger than some people I know in their 50s.
 
grimtraveller said:
Cool effort. I like the bass part and the PSGs. All of the esses are clear, but in the "And I still miss you" bit, it sounds like you're saying "mith." A similar thing used to happen when I'd put the vocal through a compressor, so I stopped using them on vocals. Backing vocals, no problem. Leads, not any more.
By the way, you look pretty perky for 71. You look younger than some people I know in their 50s.
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That is about five years ago. I don't play or practice the PSG much but have been doing so more lately.
 
I don't know how many are reading any of this and if they play the contraption or not, so I try and relate it to guitar. This morning at 6am I found
that the extra knee pedal (#5) on the guitar, which you push up with your knee instead of to the side, will, when holding down the A&B pedal and pushing the knee lever up, give me minor four chord.
To put it in guitar terms, with no pedals or levers used it is like playing a barred E chord where ever you lay the bar across the neck (if you don't hit the wrong strings).
Staying on the same fret and pressing down the A&B pedal is like now playing the double barre "A" chord, giving you the IV chord in that key. So if you are on the third fret say, you are playing a G chord, hit the two pedals and now you are playing a C chord. Now, with the A&B pedal down and one lets up half way on the A pedal, you are flatting the third to get a minor chord, in this case a C minor. It is a pain doing it that way. If you are just a little bit off with the A pedal, the chord is out or tune. When holding down the A&B pedal it isn't that difficult to let the A pedal up halfway and get it right. To come from any other position or pedal and knee combination to holding the A pedal halfway down and the B pedal all the way down and getting it right is so far, beyond me. This knee lever solves that problem. I guess when you really know your PSG and are a good player you would get it down right eventually. The pedals an levers have stops on them so you don't raise or lower the notes more and you have it set for.
 
rob aylestone said:
If you look at this page, your brain starts to fry - all these players each with their levers and pedals doing different things. Crazy stuff!
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I am using what is basically called an Emmons set up. The two extra pedal and knee lever I have give me more options. I also took the "Franklin" pedal which is normally set up to drop two different strings, one being one of the G# strings, a whole step. I reset mine to drop both G# strings a half step so I can get a Minor I chord. It would be the same as holding a barred E chord anywhere on the neck of the guitar then lifting your middle finger to get the minor chord. You are flatting the third by lifting your middle finger on the guitar and you are flatting both thirds by pressing the Franklin pedal on the way I have my PSG set up. If I press the Franklin pedal and the A pedal I have the 5 seventh chord. I don't know what other chords I can get out of it, I haven't played with it enough yet.
Just about anything you need to know you will find here
 
I've been a pedal steel player for a little over a half of a century. :-) I think one of the hardest things for a new player to get used to is wearing and using finger picks. They feel very weird until you get used to them. When I see non-steel players sit down at a PSG they usually grab a flat pick to try it out. My one and only lesson was where I bough my first PSG, a Fender 800 at Heart of Texas Music in Temple Texas. It was a sales guy named Maxie, and he told me well, the open tuning is an E chord and if you mash the first two pedals it turns into an A chord, the rest you'll have to figure out on your own. :P There is a lot of info on YouTube now, back then you had to pretty much 'figure it out on your own'. The Pedal Steel Guitar Forum is a great resource as well.
 
Yep, I think that’s the best advice too. The YouTube videos seem totally unable to teach the thing, unlike ordinary guitar, because players create their own beast.
 
I just changed all my strings, all ten of them. I tuned her up and am going to let her sit for awhile and settle in before I go for the pedals and knees.
I have I think four PSG books. They can't show you everything. It is always a satisfying surprise finding a chord somewhere on the neck that isn't in the books.
With my extra knee and pedal I get to find a lot of them.
 
dogooder said:
If one knows nothing about music theory it makes the instrument that much more difficult.
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I agree dogooder. When I started PSG I was already playing guitar so I had an idea how to construct chords. I would think starting off on pedal steel having not played any other instruments would be difficult because you are trying to learn about music along with learning how to play an instrument that's pretty strange to begin with.
 
E Beau said:
I agree dogooder. When I started PSG I was already playing guitar so I had an idea how to construct chords. I would think starting off on pedal steel having not played any other instruments would be difficult because you are trying to learn about music along with learning how to play an instrument that's pretty strange to begin with.
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The real deal is when you hit a pedal or knee the instruments tuning has changed, that don't happen on guitar. I should have started long ago. This is what initially inspired me.

Still one of the best live albums recorded and to think they were so young. I am not really a country fan but this kicks butt.
 
Rusty Young was a dang good picker. I liked Poco but I never got into them to the point that I could name or recognize all their songs. Good luck on the sideways guitar man.
 
E Beau said:
Rusty Young was a dang good picker. I liked Poco but I never got into them to the point that I could name or recognize all their songs. Good luck on the sideways guitar man.
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I am not a big Poco fan per say, but that album kicks ass. Those guys were like 19-23 years old and they just killed it. Vocal harmonies etc
I have been playing almost 60 years and I still don't consider myself that good. I like a lot of live albums from Louie Prima to UmmaGumma and this one
is on the top of my list. I am not into country per se, but this is where country should have went, look where it is now. They don't even use pedal steel guitars
anymore.
 
I like how when I pick out a walk up between any two chords separated by one fret like on a guitar, say G to Ar, I have about five chords instead of three. I got those inbetween ones.
 
E Beau said:
I agree dogooder. When I started PSG I was already playing guitar so I had an idea how to construct chords. I would think starting off on pedal steel having not played any other instruments would be difficult because you are trying to learn about music along with learning how to play an instrument that's pretty strange to begin with.
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Up to 1974 I had played for eleven years. In that time I took one "guitar lesson". My buddy who was first clarinet in the all state band in N.J. taught me some basic theory.
Then I took some college courses in theory. It doesn't help you play better, only practice does that, but, you don't leave on a cross country journey
without some knowledge of where you are going. If you do, you are just randomly touring. It does help to have some kind of road map. As stated somewheree, every time you hit a pedal or a knee lever, the tuning of the instrument changes, that makes it pretty strange. You can do that with a capo on a guitar etc, but it is very limited.
With the standard 3 pedal 4 knee lever setup, the amount of different combinations, i.e., tunings available at the press of a pedal or knee lever makes the
instrument highly versatile.
 
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I don't plug in that often, but when I do... Controlling this contraption from making noise and blocking strings etc, makes doing the same
on guitar like a walk in the park.
 
Had an 80s new wave rave in the basement. Cranked up the ole stereo and cranked up the PSG. It was fun playing the PSG along with
the likes of Duran Duran and the Thompson twins. Lots of songs in minor keys.
 
I play slide guitar and lap steel. When I was in college (Berklee) I was fortunate to study with Mike Ihde for a semester. I got a few lessons on pedal steel from a true master. It's not something I had the time to get into, but it's something I would love to do. Maybe when I retire.

A friend of mine from school, who played upright bass back then, has become a great steel player. I love watching his videos.
 
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