I just received my new pedal steel yesterday and never played one before.

How many instruments can you think of that require both hands, both feet and both knees to play?

Here is a brief sound clip in which I play all the instruments.



There are three pedals for the left foot and a volume pedal for the right, and there are four knee levers, one on each side of each knee. The levers and pedals raise or lower the tuning of strings or groups of strings, so that the pitch of each of the ten strings may be changed while playing, thus producing a myriad of constantly changing chord variations.

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[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 02-01-2019).]

Thats gotta be tough to play, ill stick w my regaler geetaur. Nice selection you have there!

shem

Love the sound of a pedal steel.
Jerry Garcia played some good pedal on the first NRPS album.

quote Originally posted by olejoedad: Love the sound of a pedal steel. Jerry Garcia played some good pedal on the first NRPS album.

Garcia, along with Pete Kleinow and Lloyd Green are largely responsible for my initial interest in the instrument. I'll never forget the first one I ever saw up close in a Music store in Daytona in 1968. Fifty years is long enough to wait.

Lloyd Green from 1968:



I just realized that I initially placed my order for the guitar 50 years and 11 days after the release date of that album.

Buddy Emmons from 1969 (one of my all time favorite songs):

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 02-02-2019).]

Gee, if I had known you were looking for one I'd say to call my cousin Kyle whose shop makes the MSA brand ...

MSA Pedal Steel Guitars

In all my years of playing iv never played or even seen one of those in person. They are super cool though, would love to try one.

quote Originally posted by Jonesy: In all my years of playing iv never played or even seen one of those in person. They are super cool though, would love to try one.

They are relatively rare nowadays, unlike a guitar or a clarinet where one can be had for well under $200, then stuffed in the back of a closet until the next garage sale. The pedal steel require somewhat more of a commitment.

Their heyday in popular music was brief. Initially, pedals were added to lap steel guitars in the forties so that they could be played in different keys. By the fifties, players had realized that they could make some really cool sounds by using the pedals during a song. Development and refinement continued through the sixties, only to see their popularity wane in the seventies.

Even in a big western city like Phoenix, they are not common. They show up on Craigslist only three or four times a year.

I was on a five month waiting list to get mine and even if I wanted to buy a one from one of the bigger manufacturers like MSA (mentioned above) it would have taken nearly a month. There are no big factories churning out pedal steels on a production line. They are just not in high demand.

This video provides a pretty good overview of the pedal steel:



Steve Fishell has played behind many of the greats including Emmylou Harris and John Prine. In this video, he is playing a Zum Steel. Though Bruce Zumsteg has retired, my guitar was built by his apprentice, Doug Earnest.