Anybody here who rocks the pedal steel?

[qersty]

So after I begun playing bottle neck I really want to take it further and get a pedal steel and looking if anybody has experience here to share. Like I love country too but I want to get input from somebody who knows about drony heavy stuff too; steel forums seem a little one-track.

I thought first about going with a steel but it seems that route is either a lap steel or some double neck that costs as much as a pedal steel. Getting some tiny lap steel would be fun but the range of the big 'uns excites me (I think some guys have like a low 5-string bass B, thinking that like running that thru an SVT with fuzz=the dewmz) plus it honestly seems easier to me with all the levers rather than doing selective picking.

Biggest issue seems getting one but they do exist in sweden it seems, once I almost did the 5 hour drive cause it came with a free princeton but I didn't really have that cash.

But yeah got any general tips on what to look out for?

[ognoy]

I was rocking a pedal steel for about 9 months. Bought one after after playing a lot of lapsteel one summer and wanted to expand.

Sold it after 9 months to fund a tour, don't really miss it.
It is super hard and I hate practicing.

But I still rock the lapsteel. And I've put a Duesenberg Multibender on it, which gives me the oppertunity to do the cheesy pedal steel-bends got the PS for in the first place.

Also bringing a pedal steel anywhere is a hassle compared to a lapsteel as well! 20 kg and 20 mins of putting it together vs 2kg ready to go straight out of the gigbag.


I still love the sound of a pedal steel, but it was not for me.

[qersty]

Yeah the weight is a bitch obviously.

Do you only play lap steel or console too? I think getting like an 8-string console would be cool too. I'm mostly bothered that lap steels are very short and I would like to hit the bass guitar range

[Dandolin]

I have a pedal steel and have been verrrry slowly getting in practice time on it - it is, as noted, a complex beastie. Like Ognoy, I've been getting more joy out of lap steel with a bender on it for the moving pitch stuff. When I bought the pedal steel, I thought I was going to finally be getting my dedicated music space in my house, but that has evaporated, so, yeah, between set-up time, space, weight, lack of immediately intuitive use, etc,. I'm probably going to give it up too.

You may want to look into a baritone lap steel - an 8 string build would give you plenty of range for droning...but even a six string would rock.

Also might not be easy to find, but I suspect we're going to see more of them out there as time goes by.

For reference:

https://reverb.com/item/37425141-fouke- ... l-metallic


fwiw, I've seen bass lap steels too, tho not on Reverb....

[edit] Rukavina make/made one, and I've def seen Rukavina stuffs on the 'verb

[Chankgeez]

Pedal steel is not for me. Even console steel really isn't for me either. I'll stick to six strings. (though occasionally I'll wish I had eight.)

This guy makes it look easy (and is a good resource):



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YdHqxTcBfI

[Dandolin]

that's the thing tho - it looks all too easy whenever anyone who knows how is at it - which, I guess is common enough in many fields of endeavor

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Speaking of making it look easy... I grabbed the new Susan Alcorn in my Bandcamp haul yesterday (tho haven't unzipped it yet).

[Dandolin]

beautiful touch and outside playin' too
(pretty nice band she's got there to boot )

[qersty]

Excellent album!

[dubkitty]

I had an Emmons S-10 in the 00s which i loved. playing pedal steel was one of my Big Dreams since i was 15 or 16. i found it easier to play than i'd anticipated...if you've played in open E tuning which i did a lot in the 70s/80s, it's just open E with passing tones and that odd set of strings on top pitched a whole tone above the B/E strings. i wasn't great, but i was good enough to take it to jams and play "Honly Tonk Women" and "No Matter What" by Badfinger which has a pretty tricky series of modulations in the bridge. i had to sell it in the Great 2012-13 Gear Purge. someday i'd like another, but i got an insanely killer deal on the Emmons (like $700 in the early 00s) which Scotty's never charged my credit card for. i can't afford a $1500 steel at this point in my life...there are bigger priorities. but i sure do miss it. i'd love to play pedal steel on shoegaze.

[repoman]

I had a ShoBud for a while, I found it too daunting..I could kind of fake some licks but I don't have any music theory knowledge and you need a really solid base of that to integrate it into it's typical footing.

I was thinking about it's use for drone stuff and then it made me think about building an electric hurdy gurdy. Something with a small DC motor powering a couple bass strings controlled via footpedal.

[Achtane]

I was thinking about it's use for drone stuff and then it made me think about building an electric hurdy gurdy. Something with a small DC motor powering a couple bass strings controlled via footpedal.

I've also been plotting something like this, but more, uh, grandiose (or hair-rippingly frustrating). I can't find any info about the average RPM of a hurdy gurdy wheel but it can't be that fast. Then it's just a case of finding the right motor and speed controller.

[Chankgeez]

Aren't hurdy-gurdies hand-cranked? So, wouldn't it just depend on how fast you crank it?

[Achtane]

Yeah, but I think the speed of the wheel changes the timbre of it as well. So there's gotta be some happy middle people usually crank it at.
Hey, no dirty jokes.

[Chankgeez]

Ugh, now I wanna be in a band with a droney pedal steeler, a bagpiper and a hurdy-gurdy player!