Pedal Steel

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:58 pm

I'm seriously thinking about trying to learn to play pedal steel this year. I'm thinking of getting the Carter Starter:

http://www.carterstarter.com/

It's $695 at Musician's Friend, etc. I've also found a decent bulletin board where I may be able to pick one up used for a couple hundred bucks less.

Anybody out there ever tried to play pedal steel before? Or know of a good place where I can buy one? Sober, can you get me a deal perhaps?

I can't recall hearing any real live pedal steel on SongFight! before, so if I do get one and learn how to play it I'll be pimping myself out for guest appearances...

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:42 pm

So I was at a concert on Thursday night, and between bands, this one guy comes and sets up a pedal steel. So me, being in the middle of a... I dunno, I guess you'd call it a pop-rock-garage-band-esque concert, yelled out "Holy crap, the guy's got a pedal steel!" The guy gave me a huge wtf look and then carried on setting it up. He went on to play one of the coolest rocky pedal steel solos I've heard.

Fun thing I find out later, he's an English teacher at my school.

So yeah. They're cool and you should definitely get one.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:51 pm

Getting one from me would probably end up being more trouble than it's worth. While my company is a dealer for that brand, it would almost certainly be a special order, with god knows order times, and then there's shipping, etc.

And I'm a little lazy, I guess.

And I'm moving to LA at the end of the month.

At any rate, I'll check it out. If there's one available in one of our Dallas stores, I could grab it and just drive it out there with me for you to pick up.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:20 pm

Bjam wrote:I yelled out "Holy crap, the guy's got a pedal steel!"

Beth, you gotta be careful out there. Wow, the feds coulda jumped you for that! here in Brooklyn, woulda been your last words.

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:20 pm

My understanding of the instrument, and this is only an "understanding" from having sat in with a guy a long time ago that briefly explained the priciple to me mind you, is that it's basically an open tuned guitar. The pedals change the key that you're playing in. So the best advice I could give you would be until you get one, practice playing slide in various open tunings. Become somewhat proficient at that and my guess is that the transition will be a lot easier.

Again, this is based only off of how it was explained to me. It's an instrument I'm very much interested in though so now I'm going to do some hard research and see what I come up with. I'm sure you'll probably have one before I do, my dispensable income doesn't seem to be what it has been in years past. But I will have one some day.

Good luck with your pursuit in the meantime.

Kamakura · Post by **Kamakura** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:53 am

Pedal Steel is fantastic, with Dave Gilmour and Ry Cooder battling away at the top of the 'Lords of all they survey' list.

Lunkhead wrote:if I do get one and learn how to play it I'll be pimping myself out for guest appearances...

I don't think you'll have to pimp yourself. People will be hammering at your door 8)

LMNOP · Post by **LMNOP** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 3:39 pm

Dan-O from Five-O wrote:The pedals change the key that you're playing in.

Well, not exactly. The pedals and knee levers don't change all of the strings at once. So you can go from, say, a I to a IV without moving the slide up a fourth or cross-barring. I used to play with a guy who was pretty handy with it but probably only have about a half hour of good screwing-around time on it. It's a little theory machine, basically.

I'll be real interested in your impressions if you get one for $700. I've thought about getting one from time to time and have it in my head that it takes about $1,600 to get a "real" one. I don't remember if that's from reading Harmony Central reviews or whether the cheaper ones don't have the same pedals/levers or what.

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:15 pm

Yeah no pedal steel here at SF, the closest I've seen is Bob (from my old band Gus) with his lap steel guitar. I've seen you play with a slide on an electric guitar, and you simultaneously used some effects pedals, though

.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 10:31 pm

I only figured out the volume pedal a couple years ago. It seems to be pretty key to making slide guitar of whatever sort (pedal, lap, regular) sound better.

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 1:13 am

LMNOP wrote:
Dan-O from Five-O wrote:The pedals change the key that you're playing in.
Well, not exactly.

My personal editor ladies and gentleman. Always correcting my mistakes. My wish for 2006 is that he get there BEFORE I make them.

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 5:45 pm

http://www.songfight.org/music/foam_rub ... g_foam.mp3

all lap steel + cello. pedal steel is cool, but super bulky. you can get a decent little lap steel for <$200.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:18 am

I was thinking of just getting a lap steel first. Seeing a friend of mine rock out on lap steel was what got me started thinking about it more seriously. I think ultimately I want to learn pedal steel, and I'm too impatient to take the appropriate steps. I'll just start beating my head against a pedal steel first. They're definitely bulkier, though the Carter Starter is "small" and "light" at only 20 lbs. The legs and pedals etc. come off and it all packs into an included gig bag. Whee!

blue · Post by **blue** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:34 am

gear jealousy begins: now. that does sound really sweet. i grew up jamming with buzz butler, one of the greatest lap steel and dobro players ever. you can still find old-school 78's of him on ebay.

Pedal Steel

Pedal Steel

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