only 2 pedals?

Greg Gefell · From: Upstate NY

A question for those who are wiser, have played longer, and have a better understanding of the history and development of the pedal steel than I do.

If you could only have 2 changes (raises not lowers) on your E9 steel what would they be and why? Additionally, is there a better tuning than E9 if you could only have those 2 changes?

The reason I ask is not merely hypothetical - I recently built a 10 string wearable lap steel. I have the ability to add raises onto as many many strings as I want - however operating them is the challenge. I believe that 2 palm levers are about all I'll be able to realistically operate. I can however make linkage that would pull several strings from one lever.

Right now I'm planning on copying the usual E9 A and B pedal setup but I thought it would be helpful to see if anyone could suggest a better overall tuning or choice of string pulls with the given limitation I'm suggesting. Confused

Colby Tipton · From: Crosby, Texas, USA

It would be A&B pedals on a pedal steel. How can you rock your wrist to work the levers and pick at the same time on a lap steel or a steel with a strap hanging on you.?
Not trying to be smart or funny, just wondering.

Andy DePaule · From: Saigon, Viet Nam & Springfield, Oregon

Years ago Bigsby made and marketed a device called a Palm Pedal.
Looked a lot like the guitar vibrato tail he made then and is still made today, but it had two levers working the 2nd and 3rd strings of the guitar.
I bought one back in the days before I bought a real pedal steel, maybe it was 1975 or 76.
Put it on an old Kay arched top guitar with the nut extra high for slide playing.
Tuned it to B D E G# B E and pulled the B to C# and the G# to A just like a real steel... Well not quite!....
If I remember right, you had to press the levers down towards the guitar to raise the pitch.
It would return to the right pitch after but....
But it was real hard to do much of anything while trying to pick and work two levers with the same hand....
I just gave up and forked out the dough for a real Sho Bud S-10 pedal steel.
I'd bet there are some of those still around that could be gotten for a reasonable price.

Tony Russell · From: North of England

A & B pedals are the way to go if you stick with E9th. But, IMO no matter how you push, pull or whatever, on your levers, it will move the guitar and make playing difficult. Moving the "pushing" mechanism off the instrument will leave a more stable playing platform.
A lot of years ago I devised a retro fit string-pull device for Dobro. It hooked up to a couple of floor pedals by means of bowden cables (you know? - like heavy duty bike brake cables - often used in cars to link gas pedal to engine). I drew it, but never made it 'cos I read about the problems of bridge deflection. Some time later a guy in Scotland had a similar idea and marketed a retro-fit stringbender bridge for a Telecaster that worked the same way, I think it was called a "MacKenzie stringpull". Think about it maybe?
Regards, Tony.

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Greg, I actually have a working palm pedal operated E9th guitar. I have a Bigsby Palm Pedal on an old Memphis Les Paul Copy six string guitar. I've got a raised nut on it and it's tuned like the inside strings on a standard E9th tuning (same as strings 4 through 9) D E F# G# B E low to high. The levers raise the 2nd string B to C# and the 3rd string G# to A. the reason I like this is I can use the 3rd string lever and with the D string as a root, do some 6th type moves on it. I use a glass slide on my ring finger for most things. Sometimes I set in a chair and lay it on my lap but mostly it's used standing up just like a regular slide guitar would be played. When I play it setting down, I use a small bullet nosed lap steel bar made by Jim Dunlop, I'm not sure of the size but it's shorter with a smaller diameter than the standard 7/8 pedal steel bar..............JH in Va.

Greg Gefell · From: Upstate NY

Thanks for the advice guys. I wouldnt need to buy anything because I have a slew of epiphone ez benders that I'll modify the handle on and experiment with placement. (sure would be nice if I could make some of those lower instead of raise!) I'm also going to start playing with some different tunings that are less reliant on benders for a while and see what happens.

I thought about some kind of floor pedal approach for the bending but I have enough stuff in my way down there with all my guitar pedals - plus I like volume swells, and doing swells with one foot and benders with another leaves me with no way to stand up! If I have to sit then I would just go back to pedal steel.

I think ultimately I'll need to learn a lap steel tuning inside and out and then use the benders to give it a little "special sauce."

db · From: Bethlehem, PA 18015 USA

2 Pedals - A & B ! ?

Check out a "Sheryl Crow" video to see:
Peter Stroud playing a Bigsby Palm Pedal
on an "Open - E tuned " std 6 string guitar . . .

Dan Balde
Bigsby Palm Pedals

Herb Steiner · From: Spicewood TX 78669

Just a point of information, but the Bigsby Palm Pedal was designed by my old bandmate and fellow Forumite, Boomer Castleman. Boomer occasionally shows up here in Forumland.

Boom originally made the device out of a coathanger on an old Telecaster, and he and I did all kinds of twin guitar type licks on it and steel. When he went to patent the device, I told him that a steel player/veterinarian in San Diego named Tony Zitnik had a device that looked like a steel's foot pedals attached to the guitar. I believe Boomer eventually shared the patent with Zitnik. They then went to Ted McCarty at Bigsby and arranged manufacturing and marketing. All this occured around 1970-71.

I think Tony Zitnik designed and built a few steels as well. Does anyone remember him or those guitars? I hope they weren't called Zit-steels! Wink

_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.

Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

Bob Cox · From: Buckeye State

My dad drilled two holes in the key head under the strings of his fender 8 string that had no pedals during that time.He then
hooked two bycycle spokes over top of the two strings he wanted to pull,which my guess would of been a similar ab funtion.Made some makeshift pedals and had it changing with
the ol human ear stops.The more I look back his tinkering and
playing was a part of steel society that was making these new changes that we now know.Later he had to pawn that ol fender and I remember him filling in the holes and sprinkleling dust on the key head so it would bring more value.Later he
got a multichord and we thought the grand ol opry had landed in our living room.R.I.P Big Country Murdock ,my Dad.

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