Heel pedals

Gary Shepherd · From: Fox, Oklahoma, USA

Does anyone have a pedal steel with all the number stuff plus HEEL PEDALS? As in, add another row of pedals that you play with your heels?

The YouTube flick below has nothing to do with pedal steel.
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Gary Shepherd

Carter D-10 & Peavey Nashville 1000

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Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Gene Fields (GFI) built one for Al Petty.

Click Here

Gary Shepherd · From: Fox, Oklahoma, USA

That one is interesting but not exactly what I had in mind.

I guess my idea would require another pedal bar. And my heel pedals would have to be geared over to the side or you'd have your knees up against the pull rods of the heel pedals. But it does seem like you could add two or three heel pedals without too many problems.

I'm not sure what changes you would want to add to heel pedals but I'm sure they might be useful to someone.

Possibly, a pedal or two on the left end of the guitar (on the side) might be more useful. I know that I have a hard time getting off my A pedal and onto my vertical X lever. Maybe a "side" pedal would be a good place to move the X lever.

I don't have the G# to G pull. That might be a good heel pedal.

Any other suggestions? I don't really plan on trying any of this (at least not right now) - just thinking about possibilities.
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Gary Shepherd

Carter D-10 & Peavey Nashville 1000

www.16tracks.com

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

I've sat down at Al Petty's S-12 Sierra with heel pedals and it was pretty doable. Incidently just like on the GFI mentioned and pictured, all the pedal rods for both heel and toe pedals are in line with each other so your knees are free and clear exactly like any other pedal steel.Every other pedal is longer - that's all. And they all are attached to the same pedal board. It's a pretty good idea really. As I recall Al had 2 rows of 10 (20 pedals) and only 4 knee levers. He routinely manipulated 4 pedals eith his left foot rocking on and off pedals with his heel and/or toe in various combinations no problem. He would also walk his way across 2 or 3 pedals heel-toe-heel-toe during a lick and it kinda reminded me of a B-3 player kicking bass pedals. Wrist levers work well also and I had one of those on a Sierra U-12 for 8 years which pushed down raising my 2nd string from C# to D/D# w/a half-stop. I guess you'd call that right wrist vertical (RWV). Perlowin has one (RWR) on all his U-12s which lowers his 5th string B to Bb and it works pretty well also.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

I saw one of Al Petty's 21 pedal Sierras but didn't get the chance to sit behind it.

As I recall, the heel pedals on that guitar were considerably closer to the toe pedals than those shown on the GFI photo.
He explained how the pedals were set-up but I can't remember anything about it now.

Whatever it was, he sure knew how to get some amazing string changes with those pedals.

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

The first steel I saw Al Petty with which had heel and toe pedals was a fender 1000 he was playing in the sixties. Gene Fields and Al had put the thing together. He sat on a piano type bench which left his legs dangling so he could operate both tiers of pedals. At one point Gene also had one of these "beasts" and played it quite well........JH in Va.
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Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Sierra made a prototype S-10 with heel pedals and no knee levers. I saw it at Blackie Taylor's shop where I tried it out and didn't care for it. I felt that the heel pedals were not maneuverable enough to substitute for the knee levers.

Theoretically, I can see them on working the back of a double neck with a universal in front and something else on the back.

BTW, Blackie now has a wrist lever on his guitar. He saw mine and liked it and had Gene set him up with one. I don't know if he got a new guitar or retrofitted his older one.
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Jim Bob Sedgwick · From: Clinton, Missouri USA

Great Southern Cal Steel player Jerry Stevens had one of Al's old guitars. He played the heck out of it. I asked him why he sold it and he told me "Having your leg hanging all night was very uncomfortable and could create left leg thigh cramps. Also, with the advent of knee levers, there wasn't that much advantage to them." His words to me. Makes sense, because these guitars were before knee levers.

John McClung · From: Olympia WA, USA

Mike Johnstone forgot to mention an innovation he's come up with that increasingly interests me: on his Excel, he added a zero pedal, but the pedal is a bit longer than all others, so you simply swivel your foot and grab it, much easier than having to lift your foot to get way over there. I'm thinking of asking Mullen to make one for my D-12; gotta first make sure the case will still close, might need to be a slip-on pedal extender.

I honestly don't think enough attention is paid to ergonomics on pedal steels. The angled LKL of old Sho-Buds was a great idea, wish more modern builders would emulate that.

Chime in, Mike!
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Paul Redmond · From: Illinois, USA

When Al Petty first contacted me me about making a E9/C6 (yes, C6!!) heel/toe S-12 for him, I designed a pedal system that placed the heel pedals in between the so-called toe pedals just like the Sierra and the Dekley which would have preceded it. Al ran out of money (or didn't have it in the first place depending on which story you hear) and the guitar was never completed to his specs. The guitar required as many as seven raises on the 5th string alone, but that was doable with the Whitney guitar. I still have the prototype rack with 3 and 3 that I experimented with at that time and they do work well in retrospect. The legs were longer, of course, to allow your legs to 'dangle' a bit, but the concept placed normal knee lever changes on heel pedals in a strategic way. It always worked well for him and his techniques will most likely never be equalled on pedal steel. I am sorry that he met the demise he did as I've always felt that he had the best 'right hand' ever. I wish now that I would have completed the guitar if for no other reason, to satisfy my own curiosity concerning the heel/toe concept. I guess now I'll never know. That guitar is presently owned by Ralph Sebers and is set up for E9/B6 Universal. The center rib concept is still built into that guitar allowing for 'half-shafts', etc., which would have allowed Al's setup to be easily installed on that guitar. Given the track record of the Whitney's inherent mechanical accuracy, there is no doubt in my mind that that particular guitar would have been the most mechanically sophisticated pedal steel guitar on planet Earth had it been completed back then to his specs. It could have happened, but it didn't. That's life. . .a milestone missed I guess.
PRR

Charles Pompe · From: Illinois, USA

Anyone see Julian T. when he was with Barbara Mandrell? He had 14-20 Pedals and a like amount of knees. I've seen busy feet before, but this was something else. Also his playing blew me away. Smile

Charlie
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