Seeking pedal to give my lap steel a pedal steel sound

[Kevin Speyer]

Hi all,

I primarily play hawaiian music, but I have gotten really into early country music (Hank Williams Sr., Patsy cline, etc..) i would love to have an effects pedal that gives it the tone of a pedal steel guitar without buying more guitars. LMK if anyone has a recommendation...
Mahalo in advance!
Kevin

[Lane Gray]

In my opinion, and others may disagree, the biggest difference in the tone between the two lies in the much heavier-wound pickup. There's more than twice as much wire in one pickup than the other.

That means the pedal steel signal STARTS fatter but less responsive, and the only way I know to achieve that would be to get a custom pickup, preferably with a center tap so you can have the lighter sound at will.

I've also noticed that it often seems that some pre-pedal steel players actually preferred strings a good bit older (a polite way of saying half-dead to the modern ear). There's nothing wrong with that, and I know some players of other instruments were the same. The late John Duffey hated the sound of fresh strings, and would change his strings at least 6 months ahead of the next time to record an album, so they'd be ready, but less likely to break. But that's only some steel players. If you're gonna play like Johnny Sibert (the whoop-de-do player behind Carl Smith, and a guy who's both worth emulating and fun to steal from), you're going to need all the bright you can get.

[Brooks Montgomery]

Do you currently use a volume pedal?

[Dwight Lewis]

Kevin, I second the pickup theory. Most pedal steel guitars are from 10-14 strings. That's alot of winding real-estate. Not discounting, many pedal steel guitars have humbuckers. There's a big difference in lapsteel and psg sound, but line up one of the Sierra S8 lapsteels next to a Psg and it will sound just as big and beefy. My experience an s6 single coil will not sound as big as an s8, s10 or s12 of the same type of pickup. You can experience with humbuckers, or even thicker guaged strings.
IMHO
Dwight

[D Schubert]

Most pedal steel guitars have no on-board volume and tone controls, so that the signal hits the volume pedal first. Maybe that's a clue?