Do you also play steel without pedals?

Edward Meisse · Post by **Edward Meisse** » 14 Jun 2009 8:53 pm

Anything that can be done on a steel without pedals can also be done on a pedal guitar. I'm hardly touching my non pedal steels these days. I'm thinking of unloading them. But so far, just thinking.

Tor Arve Baroy · Post by **Tor Arve Baroy** » 14 Jun 2009 10:22 pm

I have also concidered that, but I do a lot of hammer-ons, open string stuff on my lapsteel.
Also, my Lapsteel goes lower than my pedal steel....
I could more or less do it if i had a 12 string....

Greg Gefell · Post by **Greg Gefell** » 15 Jun 2009 8:48 am

Not only can it be done, but you can change the tuning on the fly! It really is like having open E, B6, A6, and many other tunings at your disposal without changing necks or even string grips.

I played non pedal only for a few years, but haven't touched it much since I went back to pedal full time.

I won't get rid of anything though if I can help it. Every time I do I regret it down the road. If I had sold my pedal steel when I gave it up a few years back, I'd have nothing to play right now.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 15 Jun 2009 9:19 am

Ya can play the same stuff, but they don't sound the same!

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 15 Jun 2009 9:38 am

I don't play non pedal steel in the traditional way. I play Mississippi delta bottle neck style blues on a non-pedal steel. (A Fender 3 neck stringmaster and a Mars Cat can.) It is not the same thing, even if it's the same instrument, and I can simulate what I do on the non-pedal steel up to a point, and also expand on it with the pedals, but I cannot duplicate the style exactly on me pedal steel guitar.

The Delta style requires an open chord tuning and I must play in the key of the chord the guitar is tuned to. (I have cam levers on my Stringmaster that give me 2 tunings per neck so I can play in several different keys.) The non chordal strings in pedal steel tunings get in the way, and prevent true duplication of the style.

Here is a duet between my stringmaster and my pedal steel guitar.

http://www.perlowinmusic.com/GershwinPrelude2.mp3

It’s very clear which is which. The tune is George Gershwin’s second piano prelude, which is often called his “Blue Prelude” because it is based on a blues motif.

Tom Campbell · Post by **Tom Campbell** » 15 Jun 2009 9:52 am

I play a pedal steel, U12 setup, (sort of)

I have a double neck Remington non-pedal and have one neck tuned to B6 instead of C6 and the other is tuned to E9. Even though both necks imulate the U12 (B6/E9) tuning of my pedal steel, there is still a huge difference (playing two seperate necks vs. one).

Thought of selling the non-pedal, but of course I would probably regret it at some point. Isn't that always the issue????

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 15 Jun 2009 9:54 am

I started playing non-pedal steel over 50 years ago and I still have to play one every once in a while.
Maybe it's just a nostalgia thing.
Or maybe, it's just a "lazy" thing.
My wife rags on me whenever I'm asked to play because of all the equipment and effort necessary to set up a pedal steel.
With a lap guitar, you just whip it out of the case and start pickin'!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 15 Jun 2009 10:02 am

Anything that can be done on a steel without pedals can also be done on a pedal guitar.

Yes, the same notes and phrases can be played on pedal steel, but the tone is different. And the strings are closer, which makes slants on adjacent strings difficult. Something is lost in the translation from non-pedal to pedal. It's hard to explain, but it has a lot to do with the tone and the playing technique.

I play mostly pedal steel, but I do enjoy non-pedal steel. I wouldn't want to give up either one of them.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 15 Jun 2009 11:07 am

Doug Beaumier, +1

They ain't the same.

Joel Meredith · Post by **Joel Meredith** » 15 Jun 2009 11:56 am

Yeah, I never play my lap steel guitars. Nice tone, but too limited for what I want to do.

Allen Kentfield · Post by **Allen Kentfield** » 15 Jun 2009 12:24 pm

pedal steel is like lap steel about as much as man is like the ape

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 15 Jun 2009 12:33 pm

Joel & Allen,
Maybe the problem isn't with the guitar.
It could be the operator.

James Mayer · Post by **James Mayer** » 15 Jun 2009 3:52 pm

This is an interesting topic. I am a non-pedal player that is about to get into pedals. I've been thinking about it for a long time but I like the tone of non-pedal steels better. I've never heard a pedal steel sound as full.

So..........I just put a deposit down on one of Jim Flynn's instruments.

It's a six-stringer and uses guitar pickups. Trying to get the best of both.............

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 15 Jun 2009 4:00 pm

Topic: Do you also play steel without pedals?

Yes.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 15 Jun 2009 4:12 pm

I play both. I find that the same hand techniques can be applied to both instruments. I use blocking, vibrato, bar slants, chimes, etc. whether the instrument has pedals or not.

Duncan Hodge · Post by **Duncan Hodge** » 15 Jun 2009 4:55 pm

No, but I want to try a lap steel...although I have played dobro in the past...so I guess that the answer to the question is that I'm not sure. That seems to be my answer to a lot of things these days.
Duncan

Roger Edgington · Post by **Roger Edgington** » 16 Jun 2009 7:24 am

Sometimes I have a stand up single 10 or t8 Stringmaster set up behind my seat. It's more authenic for the old western swing stuff, but it's a lot of extra work.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 16 Jun 2009 7:32 am

I work with two different bands at the moment and in one, (the Classic Country Band) we do a Tuesday night thing where I play electric Dobro & lead guitar. The Dobro has a magnetic Barcus-Berry pickup on it so it sounds like a lap steel. I have a stand for it also. On the Thursday night thing with the same band I play pedal steel and lead, basically we're doing the same tunes more or less but with a different sound. I have three lap steels but I like the way the pickup on the Dobro sounds so I use that. I also use the standard bluegrass G tuning for that. On my lap steels I use the E13th and B6th on my old National D-8. My Chandler 6 string is tuned to B6th and my old Regal (made in Chicago) six string is tuned to G6th.I really miss the old days when we played the same club six nights a week. If that was still going on I think I'd set 'em all up as they all have their own distinctive tones and personalities. Wouldn't it be great if you were able to set up all your stuff and just leave it, go back the next night and just turn it on and pick.......Those days are dead and gone.........JH in Va.

John Hansen · Post by **John Hansen** » 17 Jun 2009 6:43 am

Sometimes I just play my pedal steels without using any pedals or knee levers. It's a good challenge to see how much music can be played that way, a lot it turns out. Forces you to slant the bar and really makes you move the bar around. My favorite steel these days is a Fender 400.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 17 Jun 2009 6:49 am

In theory I could use the C6 neck on my Sho-Bud, without the pedals, in the same way that I use my Guyatone D8 (a Stringmaster copy), but the string spacing is narrower on pedal steels than on non-pedal consoles. I have thick fingers, and it makes a difference.

Danny James · Post by **Danny James** » 17 Jun 2009 8:17 am

Because of a very bad back and 3 hip replacements I have a lot of trouble using the pedals on my Multi-Kords. I can get two pedals down accidently and can't feel it because of numbness in both feet. Sounds awful!

Therefore I built a lapsteel and designed, built, and installed a tuning changer.

With just the flip of a single lever I have four tunings at my disposal. It's like having a 4 neck lap steel with only one neck. Except I can't change necks while playing a song.
My tunings are Amaj.--E--A6th--C6th. Low bass six strings. I made the guitar as an 8 string but for now I am just using 6 as that's what I'm used to.

I am making another one and then will do some experimenting with the 8 strings and different tunings.

The tuning changer is completely adjustable and different tunings can be put on it.

Works for me.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 19 Jun 2009 9:13 pm

I've always thought that pedal steels should be built with the ability to lock any of the pedals in the down position. This is what Danny seems to be describing.

Three hip replacements, Danny ? Most people only have two hips.

Yes, I know it's not funny; it means that one of the replacements had to be done twice, which must be extremely uncomfortable.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 19 Jun 2009 10:26 pm

I have been playing more non pedal steel these days than pedalsteel. The sound and feel are quite different. There are things I can play on the non pedal that just would not work on the pedalsteel. I feel more comfortable on the pedalsteel but the non pedal is getting my attention.

Robbie Daniels · Post by **Robbie Daniels** » 20 Jun 2009 8:37 am

I originally learned to play on a non-pedal steel and have always kept a non-pedal on hand. Now I have an 8 string lap steel, 6 string amplified dobro style steel and a 12 string non-pedal steel that was custom built by myself and a good luthier friend of mine, in fact I will be playing it tonight on a gig because I have a problem with my left foot. I use a chromatic C6 on the 12 string.

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 20 Jun 2009 11:08 pm

You can see my One-Of-A-Kind non-pedal steel if you scroll to the bottom of this Web~Page. He only made one T–10 so far!