Pedal Steel Differences

[Ron Wendler]

I have to get it straight in my thoughts about different Pedal Steels. 6 string, 8 string, 10 string and 12 string. Will one get the same wonderful sound from a 6 string as you do a 10 string, for example? Are they all played the same? My 6 string is much like a layed down regular guitar. With open cords I can find the standard used cords for a song. But that doesn't give me the sound of, say a 10 string when you grip 2 or 3 strings and use the pedals. Is it in the tuning or how it's played? Maybe I'm an old dog trying to learn new tricks and way off in my knowledge of what I'm trying to accomplish. Maybe I need to find a book that explains the whole world of the pedal steel guitar.

[Tim Fortin]

I am very new to steel guitar, so grain of salt.

More strings to me means more options, for better or worse. I went with a 10 string in e9 because the bulk of materials for learning is geared towards this tuning.

I think it’s gonna be all down to tuning and copedants to make a 6 string do a lot of what a 10 string can do. But if you have a 6 string with an open slide tuning like dadgad you won’t have the same runs and grips as if you tuned it to e9, same for the copedants, you want them to work within the tuning you use.

Number of strings likely has a lot to do with it, but I think tuning and copedants is the more important factor. Like a 4 string bass vs a 5 string bass. You get the bonus of the low b with a 5 string, but you can get the job done just as well with 4 strings you just need to tailor your playing to it a little to get the message across when a song calls for the bonus low notes. But if you tune that 5 string to some kind of alternate tuning, you won’t be able to directly translate from one to the other. It can be done, but it’s a lot more difficult and complicated, and takes more understanding of theory and tunings.

[Bill McCloskey]

While there are some great 6 string players (Chris Glass being a great example) if you want that E9th pedal steel sound, you are going to need a 10 string pedal steel guitar. Makes very little sense to muck around with anything else, if for no other reason than you won't find any instructional material for 6, 8, or 12 string, but you will find a boatload for 10 String E9th

[Bobby D. Jones]

Here is a setup that may work for you with an A and B Pedals.
This is an open E tuning. with 2 pedals on an E910 string.
--------A ped.--B ped.
1-E
2-B-----C#
3-G#---------- A
4-E
5-B-----C#
6-E

1-2-3 would be 4-5-6 grip on a 10 string.
3-4-5 would be 6-8-10 grip on a 10 string.
1-3-5 would be 5-6-8 grip on a 10 string.
Good Luck -Happy Steelin.

[Donny Hinson]

While there are some great 6 string players (Chris Glass being a great example) if you want that E9th pedal steel sound, you are going to need a 10 string pedal steel guitar. Makes very little sense to muck around with anything else, if for no other reason than you won't find any instructional material for 6, 8, or 12 string, but you will find a boatload for 10 String E9th

I'm just a hacker at this, but I'm not as closed-minded as Bill. The way I see it, the guitar is just a tool, like any other tool, and what comes out of it depends far more on who's using it than it does on the tool itself. Sure, there's infinitely more learning material geared to 10-string guitars, and there are tons more players of that configuration. But somehow, Chris learned the thing, and I think he does a fabulous job. I can say, with decades of experience playing and being a member here, that I think he's playing more (and better) in this video than probably half of the players on this forum, players with much more expensive and elaborate rigs. So who's to say what you "need" or what can be done on a certain guitar? Pete Kleinow had a lifelong and very successful career playing an 8-string Fender pedal steel. Could the same thing be done on a 6-string pedal steel? Absolutely! Keep in mind that art connoisseurs judge a painter by his works, not by how many brushes or colors of paint he used.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4I18Z7wGWQ

~

[Bill McCloskey]

Not so much close minded, but hard earned experience. I tried every combination of tuning and strings. I wish I had just started on a 10 string E9th mullen.

[Rich Arnold]

I've never tried a 6 or 8 string PSG. Those were tempting but instead I bought a D-10. I believe it was a good decision.
If there is something I can't find on the D 10 it's my own stupid fault and I can't blame the instrument for lack of options.

[Dave Grafe]

I use all 10 strings all of the time, I agree with Bill that if you want to learn to play pedal steel guitar start with a 10 string E9 guitar. If you just want to SOUND like a steel guitar playing what you already know how to play just get a volume pedal and a B-bender on your Telecaster and watch all the Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton videos you can find. If you want to master the 6-string steel it's a worthy instrument with its own possibilities, especially in a major 6th tuning, but it is what it is and it's strength is not in sounding like a pedal steel or I would never have made the jump from great-granddad's Washburn Hawaiian guitar to a ShoBud Maverick 50+ years ago. There's a reason Buddy and Jimmy et al didn't stay with the 6 strings they all began with and stopped when they got to 10. There's a world of music in the modern 10-string copedants and most of it is just not available on a 6- or 8-string instrument no matter how many pedals it has.