The Steel Guitar Forum

I’ve had a Fender 1000 for a few years. I recently noticed the back neck, which I don’t use, has a much better sound. The pickup is a lot closer to the strings and that may be why. So got out the screw driver and… the front pickup won’t adjust the height. Not too surprising, figure I need to take it...

I’m just a beginner but E9 doesn’t really make any sense without pedals.

There’s a lot of all-or-nothing advice around PSG and while there’s reasons for that, I think the #1 rule of pedal steel is: have a pedal steel.

Yeah, I have one of the Antique Electronic Supply tube shirts. Unfortunately the shirt quality isn't great (or wasn't when I bought one ~10 years ago).

Sorry I didn't post the amazon link originally. Some forums have rules against commercial links and I couldn't remember if this one did or not.

I have a Fender 1000 pedal steel and was bored and rummaging around on Amazon the other day and stumbled across an interesting shirt. For some reason somebody out there makes T-shirts with patent drawings on them and (I have no idea why) they make one with one of Fender's pedal steel patents (2,973,...

I can't imagine holding pedal steels as a serious investment. Maybe -- maybe -- traditional country music will get super popular in the future. Or maybe -- maybe -- some PSG artist will break thru into non-country genres. But more likely prices will just be flat. There just aren't that many players....

I play a Fender 1000. Have not run out of strings so far

Pedal steels are relatively cheap...so I can't figure why we're still hearing how most who want to learn can't afford one. I don't think it's a question of affording it, it's the financial risk. When someone says "I want to learn electric guitar" they don't just go buy a $2k MIA Fender st...

Those machined parts of the steel have to be seriously time consuming and expensive to make for small shops. Yeah, if there were a standard pattern then they could be produced in medium volumes for much cheaper. The parts cost would still add up to a few hundred dollars I think if you're including ...

Another way to look at this is it's hard to get a good steel for less than $1k. If a new builder could somehow make something competitive for much less there might be room in the market. It may also drive better demographics. Lap steels and resonator guitars don't have the same aging demographic iss...

When I first started trying to design a pedal steel changer I tried to calculate the tension change and angular change (the length of the string doesn't change since that would cause an intonation issue). I don't remember if I succeeded in the calculation. Either way I decided I needed to mock somet...

California is a big place... did you have a particular area in mind?

I have no formal music instruction. This is your primary problem. I don't think it needs to be formal instruction, but some background in music is pretty much necessary to appreciate what's happening. I hesitate to say that pedal steel isn't a good first instrument... but it's at least not the easi...

Thanks for the lengthy and very clear explanation Jim. I think the root problem in my case is the splitters are all on top of each other. Because of that, moving the cable lower on the pulley made enough clearance for them to not rub/catch. I hope that makes sense. The nylon guides are a great idea....

Jim, I had figured things crossing and rubbing would be a bad thing. I wasn't aware the exact order mattered. The 1st pedal was routed at the top of the pulley and I've now moved it to I think the 5th rung down on the pulley. I'm not sure there's a way to route those 1st two pedals with that copeden...

Well I sorted this issue out and it surprisingly had nothing to do with the changer at all. What was happening was the cable splitter parts from the A and B pedals were interfering with each other. So when I pressed the A pedal down it would release to a slightly different position. When the B pedal...

I think it would be a great idea to try for someone that has the knowledge and ability and funds to try. I've been keeping it to myself up til now but I've been working on this for a little while. I don't want to say to much yet. It isn't terribly hard (nor expensive -- $12k???) to prototype someth...

That knee lever cable pulling sideways is quite likely what broke the separator plate. It could be, but several other separators have cracks as well. And that cable isn't pulling on a finger adjacent to the separator in question. I don't really understand why a steel plate would just crack like tha...

Sure, nobody is getting filthy rich making pedal steels. But I mean a $100 starter instrument would be possible. I think that’s a great goal, the cost of getting into pedal steel makes a lot of people hesitate. You can barely ship a pedal steel for $100. True! Though they get a lot lighter withou...

(It looks as if someone made a crappy attempt at adding a knee lever?) Hey! It was my first time, give me a break :D I'll be re-doing that when I add the other knee lever. While the knee lever works perfectly I haven't started using it yet. I ran out of space on the cable pulley so routed the cable...

Thanks for the reply. After posting I browsed around a little (haven't been lurking here lately) and saw this thread about a Fender 400 with similar issue. The recommendation was cable guides to reduce the lateral pull on the fingers. I started looking around under there to figure out how I would do...

The cost of such an instrument could be shockingly low. The cost of pedal steels is already shockingly low, considering the amount of labor and the high level of craftsmanship that goes into each one. :whoa: Sure, nobody is getting filthy rich making pedal steels. But I mean a $100 starter instrume...

A few points for servo-drives... • Replacing the pedal-rods with electronic linkage - a cable - is not a simplification, as then both the mechanical resistance, position-sensor and electronics for it has to be built into the pedal-attachment itself. Much simpler and more cost-effective to integra...

Hi all, I’ve got a Fender 1000 that is in good working order except one string has developed a stickiness to it. When I raise it, it comes back down a cent or two sharp. If I push on the finger underneath it goes back to tune. There is also a squeak coming from the changer for that string. All I d...

I'm convinced a large part of the low supply is the difficulty manufacturers have had at cost reduction. The budget instruments are priced around $700. That's about 5x what an entry level electric guitar goes for. Nobody buys a pedal steel on a whim. If I had to guess there's at least $100 in assemb...

Thanks, Nathan; good info there. I was at first thinking of a manufacturer doing this; didn't know what the current state of printers/materials was. It was just something I was wondering about. My employer has some resin printers (not sure the exact term for this, I think SLA -- the kind where a la...