The Steel Guitar Forum

I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that pedal steel music is pretty much all improvised. Come to think of it, I can't think of an example of an instrument which improvises more. Harmonica?

+1 on the turbo tuner. I have the st-200 stomp box model. I pre-ordered it last year when they first came on the market. It's been awesome. You can program it exactly how you want, it's true-bypass, made of metal, small, easy to read, has three slots for different user tunings plus two dedicated chr...

I would play like that, but I prefer my slower, more amateurish style.

That's a +1 for Jesus. Armageddon averted.

If you add enough reverb, you won't hear the vibrato anymore.

Plugging stuff in is a drag. Especially when you're in the front of the stage and all the plugs are in the back. I won't use effects anymore that use power supplies. I've noticed that they sometimes add buzz in clubs with bad power. But I have no idea if Hilton pedals are prone to this; I suspect th...

Don Brown, Sr., I agree entirely with your post. But I'm not at all against theory; I'm a music teacher, and it pays my rent. I was just trying to address Calvin's original post. Sometimes when a beginning player on the forum asks a question like how do you go from G to C, a well-intentioned respons...

I think the poster is probably right. It's not easy to explain music theory plainly. The tendency (my tendency anyway) is to ramble on a bit too long and confuse the issue in the explanation. But ultimately, theory goes a long way to freeing up your playing. I think the best bang-for-the-buck for a ...

Sonic Research st-200. It's a new company. Strobe tuner, made of metal, true bypass, easy to read, fully programmable, battery lasts forever, small footprint... I've got nothing bad to say about this tuner. And it's $129.

Life's too short to buy from a$$hole companies. They also use slightly larger plugs, which can mess up your input jacks.

This is how keyboard players ended up with the "key-tar." So be careful what you ask for...

You can visit the Sierra factory near Portland. It's a pretty small operation, but there might be a steel or two for sale at any given time. Tom Baker, who runs it, is a hell of a guy. The website is sierrasteels.com. Other than that, there's really nothing in the Northwest that I know of.

I have the Sonic Research Turbo Tuner and I couldn't be happier. It's rugged, accurate, true-bypass, and very easy to read. You can program any temperament in 1/100th of a cent increments, and with one button you can toggle between temperaments, including standard chromatic tuning for guitar or what...

UPS has done extensive research on this subject, in addition to their well-known studies on dropping PSGs from the backs of trucks, running them over with forklifts, and throwing them over bridges. If anyone has an answer to the float-or-sink question, it's UPS.

The only drawback of a D-10 might be the weight. My first psg was a D-10 Sho-Bud, at around 85 lbs in the case. So when I got a second psg, I kept the Sho-Bud and got an extended E9 Excel which weighs more like 45 lbs. Much nicer to carry around. Luckily, a lot of the new steels are lighter than the...

Run a vacuum cleaner next to your amp - totally fixes the problem.

You might try rolling off all the high frequencies before the sound hits the tuner (like running it through a pedal with eq). If that helps, it might be stray high frequency harmonics confusing the tuner.

I'll tell you, my decision to get an extended E9 rather than a Uni had a lot to do with not wanting to re-learn the first ten strings. That way I can go back to my D-10 or any random E9 steel and not have to adjust for the D string. I think a lot of music comes down to muscle memory; even though I h...

You might try an e-bow...

Thanks everyone for all your advice. There's a lot of love in the pedal steel world. I'll bring my sho-bud, if the opportunity arises. As for those of you who wanted to trade equipment for licks, I only ever had three licks, and I forgot two of them. . . can't really help you there.

I'm worried the airlines would trash it. I've got an old sho-bud Pro II with no flight case & it's 85 lbs. I looked into flight cases and they're - well, they're about the cost of a Maverick. I figured I might save money and save my steel by renting, especially when you add in the overage costs,...

I'm worried the airlines would trash it. I've got an old sho-bud Pro II with no flight case & it's 85 lbs. I looked into flight cases and they're - well, they're about the cost of a Maverick. I figured I might save money and save my steel by renting, especially when you add in the overage costs,...

I've had a coupla maybe offers to tour Europe (knock on wood, a fella can dream, etc.) and I'm wondering how easy and/or cheap it is to rent a d10 over there.
Anyone know?
Thanks.

I've had a coupla maybe offers to tour Europe (knock on wood, a fella can dream, etc.) and I'm wondering how easy and/or cheap it is to rent a d10 over there.
Anyone know?
Thanks.

I used to get wrist pain until I switched to a bigger bar; worked for me. . . I think the smaller bar put my hand in an awkward position and put strain on my wrist.