The Steel Guitar Forum

Welcome, Frank I suppose you noticed -- no moaning or sighing. I've always found this bunch to be supportive and helpful. Something you may not have thought about yet is that the financial risk is pretty low. Pedal steel isn't cheap, but I bet just about everyone who plays it agrees that the cost of...

I really like the look of two-tone guitars. Congrats!
Micky, if you wouldn't mind adjusting my ignorance, can you describe the benefits of having double pickups?

I've been playing with pedals for only a couple of years, so I don't have the expertise of these guys who've responded so far. But I can tell you that I got some good advice when I was in your situation. Everybody told me to hold out for a while, until I could buy what I really wanted. Eventually, I...

Think of how often people here mention the great service they've gotten from some vendor or builder. Seems to me that kind of advertising just can't be bought. I can't imagine why an instrument builder or online merchant wouldn't jump at the chance to gain an endorsement like the ones I just read in...

It was probably on this forum that I read what has become one of my favorite quotes. I wish I could remember who to attribute this to...

"If your steel guitar doesn't bring tears to your eyes, maybe you need a different steel guitar."

By that standard, my Mullen works just fine.

Matthieu and Jerry - Thanks for the suggestion.

It's a Mullen D-10. "Royal Precision" is decaled on the front, but according to Mike Mantey, it's a pre-G2.


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Pete - thanks, but I'm way down here in the Applegate Valley, near Grants Pass. I appreciate the offer, though. Steve - Thanks for the link. That's a start. What I'd like to do is install a completely different tuning that I've been wanting to try for a while. What's missing is a clear idea of how t...

I'd like to do a little experimenting with the copedent on my back neck. I've never messed with the undercarriage, and have only the vaguest notion of what to do. Can anyone point me toward some instructions or clues anywhere on line? Maybe a book?

Thanks - John

Here's mine: This picture is from the Mullen manual. Make sure the legs are screwed in securely. Grab a front leg at one end and a rear leg at the other. Grabbing the rear leg requires you to reach over the top, not around the end. Each hand should be held as if shining a flashlight at the tips of t...

I've been playing pedal steel for a bit less than two years. From previous experience with other instruments, I knew I would want to expand as much as possible with whatever steel I ended up getting. I settled on a D-10 with 8 pedals and 7 knee levers. One of the levers isn't even connected to anyth...

This is not exactly what you described, but I think it serves the same purpose.

Clickity

I have built a few non-pedal instruments, so I have some appreciation of what's involved. But building a pedal steel is so far out of my league, that I can say without any exaggeration - I'm just in awe. Great colors, too. Congratulations!

Thanks for a very insightful and entertaining post. I count myself extremely fortunate to have stumbled upon that video right around the time I got my first pedal steel - a little over a year ago. That and Mr. Newman's tuning charts from the Jeffran website surely saved me a lot of grief. Since then...

It's a fence I installed on my front porch. Keeps the pigs on one side and the dogs on the other.

Ed, your question about the advantages of learning to play E9 or C6 might be missing an important point - is there any reason you can't do both? It may seem that learning both is just too much. All I can say is that it has not been that way for me. The two tunings don't get all tangled together in m...

At the risk of hijacking this thread, I hope the "attack page" warning keeps everyone away from that site. The reason some don't see that warning message, as John DeBoalt said, is that the message is a function of your browser - assuming you're using one with that capability. If your brows...

Those scheduled updates happen every few days. It's a good idea to let your system go ahead and do the updates. People who don't will have a lot of catching up to do when it's time to upgrade to the next version - which will be in October. I'm always glad to read about new Ubuntu users. I've been us...

I use Linux, so I guess I don't get to vote. But I will say I'm a little surprised to see so few votes for "Too much trouble to learn a new OS". Just about everyone I know or encounter online seems to lean that way. I think most users don't want to be computer experts - they just want to c...

There's a page in the 112 manual that shows the settings you should start with.
If you didn't get a manual with your amp, Peavey has it online.

www.peavey.com/assets/literature/manual ... lle112.pdf

See page 8.

Welcome! Beginners like you and me can benefit a lot from the folks who frequent this forum. Seems like just about every time another beginner asks a question around here, I learn something. There are well seasoned pros hereabouts who gladly and generously share their knowledge. You have come to the...

CrowBear, Clete - Thanks for going to the trouble of laying the whole thing out.
Thanks, everyone. This is great; a whole bunch of new stuff to play with!
- John -

Thanks, Jack. I wouldn't be surprised to find that this is another area where people have strong opinions. I'd be interested in knowing why that 'name' steeler had that opinion... and why Buddy Emmons would disagree.

- john -

Before I became addicted to steel guitar, I spent a lot more time with regular six-string guitars than I have lately. Tuning with harmonics was a snap, and gave good results. Lately, I've been noticing people on the forum talking about tuning their steels this way. How is this accomplished? Are ther...

I have had a lot of the same trouble with picks. A trick that might work well for you is to dip the picks in that plastic goop that is sold for dipping tool handles. It makes a big difference for me. I still sound like a beginner, but the picks feel a lot better on my fingers - they stay put now, al...

It took only a little research to convince me that my first pedal steel had to be a D-10. I wanted to dive into E9, without wasting the little bit I'd learned from non-pedal C6. Six months later, I'm still glad I made that choice.