Ergonomics and the Pedal Steel

[Alan Brookes]

When they design cars they spend a lot of time studying the seating position, and location of steering wheel, pedals, gear shift etc. After all, their customers are going to have to spend hours in one position, and they need to be comfortable.

It seems to me that no-one has ever done this with the pedal steel. It's shape has just evolved over the years, and now we're stuck with a (to me) very uncomfortable playing position. I wonder how many non-pedal steel players chose to stand up and not use pedals because they couldn't get comfortable with the shape of the pedal steels on the market.

I have to say that I've tried dozens of pedal steels of various brands and most of them are very uncomfortable. The best I've come up with so far is my Sho-Bud Crossover. The fact that it has only one knee-lever, to the extreme right, and, because the pedals work on both necks you don't have to move a foot to the right when switching to the C6 neck, help a lot.

Has anyone ever studied the ergonomics of the pedal steel and tried to come up with a better design?

[Joachim Kettner]

I never felt uncomfortable, but then I never spent hours in a row sitting there.

[richard burton]

Any steel manufacturer that produces 'off the shelf' instruments has to make a compromise on positioning of pedals and levers, height of steel, angle of legs etc, as the customer is unknown.

However, if the steel is bespoke, then measurements can be taken of the customer in a seated position (at a suitable height for optimum pedal actuation, which is usually higher than a regular kitchen chair), to accurately determine the position of pedals/levers etc.

If the manufacturer also takes the trouble of minimising the amount of effort required to activate the changer fingers, and also minimising the pedal/lever travel (by the use of helper springs) then the knee levers can be brought a little closer to the knee, thus reducing excessive left leg movement.

[Richard Damron]

Alan -

This reply may not help you in the least but it will give you some insight as to what I have done in order to improve the ergonomics of my instrument.

I have completely refurbed/rebuilt an old Dekley SD12. Further, I have concocted a copedant which serves to facilitate the ready access of modern chords - chords with extensions, if you will.

I, too, have been quite unhappy with the "standard" position - something akin to a Thanksgiving turkey wishbone - especially since I am a relatively short 5'-8" tall. After careful consideration - and mindful of the fact that this was a total rebuild - I have moved all of the pedals and levers towards the center of the instrument. I now have two "clusters" of pedals/levers. Three pedals and three levers to each "cluster" and the two "clusters" are separated by the distance between two adjacent pedals. The left "cluster" is dedicated to the left leg/knee and the right "cluster" dedicated to the right leg/knee. When I sit at the instrument, it is as if I simply sat down in a chair and my feet naturally fell upon pedals #2 and #5 out of a total of 6. The levers are situated to accommodate this relaxed and natural position. Aside from the fact that my position is tailored to me, physically, one can imagine that the necessary movements in order to activate any pedal, lever, or a combination of the two is quite minimal - almost effortless.

The number of pedals/levers - six of each - is quite sufficient to exercise my copedant. The only detriment to such an arrangement is the necessity of moving my right foot - somewhat awkwardly - in order to use the volume pedal. This is of little concern - to me - since I use the volume pedal sparingly only to improve "sustain" - preferring to adjust the initial volume of the note with picking effort.

The total of 12 possible changes exceeds, for example, the typical C6 setup but without the necessity of moving one's feet all over the "south fourty" in order to effect a particular change. A simple rotation of one's foot easily accesses any one of the three pedals.

The obvious caveat: - This arrangement was made feasible only because I essentially "started from scratch" in my effort to ergonomically make the instrument "fit" ME. To apply this thinking to an "off the shelf" instrument would require a major rebuild. However, if a player is REALLY concerned about the ergonomic ease of playing the instrument, then such an endeavor should be considered.

To reiterate - the above may not assist you in any way however it does illustrate but one way in which to alter the physical positioning of levers and pedals in order to facilitate a "user friendly" configuration.

Hope this sheds a little light on the subject.

Richard

[Curt Trisko]

I think it makes the instrument even more esoteric. I'm not the kind of person to be arrogant about (since it seems we're the only people that know how special we are anyway ), but I do get my kicks seeing people who are very skilled at other instruments struggle to sit comfortably behind a pedal steel, let alone play it.

[Lane Gray]

Alan, I saw your earlier mention of not liking the seating position in which you asked "why can't it be more like a car, with yer feet out in front?"
A minor objection first: unless You're playing with a sitar, the aesthetics are all wrong, we're the shortest folks on the stage, let's not drop us a foot or two.
A practical objection: in an upright position, the stage provide a base to push against, you lose that if you go from toes-out to toes-up.
Comfort objection: I drive semis, until this last year, we did not need to nor were we required to leave the driver's seat, and were comfortable in it enough to DO 10 or 11 hours, sometimes stopping only to take a leak (we still don't need to, but Obama's jackass at MCSA now requires us to: a @#&%#$ NEEDLESS lengthening of my workweek, I'd rather get home 5 hours earlier). In my wife's Civic, I find myself GLAD that the fuel tank only lasts 4 hours or so. The difference lies mainly in a small car has the driver seated legs-out, toes-up. A REAL vehicle has the driver seated upright.

[Fred Rushing]

It has been my observation, after 35 years of on and off playing. There is most likely, a steel that will set up well with MOST players. They are all a little different when you get under them. I have played many steels over the years. The last 15 have been under an Emmons LGII. It is standard set up and height.
I can go anywhere and sit under a Emmons LGII SD10 of standard hieght and set up and be toally comfortable. Can't do that with any other guitar. That Model just FITS my body and posture.
You can rework most anything to fit your particular demands. However it seems most players can find one that fits them well. They all really do feel a little different. Unless you have a particular physical need I doubt you can improve much on what is out there today.
Not looking for a fight. Just my simple observations over the years.

Fred

[Jim Pitman]

I have Frank Carter's Infinity. The knee levers have angled paddles on them to match the the angle of your legs - very comfortable. An easy pedal action contributes to the comfort of the guitar as well.

Alan, I've seen your creative self built instrument submissions.
How about a "recumbent" pedal steel?

[Harry Dove]

I know this has been discussed before, but I'm not convinced with all the innovation in the field of electronics, that there couldn't be an electrical/mechanical pedal steel with all the feel of a purely mechanical guitar, where the pedals and levers could be put where ever was most comfortable and the copedent could be changed with a little electrical adjustment. I'm sure if there were a lot more steel players to recoup the cost, this would have happened a long time ago. I know many will argue that it wouldn't have the feel but like anything you would get used to it and it probably wouldn't be that much different. We probably will never know because it probably won't happen.

[Jim Pitman]

Harry,
I think it will happen but it won't be mechanical in the pure sense. It will be synthesized. That is, the pedals and levers will be input devices to a computer that synthesizes steel guitar tones. Even the strings will be triggers rather than actually generate a tone.
At first it won't sound exactly like a pedal steel but it might evolve to come quite close, or, conversely, it may evolve to become its' own instrument with much more variety of tonality than a mechanical PSG.

The electro-mechanical pedal steel that you speak of is still cost prohibitive not because of the electronics but the mechanics rather. It's very difficult to engineer that precise electronic to mechanical conversion that is required at a low enough cost for the scale of the size of the market.
On the other hand, the total synth steel could be made economically - it's mostly software.
It think the totally synthesized pedal steel has value right now in that it would allow you to try out not only different ergonomics and pedal feel, but different copedents at the touch of a button. Kinda pie in the sky but - When you decide to buy a new steel, you would go in for a "PSG fitting" using the synth steel. Then a traditional mechanical steel with your favorite copedent would be packaged to fit you precisely.

[Alan Brookes]

Some interesting discussion points brought up here. As has been said, the pedal steel guitar is a minority instrument. Unlike the six-string guitar, there are not enough of them produced to bring about the economies of scale of mass production.

Then you have the personal preferences. One person will feel comfortable driving a Mini, while another prefers to recline in a sports car, and yet another to sit upright in a truck.

I wonder if those who feel comfortable with the present design are happy with it because their dimensions better fit the models available than some others of us do.

I remember the old school desks, where the seat and desk were all on the same frame, so there was no adjustment even as to distance you sat from the desk. But, there again, the old desks sloped at an angle and were better to work on. If you designed a pedal steel that was set up in a reclining position, with a bucket seat, you would need to combine the steel and the seat in one frame, albeit adjustable. Then you have the transportation problem. It would end up with the bulk of an organ and would have to be wheeled in. On the other hand, it could be wheeled in already set up, so you wouldn't have the hassle of reconnecting all the rods and making sure that it was still in tune.

Now we come to the question of the rods. I don't think Harry's idea of an Electromechanical connection would lose the feel of the regular steel. We're not talking of self-tuning strings, as have been mentioned in the past, but merely of the equivalent of power-assisted steering, where the pedals become switches that activate electromagnets that push and pull the strings as you move the pedal. I've brought up the idea of pneumatics in the past, where the pedals would compress liquid rather like a brake system, and the brake mechanism would operate the fingers in the steel. Personally, I would go for cable operation, but, rather than the cables and pulleys used by Fender, cables within tubes, like in car accelerator cables.

There is something to be said for the fact that the steel guitarist doesn't want to be seated at a lower level with everyone else in front of him. It happens to other instruments, too. They stopped Karen Carpenter playing the drums and put her up front with a microphone because they felt she wasn't prominent enough. You don't see many steel guitarists taking the vocals.

As Jim inferred, if I want a pedal steel that I feel comfortable with I should design it myself, and I've been thinking along those lines for some time now. I must add, though, that I'm more of a woodworker than a mechanic. Building lap and console steels is one thing: building a pedal steel is quite another. If I do design and build a pedal steel I shall use a ready-made mechanism from an existing instrument, but I shall probably discard the rods and bell-cranks.

[Henry Matthews]

I think the old Emmons Push Pull pedals will never be surpassed for comfort.