If you could only have 3 pedals / levers total

Cody Coombs · Post by **Cody Coombs** » 17 Apr 2020 11:35 pm

If you could only have 3 pedals / levers total , what would they be , and what changes (raises , lowers) would they be ?

I suppose the A raising the 5th string to C# , B Pedal raising 3 and 6 to A , and maybe the the E's lowering ,
Hmmm

What do you all think you would choose ?

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 18 Apr 2020 12:59 am

I would need two knee levers lowering and raising E's,And three pedals,That would be the minimum for me otherwise,The baseball bat comes out!

Paul Wade · Post by **Paul Wade** » 18 Apr 2020 4:24 am

Stu Schulman wrote:I would need two knee levers lowering and raising E's,And three pedals,That would be the minimum for e otherwise,The baseball bat comes out!

Like Stu said

Roger Crawford · Post by **Roger Crawford** » 18 Apr 2020 4:59 am

The question was â€œonly threeâ€.
Raise 5&10
Raise 3&6
Lower 4&8
A ton of music has been made with just those changes.

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 18 Apr 2020 5:20 am

Roger Crawford wrote: Raise 5&10
Raise 3&6
Lower 4&8

Same here.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 18 Apr 2020 5:43 am

I'd go with A-B-C, as that's what most of the "greats" started with...before levers were re-discovered.

(Yes, there were levers before there were pedals!)

K Maul · Post by **K Maul** » 18 Apr 2020 6:49 am

Three changes only:
A pedal
B pedal
Knee lever lowers 8 E-Eb, raises 4 E-F, raises 9 D-Eb.

Fred Justice · Post by **Fred Justice** » 18 Apr 2020 7:16 am

You know some players could play all night on just two pedals and one knee lever.
Our Justice Jr. starts out that way, 2x1
add more at the build (Recommended) or add them later.
Either way its a great guitar to start out with, or stay with at 3x4 Here's the link to take a look at em.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 18 Apr 2020 9:35 am

OK, this is a pretty academic exercise for a pedal steel because in reality, I'd somehow put together a second knee lever to make it 2+2. But if you were to cage me in a room with only 2+1, give me all the parts I need to put it together, and then put a gun to my head and say that's what I have to play, here's what I would do:

First, I would tune it (low-to-high) G# B E F# G# B E G# D# F#, and set it up like this (each increment a semi-tone), with slightly modified A+B and RKL:
[tab]Open A B RKL
1 F#
2 D# -2(C#) -1(D)
3 G# +1(A)
4 E -1(D#)
5 B +2(C#)
6 G# +1(A) -2(F#)
7 F#
8 E -1(D#)
9 B +2(C#)
10 G# +1(A)
[/tab]
This is the top 10 strings of a 12-string E9/B6 universal. This gives a pretty full non-pedal A6 (A+B engaged) and B6 (RKL engaged), both of which I use a lot, with some minimalist changes. If I was playing out of A6 or B6, or otherwise wasn't using the string 6 G=>F# change, I'd just disengage it at the end plate. If the changer could handle it, I'd probably move string 2 D#=>C# to RKL.

Kevin Fix · Post by **Kevin Fix** » 18 Apr 2020 9:52 am

Same as Stu..

Franklin · Post by **Franklin** » 18 Apr 2020 1:38 pm

Hi Cody,

The standard A B & C pedals...Is your best option....To play the bare minimum in music requires playing diatonic harmony - which is 1 2m 3m 4 5 6m 7dim - These are chords derived from the major scale. Those are also the common chords played in almost every song composition. Those 3 pedals make them easily accessible.

The A&B pedal combination provides the 1 to 4 and 5 to 1 resolves for the basic three chord songs.....B & C pedals provide all of the minor chord options in diatonic harmony and makes it very to easy to play a diatonic chord scale up the fretboard. That option is great for playing melodies of songs. Without any lever you can play strings 5 6 & 9 two frets back from the open position (For Example Say you are in C at fret 8....Move the bar back to fret 6 and play 5 6 & 9 for a 7 dim chord.

Two levers would be the bare minimum...Lower 4 & 8 a half tone on one lever
On the other raise 4 & 8 a half tone...

My 2 cents
Paul

Bill C. Buntin · Post by **Bill C. Buntin** » 18 Apr 2020 4:09 pm

I was thinking I would then go for c6 with pedals 567.

Bill

Cody Coombs · Post by **Cody Coombs** » 18 Apr 2020 6:22 pm

I like all your choices !

Coming from the dobro world for many years before Pedal Steel I would have to say slants are my bestest friend , so there's times I'll use a slant then realize " oh yeah I can use this pedal , or this lever and it will do the same thing " especially on the C6th neck I love the slants you can get on that . watching tons of videos and reading all about people's choice on copedents is wonderful , so I would have to say I change my mind on the A and B pedal with the E's lowering lever to switch to having A B C pedals , the levers I could try to get away with those slants

Thanks everybody for your replies , I'm still learning my way around this Steel and really enjoy hearing others thoughts , and I have to say to all the musical knowledge and theory you all have is very impressive , I think that could be what makes this Pedal Steel so interesting is that by paying attention to what I'm learning and studying it is really helping me understand music and what makes the music a whole lot more instead of just wailing on a guitar and sliding all over the dobro !

Larry Bressington · Post by **Larry Bressington** » 19 Apr 2020 6:10 am

Iâ€™ve always enjoyed these concepts, I think starting out with that is a great idea, sometimes you learn more with less, you have to search for it and learn the guitar on top instead of underneath. The 3 and 1 years ago was so much fun, you could cop most of the old hits with it, and if there was a lick in there you couldnâ€™t get you would search to find a way around it. You could even get your minor chords without the C pedal, play fragments with A B combinations or pick 1st or 6th string with A B if you want the route in the six minor chord. You could even play single notes or an octave

I really think that we start out with too much these days, learn the neck in itâ€™s skeletal form is great homework and foundation. However on three allowed Iâ€™d go AB lower 8-and 4 RKL for my style and my choices.

Craig A Davidson · Post by **Craig A Davidson** » 19 Apr 2020 8:10 am

I would need the A pedal-B-C#
B pedal-G#-A
E-F knee lever

The minors would be tricky by jumping strings but it could be done. Also I could play inversions, C for Amin, F for Dmin, Eb for Cmin and such.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 19 Apr 2020 11:38 pm

I've just realised this means 3 total, not 3x3

I can see where Donny and Paul F are coming from - ABC was it for many years, and much great music resulted. My first guitar had 3x1 but the lever had been added.

But now we can lower the Es, maybe I'd prefer ABE like Roger.

I also like the idea of C6 with 567! Again my first guitar had 45678 but no levers.

David Ball · Post by **David Ball** » 20 Apr 2020 2:59 am

Bill C. Buntin wrote:I was thinking I would then go for c6 with pedals 567.

Bill

I have a guitar set up that way and I play it a lot.

Dave

Fred Glave · Post by **Fred Glave** » 20 Apr 2020 10:42 am

Before knee levers, the ABC pedals were all that were used. And my personal opinion FWIW is that it was for a good reason.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 20 Apr 2020 11:46 am

The reason was that everyone was still enjoying the new-fangled trick of raising a string with a pedal, and the idea of lowering one hadn't occurred to anyone yet.

When it did, they were limited to strings which weren't being raised, and the first lever to appear lowered 2 and 8.

I take Fred's point though, that you can do a lot with just 3 pedals and for many years people did!

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 20 Apr 2020 12:45 pm

Ian Rae wrote:...you can do a lot with just 3 pedals and for many years people did!

Case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nw7jIaRDgA

Paul Sutherland · Post by **Paul Sutherland** » 20 Apr 2020 7:17 pm

I would have A & B floor pedals and a knee lever that lowered the 8th string to Eb and lowered the second string to D. But I still wouldn't be happy.

admin · Post by **b0b** » 20 Apr 2020 8:06 pm

I actually have a guitar with 2 pedals and 1 knee lever. It's an early Sho-Bud Maverick. I used the original pedals to expand a Model 6139. Then Andy DePaule made two more pedals for me and I put them on the Maverick. I set it up E9th with A B pedals and the F lever. Here's a song the I recorded with it: https://soundhost.net/2015/07/another-train-song/

Fred Glave · Post by **Fred Glave** » 21 Apr 2020 9:32 am

Nice case in point bOb. There are plenty of players with a boat load of levers and pedals that would be happy to play like that.

Larry Bressington · Post by **Larry Bressington** » 21 Apr 2020 1:18 pm

Very nice b0b, great sound, very west coastish. Yes