Lap Steel & Pedal Steel Differences

Casey Saulpaugh · Post by **Casey Saulpaugh** » 22 Jun 2023 11:43 am

Here’s an article that discusses the main differences between lap steel and pedal steel:
https://playpedalsteel.com/pedal-steel-vs-lap-steel/

Anyone start with lap steel, and then start playing pedal steel later? Curious to see if that helped you in the long run for playing both instruments?

Seems to me that keeping things simpler in the beginning of the learning process by playing lap steel (focusing on blocking, bar control, technique fundamentals) could make jumping into pedal steel easier…as well as going back to lap steel whenever. Also seems like a lot of the older generations of players had a greater knack for bar control and technique in general by starting with lap steel (Buddy Emmons for example).

Thoughts?

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 22 Jun 2023 11:57 am

I played Dobro, lapsteel and for the last number of years a 12 string version of the Alkire eharp tuning. This specific tuning was very helpful in transitioning to pedal steel because everything is laid out the same and the AB pedal changes are available on single fret. And since I learned with 4 finger picks, this helped when moving to pedals.

Jim Pitman · Post by **Jim Pitman** » 23 Jun 2023 4:12 pm

Certainly. My history is dobro/lap steel/pedal steel.
To me it's all in the right hand. I developed a hybrid pick and palm blocking as a result.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 24 Jun 2023 7:21 am

I started on an acoustic Oahu lap guitar, went to an electric Gibson lap guitar, went to a triple neck Fender Stringmaster and then graduated to a Sho~Bud pedal steel.
The only reason I went to a pedal steel was the ability to get full three string chord grips up and down the neck.

Erv

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 24 Jun 2023 10:34 am

You could have learned the alkire tuning Erv and you would have had full four string chord voicings.

Jim Fogarty · Post by **Jim Fogarty** » 24 Jun 2023 2:14 pm

Differences, in visual form.....

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 25 Jun 2023 12:05 am

I started playing slide guitar 30 years before I started playing steel. As far as steel goes, I started playing pedal steel first because that's the sound I wanted - pedal steel, no ifs, ands, or buts. But as I got into it more, I found that, sometimes, I wanted to play without pedals.

I personally think it is totally reasonable for players to just start on the instrument that moves them at the time. Whatever that is. I think passion is the essential ingredient to learning any of them.

Ha, Jim! I never exactly thought about pedal steel as bombshell sexy, but maybe you're right.

Jeff Mead · Post by **Jeff Mead** » 26 Jun 2023 5:22 am

I started on pedal steel but quickly felt I was way out of my depth. I also realised i had the wrong instrument for what I acrually wanted to play - Hank Snr. style country and western swing so I bought a lap steel (six stringer, and eentually a triple 8 neck). I started to get interested in more modern country and the pedal steel sound (I had started experimenting on guitar with a b-bender) and when I eventually bought another pedal steel, it all made more sense to me. I already knew what to do with my hands and so it was far easier to then figure out the pedals.

Luckily, I had accidentally settled on A6 as my main tuning which meant that with A&B pedals down and a lever lowereing my low D to a C# I had my A6 "safety net" (a 6 string A6 on strings 4-9). Whenever I got lost, I could revert to what I already knew on A6 until I could get my bearings again! Helped a lot with live gigs (still does!!!).

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 26 Jun 2023 6:07 am

Count me in as another guy who got his start on pedal steel. I did not purchase a lap steel guitar until I had almost a decade under my belt playing a pedal guitar. Nowadaze, I play lap steels almost exclusively.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 26 Jun 2023 11:28 am

When I first started non-acoustic I bought an MSA 12 string universal Millennium and the very first 12 string Superslide from Reece. I fell in love with the lap steel and sold the pedal. Now I wish I had kept it

Samuel Phillippe · Post by **Samuel Phillippe** » 26 Jun 2023 2:09 pm

I started on bottle slide when another bottle slide player came in but used a open E tuning, I thought why not and went and bought a resonator. Played like that until I spotted a nut riser, so put in on and graduated to dobro style.
Quite a few years later a local guitar shop had a lap steel for sale for $90 so I bought it. Graduated to 8 string lap, with legs until another guitar player said to get a pedal steel because they were easy to play.....yea, right,......found out he never played a lap or pedal steel but he watched a pedal player and noted he didn't have to move the bar.
So here I am padaling the strings and enjoying it. I don't gig with it but sometimes think I should come out of retirement and do it......it's easy...???>>>..>..

By the way Jim, which one of those is your sister?

Sam

Paul Seager · Post by **Paul Seager** » 26 Jun 2023 10:35 pm

My own musical history began on electric bass. I had long been fascinated by PSG but the price of the instrument put me off. I began playing 6 string lap steel much later in life, "upgraded" to 8 string and then a D8. Now I have an entry level PSG from the German builder WBS.

I thought that years of playing A6 would help me out in the "pedals down" position but this hasn't really been the case. I have dispensed with the books I initially purchased and bought Paul Frankin's Introduction course. This is "back to basics" but worth it. Paul makes many references to his early lap steel lessons and their value but my own struggle is using the pedals and the volume pedal together, rethinking simple 1-4-5 sequences. This requires intensive practice.

Sure, everything learnt on lap steel is helping reduce the learning curve but ...

Still trying to get the ergonomics right, sitting "inside" the instrument, finding the right shoes (cowboy boots are thankfully not essential!) I suspect this'll change many times in the future.

Depending on how one picks and blocks on lap steel, it isn't that different on PSG: As Franklin's course states, Pick Blocking is not the only method!

Adapting left hand technique, holding the longer and heavier bar straight rather than tilting or slanting. Btw, Franklin encourages practicing with a "Stevens" bar to develop a good grip!

Playing with the amp far louder than normal to learn how to control volume swells. Oh boy, that annoys the wife!

But IMO, one should approach PSG as a related but different instrument to lap. It requires different thinking and physical skills to make it sing. I am 61 years young and can join a just-for-fun jazz session on non-PSG. I doubt to ever become that proficient in PSG but I am certainly enjoying the learning curve.

Rich Arnold · Post by **Rich Arnold** » 4 Jul 2023 11:13 am

A pedal steel is a lap steel until you press down on a pedal or knee lever.

Nic Neufeld · Post by **Nic Neufeld** » 4 Jul 2023 12:55 pm

Jim Fogarty wrote:Differences, in visual form.....

(backs away from making joke about lower back problems later in life, carting the extra weight of the pedal steel around)

I'm atypical in that I started with lapsteel but jumped over...mostly briefly...to pedal steel, but still in predominantly lap steel styles (Hawaiian), tinkering with Basil Henriques copedent and trying out some similar copedents to what I imagine the Hawaiian pedal players of the 50s/60s were doing. But mine's cased up right now, I didn't have room for it and I wasn't making significant progress with it. But maybe someday I'll get back to it! My trouble with pedal steel is it is hard enough to learn all the intervals between strings of a single tuning...then you add the ability to change the tuning into so many different possible tunings on the fly with your feet! Tricky stuff.

Brooks Montgomery · Post by **Brooks Montgomery** » 4 Jul 2023 1:41 pm

The difference to me is like one of those photos of a hallway of mirrors.
Lapsteel is like a mirror.
Pedal steel with feet and knees is like a mirror within a mirror within a mirror……

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 5 Jul 2023 6:40 am

I still play a lot of Hawaiian music on a pedal steel.
I like the ability to have several chord positions up and down the fretboard.

Erv

Casey Saulpaugh · Post by **Casey Saulpaugh** » 20 Jul 2023 10:34 am

Really interesting to hear all these perspectives from experience, thanks for sharing.

My trouble with pedal steel is it is hard enough to learn all the intervals between strings of a single tuning...then you add the ability to change the tuning into so many different possible tunings on the fly with your feet! Tricky stuff. -Nic Neufeld

I think about this a good bit nowadays - it often feels like pedal steel is a combination of lap steel & bottleneck slide guitar with just more options when you use the pedals/levers. I’m influenced by traditional pedal steel styles and bottleneck slide, so choosing in the musical moment whether to use pedals or not can sometimes feel like a little mental speed bump! This applies too for single note playing without slides, and choosing whether to move the bar or use a pedal instead.