What Pedal Steel Should I get?

[Ron Whitworth]

Hello Steven;
Welcome to the crazy wonderful passion of pedal steel guitar 1st of all..
My advise & opinion is:
Since you are in California call Jim Palenscar down in Oceanside, make an appointment & take the drive down to his shop.He has a full time steel guitar shop & knows his businees.He is as honest as they come & will not steer you wrong.He has several different brands of used pedal steels that you can sit down behind & get the feel of..Only YOU will know which one " feels right " for you..He can & will answer all of your questions & i fully believe you will take a steel guitar home from his shop if you can make it down there.Here is the link to his shop info..My best to you..Ron

http://www.stlgitr.com/

[Dennis Beck]

I believe your comment about beginner guitars is unfair.

Yeah. I thought the part about entry-level instruments was a little harsh. I've been playing biscuit boards since the early '60s, moved up to a '54 Fender Stringmaster D-8 in the '70s, and my first pedal steel was a Sho-Bud Maverick. I played out plenty with it ... festivals, bars, parties ... as a utility man alternating between the steel, acoustic guitar and my Tele.

I got the bug again last month and started seriously shopping for another PSG for gigging and doing some session work (traded the Maverick about ten years ago), and that's when I zeroed in on a used Carter Starter. Maple, Mica, 3/4 and $500 bucks delivered. Good for the kind of abuse that working gear gets around these parts.

If I ever do find myself investing several grand in a U-12 or D-10, I don't see any reason not to keep the Carter for gigs ... especially outdoors. Hot, humid Georgia nights are rough on exposed metal. Just look at the lifting Tolex and rusty screw heads and input jacks on any amp that lives in the South and gets out of the house much.

As long as she stays in tune, I'll take her to the dance.

[Dave Mudgett]

I dunno. The man says he has enough money to buy a pro-quality instrument, and doesn't want to outgrow it for a long time. I think that rules out things like Mavericks and most other starter models. I sure wish I had bellied up and gotten a pro model, properly set up for my tall frame, right from the get-go. I think it hampered me significantly. Just my opinion.

[Dennis Beck]

... about owning a pro instrument if you can afford one from the outset. I guess my point is that once I'm finally able to buy one for myself (like my grandad would say, "That's a lot of berries"), I expect to continue using the Carter Starter to meet the rigors of two or three one-nighters each week on tiny stages in 90% humidity.

I typically play my Guild in the studio or at special gigs and my Tele the rest of the time. It doesn't mean that the Tele isn't a great instrument. It's a beautiful Tele with hand-wound Rio Grandes, a custom wiring harness from Torres Engineering and shielding by Real Guitars in S.F. It's just more of a workhorse than the Guild so I tend to use it frequently under less-than-ideal conditions.

I would also enjoy owning a pair of Matchless tube amps. But instead I use Genz-Benz/Tube Works amps that take a lot of bouncing around. One of them is here at the house right now for repair. I was sitting in with a band a few weeks back and the singer stumbled through the cords on his way to the mic and busted an input jack. It's a bummer, but it's not the end of the world. These things happen.

So, yes, I wholeheartedly agree that someone should buy a Cadillac instrument, if they can afford one, and then grow into it rather than buying a lesser instrument that they may grow out of. But what I don't agree with from the initial post is disrespecting the Chevy work truck when it may actually be a better vehicle for the job.

[Jim Taylor]

Another vote for visiting Jim Palenscar in Oceanside. I bought a Dekley there a few months ago. I started to buy "the wrong thing", and he showed me the error of my ways.