Digitally Pitch-shifted Pedal Steel Guitar

[Lee Baucum]

I wonder how well it tracks wide vibrato and bar slides.

[Dan Ray]

To Andrew and Fred's point, 90 percent of my playing/practicing is unplugged (hopefully this won't last forever, my little ones will eventually grow up) and this digital steel would basically not work at all like that.

But man oh man, I really thought it was gonna sound much worse. Very innovative and crazy what he's pulled off so far, I really hope there's a finished product one day.

I guess it was only a matter of time. The tech has to be similar to those Line 6 Variax's. It's very hard to tell that those guitars are really just producing digital representations of a guitar string sound. You can change tunings, tambers heck, you can even turn a string off if you want - and no string tensions change.

[Damir Besic]

2 years old video , and nothing comes up on Google search , and if you go to his website some weird stuff comes up , nothing to do with steel guitars …

[Mike Preuss]

Here is a similar instrument. Strings for the right hand, some sort of sensor for the left? I applaud these creators for their skill and ingenuity.
https://youtu.be/Ht6hbYVp-24?si=QS_euT1YMFZrWrtQ

[Whip Lashaway]

I’m wondering about the sound coming from the strings. It may be digitally changed through the amp but you still have the acoustic sound from the strings that are not changed. I would think that would be very distracting. This might be a good tool for experimenting with different setups and tunings but I don’t think it would be good for performances. Great idea though.

[D. Scheindlin]

I’m wondering about the sound coming from the strings. It may be digitally changed through the amp but you still have the acoustic sound from the strings that are not changed. I would think that would be very distracting. This might be a good tool for experimenting with different setups and tunings but I don’t think it would be good for performances. Great idea though.

It’s a really good question. I wonder how much of an issue it’d be when playing in a band setting vs at home/solo.

[Greg Cutshaw]

I do all of playing now with headphones or ear buds. No amp and no problem with room acoustics. So hearing the strings is not an issue for me. Of course this new instrument will have issues and it’s an amazing prototype that will be improved but that has numerous advantages over any guitar I’ve ever seen. My original post was just for information and I found out about this guitar from someone else’s post on FB. Maybe the sound is digitally generated and altered as needed but that sound could be tailored to sound like any brand of guitar, sustain, harmonics and so on. And it’s not like our existing guitars don’t also have issues like cabinet drop, string buzzes, strings aging, strings breaking from stretching, complicated copedant changes, temperature effects on open and pedal tuning etc.

[Fred Treece]

The first reaction to even the smallest challenge to conventional wisdom is going to involve the target clientele grasping at straws to find a problem with it. This is a sea change! I think most of the responses here show the open-minded nature of the steel guitar community at large, albeit with minor concerns and reservations. I would certainly like the opportunity to at least try the OnePSG before going to the ballot box on it.

[J D Sauser]

I don't want to be the "told you so"-guy... but I did predicted this for over 2 Decades and was rather laughed at for doing so on this forum many times, even on the newer Builder's section.

I think that as far as electronics, this could have been done 20 years ago when electronic pianos became good. Pitch shifting is simple "math" to electronic devices and is being used in the recording industry now near constantly ever since singers are not expected to be able to "hold a tune" anymore as long they have BIG tushies and perky oversized breasts competing with the front bumper of a 1956 Cadillac's "bullets".

I was aware of the efforts now posted by the OP and in contact with the developer for some time now. But since this was not scheduled for public release, I won't go beyond saying that their effort is way beyond "just some experiment".
There are some name-players aware of it (test-played it) and at least one name player many of us know about on the Forum even involved with it. So, you can expect a REAL professional grade digital PSG to come out of this effort.

Is it going to replace "our" mechanical PSG's? In my opinion, no... or at least not anytime soon. But I think it may take a market share at all levels, from bed-room aficionados to road players.
I also think, that if it gets commercialized, we will eventually see other (competing/alternate) versions of it and this may create a whole new approach to steel guitar as such as it could find it's application with non-pedal steel guitars too ("vario-tuning" and some paddle changes or digital knee levers even on a lap-steel).
I for one suggested re-designing the instrument completely since there is no more undercarriage and thus no more need for the inverted "U"-shaped cabinet I personally find detrimental to tone when compared to good sounding non-pedal steels (a sound-board built with TONE in mind).
If I was given that kind of technology I would also go back to a "clean" bridge instead of taking over the large radius bridge which was a mechanical necessity when changers came along at the bridge.
But I would understand that the creators of this new instrument, may rather care to retain at least the expected LOOK of a PSG.

I could also imagine that someone could some day make a version that runs on a tablet (iPad/Android/Windows) and just sell a pickup with a set of wired pedals and/or levers which could be fitted to pretty much any stringed instrument... from guitars to even a concert harp!

The "only" drawback I see with it, is NOT tone, or "tracking" or noticeable delay... but the fact that, when playing a lower volumes (home or studio) one may hear the strings' original pitch clash with what comes pitch altered out of the amp's speaker. Easy fix: just do what Jerry Lee Lewis would do... play louder!

... J-D.

[Donny Hinson]

One of my primary concerns is always reliability, as electronic components will never have the service life of mechanical devices. (Pedal steels made 70+ years ago still work fine today.) Glitches, programming bugs, and data losses with anything digital are far too common, and they get even more common as the technology ramps up. I've even invented a term for it "OP-WROND" (Old Programs Wont Run On New Devices), as this problem has bitten me in the ass so many times in the last 35 years.

My other concern is the temperaments of the virtual tunings. How are the programmed? Are they easily modifiable? Are the C6th (more ET-inclined) and the E9th (more JI-inclined) offsets being dealt with? I realize this is a new technology, but the example clip in the video was far too pitchy for my even old ears.

I applaud new technology, and I wish the designers and manufacturers well, but only when that technology is truly better, cheaper, and easier to operate than the old stuff.

As one auto reviewer put it: "Yes, the 1100-watt, 21 speaker, integrated sound system in that car sounds great, but why do you have to go through 7 menus to turn the radio down?"