Pedals or No Pedals?

Jim Walker · From: Headland, AL

What did you play first? Pedal or Non pedal steel?

I played non-pedal 1st. A Gibson BR-9 6 string.

A. J. Schobert · From: Cincinnati, Ohio,

First trumpet(grade school), then a 6 string guitar, then my sho-bud w/pedals.

Robert Thomas · From: Mehama, Oregon, USA

A non-electric 6 string Hawaiian guitar as they called it in those days many years ago. Then in 1949 or 50 a Gibson BR-9 with a matching Gibson Amp, which I believe was 28 Watts.

Tom Campbell · From: Houston, Texas, USA

Cornet (grade school), regular 6 string guitar (35 yrs.) pedal U12...then non-pedal (have 2, one tuned to B6 and the other tuned to E9). Love'em all!

John Poston · From: Albuquerque, NM, USA

I, too, started on a Gibson BR9 with matching amp. Then I graduated to a Fender 400 C6 setup, then an Emmons P/P.

...and I'm less than 40 years old...

Smile

David Doggett · Posted 24 Apr 2007 7:51 am

After piano, organ and sax, I took up guitar, slide guitar, Dobro, lap steel, then pedal steel. I'm 60.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I started on lap steel, and I recommend that every new player start without pedals to get the hang of the basic hand movements.
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Herbie Meeks · From: Arkansas, USA

b0b
IMO , The best advice I've seen on The Forum,
Learn a couple tunes , (on lap Steel,/or, on your PSG )
without using the pedals,

The pedals will fall into place then.

Herb

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

In order - piano, guitar, slide guitar (in standard position and on my lap), upright bass, lap steel, mandolin, banjo, dobro, then finally pedal steel.

I agree that getting the basic bar and fingerpicking movements down on slide guitar or lap steel is a good idea before getting into pedals and knee levers.

Dave Harmonson · From: Seattle, Wa

I kinda had it backwards by learning pedal steel first. I started playing dobro later and then lap steel. I've found that working on straight steel has improved my pedal playing. I think it helps to be a little crazy to begin with. Smile

Jody Sanders · From: Magnolia,Texas, R.I.P.

Started learning with no pedals. Played no pedals til the pedal guitars came out. Jody.

Terry Wood · From: Lebanon, MO

My brother had just got out of the Army and came back from Vietnam. He said I am going to trade for you a steel guitar.

I thought wow, is it really made of steel? Well, he traded for it and it was a 6 string Silver Tone lap steel. I was about 12 years old. He started trying teach me and soon he traded up for a Canary Yellow 6 string Fender lap steel. Boy was I ever in hog haven! I learned a bunch with him teaching me and then gave it all up when I saw my first pedal steel player, Mr. Don Helms. I wanted a pedal steel but there weren't any in the area and the money if they were would have been impossible for me.

THen when I was about 18, I heard a cut on a local radio station playing songs from an L.P. of Lloyd Green. He was playing "I Can See Clearly Now," and I was hooked like a Big Bass.

Bought my first Lloyd Green pedal SHO-BUD at 19 and it has been a love battle ever since.

Terry Wood

Marc Jenkins · From: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Guitar at age 7.
Slide guitar starting at about 14.
Banjo and mandolin (both poorly) around 23.
Lap steel at 28.
Pedal steel one year ago at 31.

That should be enough, finally...

John Cox · From: Texas, USA

I started without pedals, after six months of playing a modified guitar/dobro I went to pedals. J.C.

Colby Tipton · From: Crosby, Texas, USA

I started on a "Rickenbacker lap steel.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Starting when I was about 10 years old (in chronological order), I played...drums, guitar, harp, lap steel, pedal guitar, banjo, violin, bass, and keyboards.

Never went anywhere on any of 'em. Rolling Eyes

Moon in Alaska · From: Kasilof, Alaska * R.I.P.

I started on a "Sivertone" 6 string lap steel from Sears. Cost new...$29.50.
A few years later, I found a lap steel which had legs, which was a BIG step up.In the mid 1950's
I built a homemade pedal on that steel. I tuned in E-Major, My one pedal pulled both the B and G# strings, making the same move as A and B pedal now.
It of course needed adjusting every couple of songs, but I thought it was the "cat's meow"..
I purchased my first pedal steel in 1962, a new
Fender-400. I still have that steel today. I now play a Carter S-10.
Moon
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Les Green · From: Jefferson City, MO, R.I.P.

I started playing steel on a solid body "Silvertone" guitar tuned to Emaj. Used a fountain pen for the nut and a pocket knife for a bar. Then went to a 6 string Surpro Lap. Don't remember the tuning. From there to a 3 neck Rickenbacker on which I rigged up the AB pedal on one pedal. I'll never forget the thrill of playing "The Waltz You Save For Me" just (well almost) like Bud Issacs. Bought a new Fender 1000 in early '62.
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Marty Smith · From: California

No pedals then , No pedals now

CrowBear Schmitt · From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France

i started out on a Gibson BR6
open E w: option C# on string 2 &/or Dom7 on string 4
i still play it even though i went on to a psg
i too recommend that lap steel is the way to go fer beginners

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Lap steel for 40 years, then pedal for the last 4. But I wish I had taken up pedal 40 years ago. I just couldn't afford it on my allowance !

Roy Ayres · From: Riverview, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

I second b0b's motion, with the following amendment

Play the non-pedal steel until you find yourself wishing you had a zig-zag-shaped bar because you really need to reach a note that is above or below your bar position. That's when you will need pedals, and when you will really understand why people use them.
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Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

6-string lap steel (although you couldn't put it on your lap, the underside was a slab of 1/2" thick steel plate). Played that from 1963 until 6 string Supro in 1970. Got pedals 7 years later.
Got the tuning from Leeds Hawaian (sp?) Steel Guitar book in 1963. Thank goodness it was what you have on the E9th, strings 3,4,5,6, 8, & 10 with A&B down...

Lem Smith · From: Long Beach, MS

My first steel was a six string Supro lap steel, in a yellow MOTS finish. My second guitar was a sort of "frankensteel", in that it was a mishmash of "real" parts, and things like coat hangers for pull rods. It was an 8 string guitar, and it used the floor for the pedal stops. You had to retune the pedals everytime you moved the guitar. It was also so short, that I couldn't use a volume pedal under it, so I had to keep my right leg out from under the guitar to operate the volume pedal. This was in 1979. Around 1981, I managed to borrow a Sho~Bud Maverick, one with the burl contact paper finish. I felt like a Nashville pro, when I finally got something even "that" good to play on, as it was such a huge improvement over what I had! Very Happy

Ernie Pollock · From: Mt Savage, Md USA

Jim: A friend let me sit at his D-10 Marlen Pedal Steel in '75, soon as I found out that the pedals changed the chords, I was in complete shock!! I have had a zillion pedal steels since, but I recently bought that very first Marlen D-10 that my friend, now deceased had let me set at that first day. Needless to say, I went around & got right back where I started from and could not be happier!!
I did mess around with non-pedal steels after learning pedal steel & enjoy picking those from time to time. I have an old Electra Harp that a guy gave me with 8 strings & no pedals or legs, and my homemade 10 string no pedal job.

Ernie Pollock
http://www.hereintown.net/~shobud75/stock.htm

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