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Topic: Pedal steel licks? |
Robert Murphy
From:
West Virginia
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Posted 17 Apr 2009 5:50 pm |
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| I want to add palm pedals to my Dobro to get classic country pedal steel licks but what in theory am I really looking for? Do I want to raise the 3rd up and back down, do I want to lower the root a half tone? Just what makes some of the most familiar pedal steel licks from a notation point of view? This will help be to place the pedals and their funtion correctly. Any audio would be helpful too. |
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John Allison
From:
Austin, Texas, USA
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Posted 19 Apr 2009 8:08 am
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The A and B pedals on a pedal steel give you a 5 to 6 and 3 to 4 raise respectively. You can play around with different set ups for different tunings and sounds, but that's the basic country sound you're probably looking for. The A pedal raise by itself puts you into a VI minor and employing both together gives you the IV major chord. Lowering and raising A while B is held down gives you one of the most familiar country "licks".
Thr problem with most palm pedals is that they only work on one string, so you're stuck with partial chords and licks. And Dobro strings are pretty high tension and the levers take more force to work than on an electric lap steel.
Look into a Hipshot...it's pretty much instant gratification. Be aware that if you raise and lower a wound string over your bridge, you'll be sawing your slot deeper over time and eventually you'll have to deal with that.
_________________
John Allison
Allison Stringed Instruments
Austin, Texas
www.allisonguitars.com |
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Nils Fliegner
From:
Germany
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 19 Apr 2009 10:52 am
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D
B--C
G--A
D
B
G |
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Janet Newsom
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 19 Apr 2009 4:51 pm
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Take a look at Curtis Burch's website, he uses palm pedals.
Also, string pulls like Martin Gross and others use work well, it takes some practice but is fun to do.
Janet
_________________
Keep on pickin'
Dobrojan
www.myspace.com/dobrojan |
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Robert Murphy
From:
West Virginia
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Posted 20 Apr 2009 1:27 pm
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| Thanks folks that is what I wanted to know. |
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Chris Scruggs
From:
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 20 Apr 2009 2:54 pm
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I would personally recommend E9th tuning:
E
B------raise to C#
G#-----raise to A
F#
E
D or B
As a Dobro player, it would make sense for you to use D tuning. You would just ignore the palm pedals in standard G tuning and then tune down to D for pedal sounds:
D
A---B
F#--G
D
A
D
Or just drop tune the effected strings to D tuning and leave the rest of the tuning in G. That way when you push the palm pedals you will be back in G tuning, and your retuning will be quicker:
D
A---B
F#--G
D
B
G
Chris Scruggs |
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Twayn Williams
From:
Portland, OR
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Posted 20 Apr 2009 3:49 pm
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Can you even put palm pedals on a dobro???
_________________
Primitive Utility Steel |
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Janet Newsom
From:
Tennessee, USA
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