Bent,
Thank you for your kind words, I just like to enjoy myself and hope others enjoy it too.
I have been down the Pedal Steel route before and don't see anything to gain by following the herd down that road again.
My mind is tending toward simplifying things rather than adding more complicated systems. I listen to recordings which have Steel guitar and find they only actually play about 20 seconds in any song, unless of course it is an Instrumental, but who apart from ourselves record Instrumentals. Although all these "Great Players" need 12 pedals, 8 Knee Levers and 12 Strings, I seldom hear them use more than two of these, and certainly not 12 strings. If you listen to the great players of old who played for Hank and others of his time, they all had 8 string twin & triple necks, yet only used the top 4 strings to cut through the rest of the band, again for a 20 second turn around or ending.
There are certainly a few, and I mean few, players around who are masters of the Instrument, they are a delight to listen to and I envy them. On the reverse side of the coin there are players who achieve God-like status for playing 3 repetitive distorted notes in a 15 minute dirge, I don't want to upset anyone by mentionig names, but they only need 2 strings and no pedals.
So I think we should reduce everything to cater for this market. Throw away all the extra strings, Pedals & Knee Levers, lets get down to just what they need, in the case of the Pedal Steel we should have a short scale - 23 inches- 6 String Keyless 2 Pedal 2 Knee Lever guitar. Just think how compact that would be and still capable of playing everything we hear on record today. I know there are people who will go to a concert and sit all night waiting to hear Paul play a passing note on his 4th Pedal, but we should just disregard them, he could do it with a slant like Lloyd.
I know I'm up against things here, no "Real" player would sit behind a guitar that only had what he needed, but I keep thinking a Violinist only needs 4 strings, you don't get 8 string Violins, a 5 string Banjo oddly enough, only has 5 strings.
But do we really need this?
As for the Lap steel, I will be generous here and say 6 strings, we could get along with only 4 or 5 like players of old, but I will give it 6, My next Lap Steel will again be a 6 string, short scale Keyless and be as compact as I can make it.
James.
Having fun.
