The Steel Guitar Forum

In the past month, I have started back with the steel guitar, E9th tuning. Right know, I only have a Fender 400 8 stringer. I have A, B and C pedals, with the forth lowering the "E's."

I'm practicing some early Mooney stuff, since the Fender 400 fits that pretty good. "Under Your Spell Again" is one I'm working on now.

I'm looking for other songs, that would utilize the ABC pedals only. Just simple stuff for inspiration.

If you guys have suggestions, that would be great!

Thanks,
Nick Anderson

On one of my Newman courses A&B pedals Another Bridge to Burn and Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me . The first songs I learned. You can also lower your E's to flavor them up.

You can play most songs, just not the way you might if you had more pedals. I played for years with only the three pedals and no levers and before me there were plenty of great players who made wonderful music with NO pedals. Just keep playing what you have and finding the cool stuff in there; when you get more pedals you will already have toolbox to expand upon.

Jimmy Day album "Steel and Strings"

Tom Brumley's "Together Again".

To really progress on the pedal steel, you need to add some knee levers or trade up to a different guitar.
I would be lost without the A pedal and F knee lever combination. It just opens up the E9th neck.

May I suggest that you play the seventh string (F#) along with the B+ C activated strings, because this is the root note for this minor chord.

You can play everything, maybe not as recorded or as performed. But we'll enough for the average drunk. Go for it. Learn some theory and find out there are no magic pedals.

Red River Valley

Find a teacher that doesn't "stutter" when playing without knee levers.

They're out there.

I have a 400 myself. They're simple, but still a blast to play!

Didn't Neil Young's steel-player, the late and great Ben Keith, only have one knee-lever on his Emmons Push-pull? Ben's playing was characterised by its economy, placement and a unique, almost haunting sound. You should be able to do pretty much most of Ben's stuff with just three pedals, especially if you're doing any Neil Young songs.

Jerry Garcia's steel on "Teach Your Children" is also pedals-only playing.

If I recall, "Rainy Day Woman" would also apply to this list.

Erv Niehaus wrote:To really progress on the pedal steel, you need to add some knee levers or trade up to a different guitar.
I would be lost without the A pedal and F knee lever combination. It just opens up the E9th neck.

Yes! It provides the first inversion of the E chord at the 3rd fret, with the second inversion at the 7th fret, A&B pedals down. It also gives you a "pocket" at the 3rd fret to play around. I played professionally for years on an S10 ShoBud with 3 pedals and 4 knee levers. That's all I needed (with help from Jeff Newman on playing C6-like on an E9 neck). - Jack

Erv Niehaus wrote:To really progress on the pedal steel, you need to add some knee levers or trade up to a different guitar.
I would be lost without the A pedal and F knee lever combination. It just opens up the E9th neck.

Yes! It provides the first inversion of the E chord at the 3rd fret, with the second inversion at the 7th fret, A&B pedals down. It also gives you a "pocket" at the 3rd fret to play around. I played professionally for years on an S10 ShoBud with 3 pedals and 4 knee levers. That's all I needed (with help from Jeff Newman on playing C6-like on an E9 neck). - Jack

Man, I really wish Nick lived in my area.

Thanks everybody. It looks as if I'm on the same wavelength here. A lot of the songs listed are on my "to do" list.

This is not my first rodeo with pedal steel. I gave it up for seven years, learning some Dobro instead.

The Fender 400 was a project that I had not finished in a while. A local player started to offer lessons, and I thought that it would be great to learn a little A-B stuff again. I finished the Fender 400 and now learn(relearning correctly) A-B pedal work.

In the mean time, I have ordered a Stage One steel. I'm thinking that it's better to progress with what I have, no matter how basic it is, and then move on to the Stage One. Once I get the better Steel, I can start to expand.

Thanks again,
Nick