The Steel Guitar Forum

Much of what I play involves a bit of overdrive and careful, precise palm-muting while sounding notes is essential. On my MSA Superslide I'm fine on the top strings as the lower ones guide my palm, but down on the last 3 or 4 strings the ball of my hand sort of falls off, provoking inconsistency. I know what to do - a gaily-decorated chunk of wood, 3/8" high or so, affixed with double-sided tape. I'm just wondering if anyone else has made these - pix if possible!

Bass players have chased down a solution for a somewhat different problem for years now, hence the name "ramp":

link to photos from Google.

I had the same problem with a recording king lap. Plus the recording king has a sharp corner on the bride that bothered my hand as I anchor on the bridge. I put a chunk of rosewood attached with contact cement. That MSA Superslide is the nicest lapsteel I've seen.

My opinion; don't "anchor" your hand. Move the whole hand across the strings as you pick. Get it in the same relative position above the strings as you pick, no matter if they are the high strings or the low strings. All it takes is practice.

how does one palm mute with being anchored?

I don't play every note with my palm resting on the bridge. But the little gismo that I have put on the instrument does two things. One is that it helps to stop the accidental muting that sometimes occurs. And two, it keeps my hand from hitting the sharp edge of the bridge. A sharp edge is something I have not had on any lap, console or pedal steel I have ever owned. And I do have a tendency to overthink those kinds of things given that I work as a luthier.

Billy Robinson has an armrest extension on his Derby 10 string. It extends out from the instrument to allow some support for the wrist. I have considered an attachment similar to this for when I am playing the inner neck of my double 8.

after an 80 year history of the steel guitar, why is any of this necessary now!

how many people have learned to play the steel 'as is' compared to this modern need for an arm rest or whatever?

This is nothing new. Many single neck pedal steels have a pad where the C6 neck would be on a D-10.
Also, the steel is still a work in progress. If we aren't open to experimentation, we all could have saved a lot of time and hard work by just cramming a pencil under the strings of a guitar.
I am not seeking to re-invent the wheel with the instruments I am building, but I'm always striving to build them better.

Consider the Duesenberg lap steel. There is 2500 dollars worth of design. What ever floats your boat.