"String-Bender" would be a great name for Pedal Steel Guitar

Jacek Jakubek · From: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

I play a string-bender. Check out this tune with Buddy Emmons on his string-bender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDTgXgqLjUA
He's pretty good. He sounds better than me 'cause his
bender's got ten pedals. Mine only has five. I can only play half the stuff he can. String-benders with ten pedals are the best.

It has a nice ring to it and is short. And, most importantly, it conveys the essence of what Pedal Steel does: Bending strings. Pedals are not what defines PSG because you could have a guitar without pedals and still get that sound using only knee levers. But you can't have the pedal steel sound without string bending. So...String-bender.

What colour is your string-bender?

Geoff Noble · From: Scotland

TBH Pedal Steel Guitar is a far more accurate description of the instrument. Sure it bends strings but it does so much more than that!

Actually, to be pedantic about it, it doesn't bend strings, it bends notes, it alters the tension of a string, so really it should be note bender Laughing

Pedal Steel Guitar also captures the history of the instrument, the guitar became the steel guitar when played with a steel slide, the steel guitar becomes the pedal steel guitar when pedals are added to allow instant versatile tuning changes and as a bonus enable note bending.

Of course to be totally accurate and up to date it should be called the Pedal Lever Steel Guitar but that's probably a step too far Smile

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scott murray · From: Asheville, NC

Pedal Steel or Steel Guitar has the same number of syllables as String Bender. and String Bender is already used to describe standard guitars with the B-bender mechanism, a la Clarence White.
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Andy Henriksen · From: Michigan, USA

String stretcher/slacker. Not bender.

well, I guess it does bend it slightly more around the finger end, when you press a pedal or lever...unless its unbending it. Shocked

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast. The one devoted to Ralph Mooney had Tyler Mahan Coe (DAC's son) giving a brief description of how a PSG works, and he kept saying it "bends the strings" too, and I wanted to scream at my phone, "No, it's bending the NOTES."

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Reminds me of John Lennon’s quip to the reporter who asked him what he called his hairstyle...
“Arthur”.

Travis Wilson · From: Johnson City, TX

A lap bender piano

Jim Park · From: Carson City, Nv

I got introduced as a Stringboard player once...

Ian Worley · From: Sacramento, CA

Brooks Montgomery · From: Idaho, USA

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

I’m sticking with my S10 Arthur.

Clyde Lane · From: Glasgow, Kentucky, USA

I don't think that is Buddy Emmons in the video.
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Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

A PSG is a machine for breaking strings but it's not very efficient so it may not catch on.
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Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Jacek Jakubek · From: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

"And now Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you my fine band...to my left on the electric guitar, Mr. James Burton! Play it James! (Applause). To my right, bending the strings on the string-bender, Mr. Fred Treece! Let 'em hear you Fred! (CROWD GOES WILD! ALL teenage girls rush the stage crying and pulling at their hair...)"

I thought about the fact mentioned that the string-bender does not actually "bend" the strings and that the word "bending strings" comes from the 6-string world. Probably true, but actually, the strings on pedal steel ARE bending at the changer. Where the round metal part that the strings rest on rotates at the changer, the string "bends" minimally. Sure, it's a very small bend, but it's still bending. Also, 6-string guitars with a bender are usually called "G-bender" or "B-bender." As far as I know, there's nothing really called a "string-bender," This can only mean that the word was waiting for it's true rightful heir: The Pedal Steel Guitar!

BONUS: We can now use the same word to describe the pedal steel player AND the pedal steel. "Hey Look Mom! A String-Bender playing his string-bender! I want to be a String-Bender when I grow up!"

Dom Franco · From: Beaverton, OR, 97007

A guitarist who "bends" strings can only raise the pitch and lower it back to the original note. The pedal steel can lower a note and raise it back up to the original pitch and even higher if wanted...

SO MUCH BETTER!
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Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

I think it's named appropriately and descriptive as is. I don't see a need to start changing the name and adding more confusion than there already is about the instrument.

But...I guess you can call it whatever you want to.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

I had an incident one night at a gig, I am laughing so hard thinking about that night from this post, I can hardly type on my computer.

My steel was sitting outside the back door to the kitchen 1 night set up with volume pedal on the pedal bar, Ready to to carry on stage. Two little white haired ladies was discussing what it was. One of them thought it was an Electric Cheese slicer with a floor speed control like an Electric Sewing Machine.

I jokingly sometimes call my steel an Electrified Adjustable Cheese Slicer.

Rich Upright · From: Florida, USA

I've gotten keyboard (most common) xylophone,zither,steel pedal (mostly rock players),slide guitar...but nothing prepared me for something a got last spring at a gig...guy comes up to me & asks if they were having burgers & dogs at the gig, because his wife told him she saw me setting up a barbecue grill!
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Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Ian Worley · From: Sacramento, CA

if Rich and Bobby get together we can all have cheeseburgers

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