The Steel Guitar Forum

I consider the front of a pedal steel to be the side which faces the audience and the back of the guitar is the side you sit at. Recently two different people disagreed with me saying if it was a piano you sit at the front of a piano, I have included a quick poll to gauge the general opinion

If you say that the front is where the maker puts their name, it works for both pedal steels and pianos.

Hi Thomas, good point about a piano, I suppose a pedal steel is more like a keyboard and when playing you consider you are at the front and the makers name is usually the rear side facing the audience ..

Well, if you sit in the driver's seat of a car, where is the front? It's the direction you are facing. There is only one front and one rear, one left and one right side of a car. That's something you have to learn when sourcing parts.

This is something I've never thought of before. I suppose we could refer to the player's side of a pedal steel as the front.

Considering Alan's example of say an electronic keyboard, the front would be considered the side the player is seated on and the rear the side facing the audience.

Too confusing to me and I just don't have a good explanation of why we are calling which end which....and I don't care to give it any further though.

Sorry Alan, I'm with Jerry - I decline to discuss it. I worked for years in TV with "do you mean stage right or camera right?"

Hi Ian, Jerry The current poll looks clear cut enough. At least we can be sure steel players all think the same way, so when another musician thinks differently we can suggest unlike a keyboard the front of a pedal steel faces the audience, and our forum poll is just about as definitive as it gets.

Seriously - is this really even at question? And by whom? I've never heard any steel player, ever, suggest that the front of a steel is the back end. Boggles the mind.

Sorta like asking, "Which side is the top of a guitar?" I suppose they'll say, "Well, the end facing the player is the top." Yeah, right.

This makes a Spanish guitar player sound creepy. He hangs the guitar around his neck, stands behind it and reaches over the top of it to play the front of it. Or, is he playing the back of it?

February 15, 2021: The date we officially ran out of topics on The Steel Guitar Forum.
Doesn’t someone even have a tuning issue?

Isn't the brand name of a pedal steel guitar usually placed on the front apron of the guitar?

Yep, the logo is on the front of the guitar and the player sits behind the guitar.

A related topic... I have heard some players refer to the neck closest to the player as the front neck, and the neck furthest from the player as the rear neck! So on a D-10, they would say that the C6 neck is the front neck (because it’s the first neck in front of them?) And the E9 neck is the rear neck because it’s out beyond the C6 neck. Weird! ...but I have encountered that a few times.
Calling them the inner neck and the outer neck would solve the problem, but there really shouldn’t be a problem at all. Front is front and rear is rear.

Dave Mudgett wrote:Seriously - is this really even at question? And by whom? I've never heard any steel player, ever, suggest that the front of a steel is the back end. Boggles the mind.

Sorta like asking, "Which side is the top of a guitar?" I suppose they'll say, "Well, the end facing the player is the top." Yeah, right.

Scared me, I thought I had an Emmons Fatfront


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It’s kind of like playing “up the neck” or “down the neck”. Some beginners think frets 12, 13, and 14 are down the neck! Move your bar down to fret 15. Mind boggled...

Front neck, back neck. And then Curley Chalker switches them..... I'm taking a nap.

You're playing a club , sitting at the front of the stage and somebody from the back of the room, which is by the front door, yells out a request.......

A woman here in Massachusetts recently told me that she was going "up to Tennessee" to visit her grandmother. That got me thinking... I'd like to go down to Canada this summer.

Yes Doug and how about, I think I'll go down north for the Summer? Or, Let's head up South for the Winter?

So we're saying most steel players don't know which way is up? I feel more at home here now, I fit right in!

Front of the piano is the side that faces the audience.

For some reason I’m thinking’ of George Carlin right now!

Dave Mudgett wrote:...is this really even a question?

On this forum, anything can be a question, and sometimes the more basic the better. On a D10, the C6 neck is right in front of you, and for the E9 you have to reach over to the back.

Ian Rae wrote: On a D10, the C6 neck is right in front of you, and for the E9 you have to reach over to the back.

Therein lies the problem. Some people think the front of the instrument is whatever is "in front" of them. It a sickness, and thankfully a rare one!

Well the Winnie Winston book, Page 15, says "Now place the pedal rack on the front legs." Page 19 says "OK. You are sitting behind the steel..." And the picture identifying the various parts, on page 13, shows the front neck closer to the audience and the back neck closer to the player.

So that agrees with how most of us see it - the front of the instrument faces the audience. I'm not saying that book is the ultimate authority, but it does seem to confirm my own understanding of what is where.

Forward and Aft, Port and Starboard...

Bahahaha

Many thanks to all who have participated in the discussion and poll, lots of very funny and interesting thoughts. I think Doug's comment is spot on, "Some people think the front of an instrument is whatever is in front of them" I have now asked three different keyboard players and they all say the keys are the front side for them and they translate that to the front of a pedal steel is the side we sit at. If you are late setting up for a gig just don't let a keyboard player screw in the front legs for you

I see where piano and keyboard players calls the keys the front, On the old upright pianos the back was against a wall, And the keys were facing out, Where the seat was located.

For a Steel Guitar, I have always heard the Front Apron with emblem or name faces the crowd and the Rear Apron faces the player.