The Steel Guitar Forum

Does anyone have any tips on how to help with neuropathy ( changing pedal height, Seat position or whatever ) anyone that has this knows how frustrating this is when you go for a four chord and end up playing a minor because you can't feel your foot like you need to. I hate to think it's all over I hope someone out there has something that helps.. Thanks..

Eddie, I'll be following this post. I've been blaming my steel. Help us out here guys!

Try as best you can to determine which nerves are doing what, where, and when. Besides the peripheral deathiness, I have nerves that get pinched in my neck and “thoracic outlet” that then pile up to add to more tingles in hands and feet, and it can be devilishly unpredictable and “illogical.” If something is tingling, try to MOVE around to minimize it. I sometimes use a neck brace, almost backwards from the usual – I put it on when I’m lying down reading because if I fall asleep (kind of the point here) but with my right shoulder up and forward, umm, all heck breaks out – when I’m dreaming about sharks chewing on my feet and the robots are eating my arms, GAAH. Sledgehammer-grade “tingles.” BAD robot - DOWN, robot....

The doctors can help a great deal with nerve conductivity tests, yes it’s exactly what it sounds like, just like house wiring; but YOU are your own science experiment. If dox can refer you to therapy, great, but pay attention, and in two or three visits you can figure out the GOALS yourself. But you still have to DO the do, nobody else can figure out your specifics and nobody can therapeutize AT you or ON you that’ll be worth a hoot. Stay hydrated, yes get up and pee all night, and eat CAREfully. Just about anybody staying on the North side of 250 lbs. for too long is going to go diabetic (in MY opine, not necess...) well, hmm. I decided rolling around in a wheelchair feeling like warmed-over DEATH while they snipped off my arms and legs little bits at a time – BECAUSE I WOULDN’T QUIT EATING ICE CREAM – yikes. If your feet are already playing hide’n’seek, you have surely looked at/ruled out/ruled IN diabetes too?

(Not MY feet you don’t, I’ve actually... sniff... grown rather attached to them, over the years....)

All this is cumulative and additive, you may have two or three things (damage, pinching, tiredness &…) piling up in one place and if you can beat down just part of the causes, it can make a big difference. Just changing things up willy-nilly, change guitars, change posture, do a little of this then a little of that helps, as well as that process being diagnostic. My doctors know very well that the whole reason for my treatment is just so I CAN keep playing, no quitting allowed – but this may be a good time to think about learning to read and write music for really REAL, so you can (a few examples) transcribe solos, fuddle through some ideas for harmony parts, so you can EXIST MUSICALLY = yet MENTALLY independent of a twanger in your lap. And, nothing will terrify bandmates more than you handing them a PART, like, they’re supposed to PLAY it... heh heh. It may even elicit a (semi-) group therapy faloomph - believe it or-n, everybody else is getting decrepit as fast as you too. And so-called “chops” - raw animal-style – are somewhat meaningless past a point. What do you want to DO.... More important, can you harmonize even an easy lick up a 4th, down a 4th, in 3rds & 6ths on-the-fly? Can you listen to a solo ONCE and whistle... HALF the licks back at it? Maybe a quarter of them, maybe... TWO? Why/why not? That’s not in your fingers or toes no matter how hard you work them.*

And/or/but, as long as your foot does what you tell it to, DOES IT MATTER where it thinks it is? Or isn’t? What does really matter is, try to do something you really like to do, as often as you can.

*(One of those famous Greeks, back then, was certain that actually reading and writing (words not notes but...) would be BAD for people because they would no longer HAVE to train, and depend on, their memories. But I can’t remember which one...)

I have neuropathy but caused by chemo, not diabetes. Sometimes I'm OK, sometimes my feet feel like lead weights and sometimes I can't really feel them. I just fight through it playing steel and if I miss a pedal or not fully depressed I act like that is the way I wanted to play the note. Sometimes I just pedal on instinct and hope it works.

I take Neurontin (gabapentin) but I'm not really sure how much that really helps. Its been 14 years since I finished chemo so I've sort of learned to live with it. I had colon cancer and after surgery I had chemo (Folfox chemo) and one of the chemo drugs that I was given had Platinum in it and that is what they tell me caused the neuropathy.

I don't find posture at the steel, pedal height, type of shoes, etc makes any difference.

I don't know how many pedals you have, but you might consider adding pedals A, and B to a knee lever, etc.
An additional knee lever on your left leg and an additional lever on your right leg wouldn't be "over-kill".

Just a thought!

Thanks guys.