Educate me on Pedal Steel or Lap Steel Guitar

[fair.child]

As the title said.

I need help to get some inspiration on Pedal Steel or Lap Steel Guitar. The good, the bad, the love and hate, famous player to get inspired, and the list go on. I'm digging country now and really love how it sounds. Purely magical in some country and rock licks that I've never done exploring it. I'm trying to get out from my comfort zone and learn this beautiful instrument.

Alright folks, let's go!

[jimilee]

Man, listen to some Larkin Poe. They're blues, but the lap steel is just killer.


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[Derpinador]

oh lawdy those sisters.... rare a guitar company makes a signature model and usually for a giant of the industry like geezer butler's bass or lemmy(only man known) getting a ricken sig... that girl has a signature lapsteel. I want to say rockabilly at times for genre, they grew up learning classical, toured as bluegrass...Mississippi or Keep Digging for songs, you'll understand! Also look up this place https://www.cbgitty.com has instructions/parts to make a dobro/lapsteel from a board and aftermarket parts.

[dont-tase-me-bro]

Check out The Word with Robert Randolph and John Medeski.  Randolph is kind of like the Derek trucks of pedal steel

[dan.schumaker]

I second Robert Randolph, he is amazing!

Also check out David Lindley, Buddy Emmons, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Jerry Douglas

[mauman]

After a lifetime of guitar, I started learning lap steel a few years ago.  IMHO, the stepwise evolution would be guitar >> slide guitar >> dobro (acoustic) or lap steel (electric) >> pedal steel.  The difference between lap steel and pedal steel has been described as the difference between standing on a hammock, and jumping rope while standing on a hammock.  There's a wealth of info on the web about tunings (nearly infinite varieties), bars, picks, and how to select an entry level instrument that you won't outgrow in a month.  Check out https://steelguitarforum.com/ ($5 to join for a lifetime), 1/3 or more of the forum posts are about lap steel/dobro.

Players to check out, sooo many but here are a very few (again just IMHO): for jazz lap steel, Mike Neer and Rich Arnold (DobroJazzChannel on YouTube.)   For western swing and country lap steel, Joaquin Murphey and Speedy West.  For rock lap steel, David Lindley's work with Jackson Browne (Running on Empty is killer.)  For jazz pedal steel, Buddy Emmons and Jim Loessberg.  For ambient pedal steel, Bruce Kaphan.  For country pedal steel, Paul Franklin and Sneaky Pete.  For "this guy can play anything" pedal steel, Greg Leisz (especially with Bill Frisell.) The OG lap steel was Hawaiian which I've never really explored.

[Aentons]

Jerry Garcia had a lap steel phase and  Ben Harper does his own lap steel thing with the Weisaenborn

[BricksnBeatles]

Santo & Johnny are essential Console Steel (Lap steel on a stand: aka pedal steel without pedals) material. Far beyond just sleepwalk— their entire discography is crazy good.

Pete Drake is great. One of my favorites.

Sneaky Pete Kleinow is my favorite of the "twangy" style pedal steel guys— his playing in the Flying Burrito Brothers is unparalleled in style and tone for the genre.

Russ Hicks has some incredible pedal steel licks all over Ween's 12GCG album.

John McFee has great pedal steel parts on various records by The Doobie Brothers, Elvis Costello, and speaking of Doobie Brothers— Jeff Baxter has incredible pedal steel parts on quite a few Steely Dan songs, including Brooklyn, Pearl of the Quarter, and my personal favorite: Charlie Freak!

[fair.child]

I went to Steel Guitar of North County in Oceanside last week. I tried the pedal steel. It was Red Baron MSI. Man, it was really beautiful, and hard to nail the instrument. A lot of movements and to play it, I was trying to get a feel of it. I didn't get it quite right but was inspired. I might consider learning and picking up lap steel first before going over things like the pull and push lever and the pedals.

Listened to some of Randolph. Definitely, he makes the lap steel sounds like a guitar. Fuzz and wah, wow. I was inspired. I listened to the Got Soul album, very gospel, and the riffs were amazing. Thank you Dan and Dont tase me bro. Great call!

[rodgre]

I'm a huge fan of pedal steel, but I come from a different angle than more traditional, country-based steel. I'm more interested in atmospheric stuff like Daniel Lanois and more indie-rock stuff like Japancakes (whose song-for-song cover of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless album is amazing!) and Faye Webster. John Rauhouse is also another great steel player who I found through his work with Neko Case.

I bought an old 70s Sho-Bud Maverick 10-string a decade or more ago, swearing I would master it someday as a studio tool (I work as a producer), but it's alluded me. I finally signed up for online lessons last year with a great teacher named Eric Haugan and together we realized that my pedals/knee lever were screwed up and not connected to the correct strings for traditional E9 tuning. I haven't had time to go back to it since last summer, but I might just cut my losses and buy another one that's set up properly at some point.

It's so different from the way I play guitar. There's way more thought for me, because I don't think when I play guitar, usually. My brain is on autopilot and my fingers just do their thing, whereas with the pedal steel, I need to conceptualize what I want to do and figure out what pedals to press to make that happen. I will get back at it. It's such a beautiful sounding instrument.

Roger