Need advice on getting my first pedal steel

[David DeLoach]

Howdy, I'm hoping to get a pedal steel in the next year and need some advice.

I'm an experienced professional guitarist, know a ton of music/jazz theory, etc. and have been playing 8 string lap steel (mostly in Leavitt tuning) for the last 5 years.

I'd like to get a D10, and it seems getting 8 pedals is pretty standard. I'm assuming there are options as to what each pedal does - are these options adjustable after buying the steel?

What about knee levers? Should I get a steel with knee levers, and if so, how many? Like pedals, after initial purchase are the knee levers adjustable as to what they do?

Also, how much maintenance would I expect with a pedal steel. Would I need to be setting/adjusting pedal/knee levers often, or do they tend to stay in tune for long periods of time? This steel would likely be sitting in my music room and rarely leaving the house.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

David

[Bill McCloskey]

I think you mean a D10. That would be two 10 string necks, one in C6 and one in E9th. You don’t need to start on a D10 so you might want to consider a single neck 10 string tuned to E9th. The standard emmons setup would be 3 pedals and 5 knee levers. If you go to a D10, 8 pedals and 5 knee levers is pretty standard. You can change the “copedent” on most guitars, the copedent being what the levers and pedals do. A standard setup is the A pedal raising strings 5 and 10 a whole step. Pedal B raises strings 3 and 6 a half step. When you press both A and B pedals you get. 4 chord on the same fret. Two of the knee levers are dedicated to raising and lowering the E’s on strings 4 and 8

[David DeLoach]

I think you mean a D10.

Oops! Yep, D10!

Thanks for the info!

[Chris Templeton]

I'd go with a single neck. There's a lot of C6 voicings on the E9.

[D Schubert]

Do you know any pedal steel guitarists? Might be useful to get a guided tour and test drive of the guitar that they're playing. I did that a long time ago, and it was extremely helpful to a young six-string player.

A safe bet would be to buy a professionally-set-up single 10 E9th guitar with the usual three pedals and four/five knee levers. Everything you learn there will be transferrable going forward. And you'll have a high probability of selling it for what you paid for it in a year or two, if you want to exchange.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was at Scotty's Music, when I bought my first (used) Sho-Bud: That is, every hour you spend working on the underneath of a steel guitar cheats you out of two hours of practice or playing time.

[Lee Baucum]

David - I have been enjoying your YouTube videos for quite some time. I can't wait to see what you do on a pedal steel guitar!

[Larry Jamieson]

David, I see that you are in Tennessee. You might consider taking a trip to Johnnie King's steel guitar shop. Find him on the Forum, he always has steel guitars in the for sale section. There, you can see and even try out some different models, and he can explain to you some of the different features of the guitars. I recommend getting a newer guitar in good playing condition when you buy it. That way, you can spend quality time learning to play rather that working on the guitar and trying to get it in tune. Johnnie is in the Nashville area. Have fun!

[Colin Boutilier]

David, I see that you are in Tennessee. You might consider taking a trip to Johnnie King's steel guitar shop. Find him on the Forum, he always has steel guitars in the for sale section. There, you can see and even try out some different models, and he can explain to you some of the different features of the guitars. I recommend getting a newer guitar in good playing condition when you buy it. That way, you can spend quality time learning to play rather that working on the guitar and trying to get it in tune. Johnnie is in the Nashville area. Have fun!

It is a shame that many/most of us don't have the luxury to sit down at a variety of steels before buying our first and/or forever guitars. If you're local to Johnnie, or any other retailer with PSGs, you should absolutely do that.

[Bill McCloskey]

Another consideration is your size. A pedal steel needs to be custom fit to a certain degree. I need legs and rods 1" under standard so I always have to take that into consideration. Or you might need something 2" over standard. Or you might need the levers adjusted to your particular knees. So yeah: if you can get behind a few and see what fits, that is a good thing.

[David DeLoach]

Thanks so much everyone! I think a trip to meet Johnny King at his shop may be in my future. Truly appreciate all the great advice.