Am I dreaming, or is non-pedal more fun than pedal?

Adam Tracksler · From: Maine, USA

I just got a wonderful Adams 8 string reso. Been playing it for the last few days, and am feeling like non-pedal is way more fun than pedal steel.

Wondering how many other folks play both and which you prefer?

I dont think I'll be getting rid of my D10, but the 8 string is just much more fun, and I can do it in any room in the house, not the one room that the guitar is parked into...

Also, I feel like I can think a little more on the 8 strings, rather than get lost on the 10....

Anyway, I'm having fun at least. Smile

Jeff Mead · From: London, England

I play both - the pedal is relatively new to me and I am devoting most of my practice time to it and trying to get more pedal steel gigs.

However, I still love my non-pedal instruments and have no intention of giving them up.

I love my S10 but have no interest in a D10 because I can do some 6th sounding stuff on E9 if required.

If I'm doing an old time country gig or rockabilly which is more suited to C6, I'll use non-pedal for sure.

So far my gigs have conveniently fallen into one or the other category.

I wouldn't say non-pedal is more fun, for me it's the opposite - possibly because if the novelty for me - but it's definitely very much in my heart.

Scott Duckworth · From: Etowah, TN Western Foothills of the Smokies

I started on C6 non pedal, went to E9 & C6 D-10 pedal, to E9 S10 pedal, and back to 6 string non pedal with an old traditional E6 tuning. I love it.

My E6 tuning (Low to High string)
B, C#, E, G#, B, E
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Stefan Robertson · From: Hertfordshire, UK

non-pedal is there for the long term.

Imagine trying to move that ton of a pedal steel when age catches up.

No thanks.
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David M Brown · From: California, USA

I began playing steel guitar in my teens in the early 1970's, beginning on a National Waikiki 6 string lap steel which I still treasure and use often.

I've played a wide variety of 6 and 8 string steels since.

In the early 1980's, I got a basic model Sho-Bud pedal steel....played it for a while and realized I preferred non-pedal steel,

Yeah, I do know that's not a long time to try pedals....and if I had had one of those 8 string Fenders like Billy Hew Len used, I may have liked it more - but I figured I'd rather play OK lap steel than really suck on pedal steel.

Frankly it doesn't matter if it a 6 string lap steel or a double neck pedal steel.

It's all about the player.

David M Brown · From: California, USA

Larry Carlson · From: My Computer

I love my lap steel guitars but it's mostly out of self preservation.
If I sat down to a pedal steel guitar with all those pedals and
levers and rods and pushy pully thingies and strings my head would explode.
So you can understand why I love my lap steels.
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Judson Adair · From: Oklahoma, USA

I love both but what I really like doing is playing with other people and it is just easier to grab my dobro and go sit on the porch with my buddies than it is to get everyone somewhere with my D12 set up.

Frank Welsh · From: Upstate New York, USA

I've been playing both pedal and non'pedal since the 1960's. Although I like the good old E9th pedal steel for accompanying classic country tunes in a band with a vocalist (E9th can really cry and whine), I have found in recent years that I am more expressive when playing my D8 non-pedal steel. Although I believe I am about equally proficient in a technical sense on my pedal (a U12) and non-pedal steels, my preference has turned strongly to the non-pedal.

I somehow feel "closer" to the non-pedal instrument and the music itself when I depend only on that steel in my hand for coaxing sounds with feeling from the guitar. It's a more "intimate" connection to put it subjectively. Since I'm not a singer I feel that I am "singing" on the non-pedal steel and this is not as true for me with my pedal steel.

When I mentioned this observation of mine to Herb Remington when I ordered my D8 from him, he told me it's because "the hand is connected to the heart."

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Brad Davis · From: Texas, USA

In my case I am first and foremost a 2nd rate sax player, a 3rd rate banjo player, a 4th rate dobro player, and a no rate lap steel player. I know next to nothing about PSG except it looks heavy and complex, and I doubt I'll ever have serious interest in learning it. I figured I'd quit while I'm behind. Beside even my GCG weighs like 40-50 lbs and hurts my back to tote, so I often grab a 6 string lap for portability. I mostly like classic honky tonk country, and when I play my C6 lappy it sounds like the 1940s up in here, and that makes me happy. For better or worse the sounds and expressions coming out are all me. I transferred a lot (not all) from my dobro experience. I find myself adapting material back and forth. This one instrument and tuning seems a satisfactory challenge and musical vehicle to me, on top of all the other things I'm not good at, and I have no doubt I'll learn to makes lots of great music with it for years to come, and be way ahead of the 99.99% of people who don't play steel of any kind. Plus, I think slants are fun.

Stefan Robertson · From: Hertfordshire, UK

Mick Hearn · From: United Kingdom

I have only been playing lap steel over the past couple of years and love every minute of it. I can see what I am doing better on the C6 than I can on pedal steel.

Look at the videos of Doug Jernigan playing pedal and non pedal. It still sounds effective even with the same tunes.

For a challenge I am currently looking at Blue Jade playing on C6 lap steel. It's more of a challenge and you really have to do a Billy Robinson and work at bar slants to get this off. The opening phrase starts with adjacent strings with a one fret slant low down on the neck. What a challenge.

My lap steel comes out before any other and long may it continue. It's also easier to carry from room to room when precticing.
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Daniel McKee · From: Corinth Mississippi

For a long time all I played was E-9th pedal steel but in the last few months I am playing a cheap McKinney lap steel more. I still like pedal steel but I really enjoy those old non pedal sounds. I also play the back neck of my D-10 as non pedal C-6th. The lap steel is much easier to move around and I like that.

Jeff Mead · From: London, England

It's funny though that there is definitely a difference in the timbre of a lap steel and a pedal steel.

I have my regular 6 string A6 tuning on my Sho-Bud with A&B down and my D lowered but if I'm playing Don Helms style or something like that I really prefer the sound of any of my non-pedal guitars. It doesn't sound quite right on the PSG - even if I don't move any pedals.

David M Brown · From: California, USA

David M Brown · From: California, USA

Stefan Robertson · From: Hertfordshire, UK

I think scale length and string tension is at play here more than anything else when talking about tuning sound. Pedal vs non-pedal

Pedal steel longer

Lap Steel Guitar shorter scale length

Pretty much it.

I'm certain if you had a Lap Steel Guitar the exact scale length and string gauges as a pedal steel and setup the same tuning on both it would sound identical with no pedals engaged.
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David M Brown · From: California, USA

Brian McGaughey · From: Orcas Island, WA USA

James Mayer · Posted 15 Feb 2017 9:19 am

I've thought a lot about this subject. My previous theory was that the pedals and levers are what created the expression gap, but playing a PSG as a non-pedal is just very different sound.

After playing non-pedal 6-stringers for a few years I finally bought a pedal steel. In the last 6 months, I've finally really been putting an effort into the PSG. I have an Emmons Push Pull and LOVE the tone, but it's a very different tone than my laps. I've spent a lot of time trying to get the best of both worlds, dropping the Es and playing non-pedal in B6 with slants and doing everything solely with the hands. I've even tuned my non-pedals to B6 to minimize the confusion when switching instruments. I've had a second pickup made that I can slide under the strings with no routing and move it further up the neck, but it's still not really scratching that itch. I've come to the conclusion that the Emmons is just never going to sound or feel like my cheapy Guyatone S6 when it comes to the nice, fat, mellow "Hawaiian" tone. This is after trying all types of EQ'ing and tone shaping. I too feel more expressive playing the non-pedal and usually prefer listening to non-pedal recordings over PSG (including Youtube videos by Doug Beaumier).

PSG seems to have endless possibilities but PSG players tend to be "samey" in tone and expression, in my opinion*. Another thing that I've noted, it seems a majority of PSG players use specialized flat-response amps that are closer to a portable PA system than a guitar amp. Non-pedal players are all over the map with amps, further increasing the variety of non-pedal tones out there.

Somewhere on Youtube is a video of a Portland steel gathering where pretty much every player sounds somewhat similar until it comes around to Russ Blake, playing a Fender cable steel (400? 1000?) and busting out the slants. It sounded so much more expressive to my ears. It's just my preference, this is not meant to offend any PSG players who were at that gathering. It's made me curious as to whether I should be looking for an old Fender to get that best of both worlds flexibility.

Some exceptions: Maggie Bjorklund and sometimes Paul Niehaus (Calexico), both on Sho-Buds.

Brian McGaughey · From: Orcas Island, WA USA

Isn't most of the tone difference between lap and pedal steel due to the difference in pickups?

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

In all due respect to pedal steel players (and I'm one of them!) there tends to be a lot of "same-ness" in PSG playing because the pedals and levers have signature sounds. They are designed to make standard chord changes.... for example pressing pedals A & B on E9 makes a I to IV chord change (on the same fret). Pedal B & the knee lever that lowers the E strings makes a V7 chord on that same fret. Pedal A alone gives you a VIm chord. So the machine is set up to make standard and convenient chord changes and licks. For that reason a lot of players tend to play the same standard patterns and sound the same.

On lap steel we have many different tunings and IMO the players have to be a little more creative and come up with other ways to get the notes (without pedals and levers)... slants, barred strings and open strings played together, etc. A pedal steel player can play about 10 chords on the same fret, without moving the bar. A lap steel player has to work a lot harder with his bar hand. More bar motion. This leads to more variety in each player's sound.

And the tone is different. Older lap steels have single coil pickups with fewer windings. The tone is more raw than modern steels with humbucking pickups. Lap steels sound more ballsy than pedal steels. With pedal steels, I think all of the hardware, the metal parts, moving parts, robs some of the tone, as compared to a non-pedal steel. Just my opinion.
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David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

The thinngs I do with my left hand jump out more on non=pedal - it's not better, it's just realer.

Frank Welsh · From: Upstate New York, USA

"And the tone is different. Older lap steels have single coil pickups with fewer windings. The tone is more raw than modern steels with humbucking pickups. Lap steels sound more ballsy than pedal steels. With pedal steels, I think all of the hardware, the metal parts, moving parts, robs some of the tone, as compared to a non-pedal steel. Just my opinion."

Doug, your comment reminds me of one of the reasons Telecaster fans say "Leo got it right the first time." The Tele is simplicity itself construction-wise - just some pickups on a slab of wood with strings that go right through the body after passing over those big honkin' round brass bridge saddles (in the traditional set-up). The resultant sounds can crackle like lightning or give a sweet, smooth jazzy sound. There seems to be a "marriage" between the strings and the wood due to the simplicity of construction.

I think the construction of the non-pedal steel benefits tone-wise by being somewhat like that of the Tele. I cannot make my Carter U12 sound like my Remington Steelmaster although they both have George L pickups and it's not just due to the differences in scale or the slight difference in pickup placement. The basic construction differences between the two are like day and night.

The fatness of the tone of some non-pedal guitars can make a saxophone jealous!

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