Lapsteel Question.

lap steel tends to sound a bit more raw than pedal steel. i'm not quite sure why that is though. it may have to do with pickups, but i think it also has to do with the soft attack/swells made possible by use of the volume pedal. they're just not the same though. pedal steel is a kind of complicated piece of machinery with pedals and levers and a few more strings. it sounds, to me, infinitely cooler too. i wish i could play it.

The secret to the pedal steel sound AFAIK is the way the pedals bend the strings which can sort of be approximated with a B-bender on a tele. I think Aaron's right about the pickups as well because old lap steels tend to have weird old single coil lipstick-y things in them. You'd probably also need heavy strings and high action on your slide guitar to get closer to that sound as well.

the pedal steel is a completely uncomprimising instrument. it takes a long, long time to be able to play it like even a medicore nashville guy can. it's not something you just.... do. the levers are constantly shifting the pitches of strings, so you're kinda constantly evolving the key you're playing in.

it's sublime when it's well done. but it's really hard. it's got a reputation as seperating the men from the boys...

if you can play guitar the b-bender tele's are great for approximating that sound, though! check out the byrds' live take of 'positively 4th street' to hear some major tele bender action!

some guy was telling me once how lap steel was more difficult to play than pedal because on a pedal steel you had pedals and levers doing everything for you, and on the lap you had to do it all yourself. While I see his point, I would still say that pedal steel is much harder.

Pedal steel is TONS harder than playing lap steel. They're really not even in the same ballpark...lap steel is basically slide guitar rotated 90 degrees.

I saw Daryl Hannah buying a pedal steel at a guitar show a couple of years ago. I wonder if she can shred on it yet.

So is Daniel Lanois a skilled pedal steel player?

From what I understand, playing pedal steel is incredibly difficult, as your intonation and note is set by how you work the pedals. It is hard to even play one in tune and it takes an expert to even set one up. I've also heard if you can make some serious money if you can actually get somewhat proficient at playing one, because players are always in demand.

Jerry Garcia played pedal steel for a few years on some Dead and New Riders of the Purple Sage recordings and shows. Garcia eventually gave it up stating that it would take a whole lifetime to be able to master and he didn't have enough time to really get good.

jerry plays on 'teach your children.' he was being humble, while i find his electric playing to be self-indulgent and boring for the most part, the man was un-fucking-touchable on the steel. i mean, check out 'dire wolf' for god sakes!

It takes considerable skill to play either lap steel or pedal steel well.

Lap steel requires more manipulation of the slide bar, bending strings behind the bar, etc.

Pedal steel requires incredible synchronization of all your limbs: bar hand, picking hand, left foot on the pedals, right foot on the volume pedal AND using both knees to manipulate levers.

I've been playing pedal steel off and on for 10 years, and only gotten serious in the past three years. And I'm a total novice. I recently did some session work playing pedal steel on two songs and it was very difficult. A great deal of preparation and a long day cutting multiple takes.

If I didn't work full time, I would definitely spend hours on end learning how to play better. As it stands, I'm too busy on the guitar and keyboards to make the time.