Quote:
Originally Posted by H165
My D-10 with so many pedals and levers is not looking too practical for basic play-along stuff. For one thing, it weighs more than I do!
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When I first retired I spent the first 5 years making custom lap steels. When I first developed a design I had considered a couple cable linked foot pedals but decided that the simplicity of the lap steel was really what appealed to me.
What sealed the deal for building simple 6, 7, and 8 string lap steels was having Bob Breidenbach, lap steel player for The Western Satellites, sit in with our Western Swing band. Bob played so expertly that it would be hard to tell he wasn't playing pedal steel.
Here's a bit of Bob with The Western Satellites:
An alternative might be to investigate a lap steel with a palm lever or two installed. These can also be very effective in achieving the pedal steel sound.
One of our local musicians who is a great pedal steel player told me that the greatest disadvantage to pedal steel, particularly an inexpensive one, is that you spend more time fiddling with the linkages than actually playing time.
