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Brad's Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

IMHO: An eight string is optimal with high quality sustain. Must be able to do Slants, Reverses, String Pulls, good vibrato, a decent effects pedal like an RV3 & volume pedal.

You have to think chords/notes like a pedal player. It took me a great deal of time, but I finally got down Jeff Neuman's version of "I love you so much it hurts". Learning this song helped me immensly on how to emulate a Pedal Sound on a non-pedal from this Master. We all miss him.

Great Question!!! I'm sure there are others with better ideas than I, on how to answer your question....let's see!!! I forgot to mention, much more use of the whole neck, far more than a peddler, C6th helps too!! TX

Rgds,
Ron

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JCFSGC member 2005 "Be of Good Cheer"
"55" Stringmaster D8,
"67" Telecaster,
"60"Fender Concert Amp 4-10's

[This message was edited by Ron Brennan on 29 June 2006 at 01:00 PM.]

I would tell him to use my tuning:

Lo to Hi: BEG#BEG#, you have to have that high G# on the first string, and learn to do string pulls.

AND LISTEN TO A LOT OF PEDAL STEEL MUSIC...MAINLY COUNTRY MUSIC!

The blugrass dobro tune "Cuttin' the Grass" has a pedal steel sounding part in it.

It uses these straight bar and slant positions. It slides between them to get a pedal steel sounding I-IV kind of transition.

    B    E    B    B    B11? E   A   E
D |-16---18---16---13---11---9---11--9-------------|
B |-16---17---16---12---10---9---10--9-------------|
G |-16---16---16---11----9---9----9--9-------------|
D |------------------------------------------------|
B |------------------------------------------------|
G |------------------------------------------------|

Here's a rough tab. Slides between notes are marked with '/' or '\'. A '~' indicates undamped notes that ring out.

D |-16/18~~~~~~~18~\16~~~~~~~~--13~~~~~~~~~-11~~~~~~~~~--9~~~~~9/11----11--9--|
B |----------17~~~~-------16~~--------12~~~-------10~~~------9~~----10--------|
G |-------16~~~~~~~----16~~~~~-----11~~~~~~-----9~~~~~~----9~~~~--------------|
D |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Here's a very rough recording that gives you an idea of what it sounds like.
http://www.planetgaa.com/mp3/CTG.mp3

[This message was edited by Gary Anwyl on 01 July 2006 at 09:06 AM.]

-Tim

[This message was edited by Tim Tweedale on 30 June 2006 at 12:23 AM.]

quote:

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I have been getting questions from people on how to best emulate the sound of a pedal steel on a lap steel.

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Get a foot volume control pedal and use it extensively.

I’ve had a little fun lately by altering an A6 tuning (low to high - C#, E, F#, A, C#, E, aka 3, 5, 6, 1, 3, 5) by lowering the top E down to B to get a 2nd instead of a 5th. I’m not sure, but this might be what they call a re-entrant tuning. Leave the top string alone and you’ve essentially got a C6th tuning transposed to A, but bring the B in and you get a sus2 sound that has a certain PSG E9 quality to my ears... plus, since the tension on the top string is so low, it’s not hard to do finger-pulls to get a 9th-to-major 3rd move.

Any more examples like those ones would be super handy and appreciated.

 
D _________________________________________________
B ___________________________________________12--13
G __12__14__16--17__16--16--14--12___12--12________
D __12__14__15--17__17--15--14--12___________12--14
B ___________________________________12--13________
G _________________________________________________