Pedal steel guitar

The pedal steel guitar is a string instrument mounted horizontally on a frame and played while seated. The player typically plucks the strings with the dominant hand while pressing and moving a steel bar against them with the other hand. The instrument uses electric pickups and is typically played through an amplifier. It is an evolution of earlier steel guitar designs and features foot pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music than previous non-pedal guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can produce smooth glissandi (sliding notes) and controlled vibrato, expressive techniques akin to the human singing voice. Although most closely associated with country music, the pedal steel has also been adopted in western swing, jazz, Sacred Steel, popular music, and several international musical traditions.

In the 1940s and 1950s, inventors sought to overcome the harmonic limitations of steel guitars. Mechanical pitch-changing devices, operated by foot pedals and supplemented by knee levers, allowed performers to alter the pitch of selected strings while other strings continued to sound. The resulting bending harmonies became the instrument's signature sound.

After Bud Isaacs demonstrated the sound of his novel technique of pushing a pedal to change pitches while notes were still sounding on Webb Pierce's 1953 recording of "Slowly", the pedal steel rapidly became a defining element of the Nashville country music sound. Innovations by Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Zane Beck, Paul Bigsby, and others established many of the mechanical and tuning conventions used on modern instruments.

The pedal steel guitar emerged from earlier steel guitar designs. The acoustic Hawaiian guitar, now commonly called the lap steel, was followed by louder resonator guitars. The development of the electromagnetic pickup in the early 1930s led to electrified lap steels and, subsequently, console steels.

^[1][2] When Beauchamp's success became widespread, two additional breakthroughs followed: One, the production of the guitar amplifier, which had to be purchased in order to use the invention;^[3] and two, perhaps unrealized at the time, that electrified guitars no longer had to have the traditional guitar shape—this profoundly influenced future electric guitar designs.^[4]Instrument makers rapidly began making them into a rectangular block of wood with an electric pickup, the precursor of the pedal steel.^[5][6]

By the late 1940s the instrument’s inherent harmonic limitations and meager array of chords and inversions were exposing the limits of what fixed tunings could accomplish.^[7]: 33 Players needed a way to have different voicings on the same guitar without stopping to retune.^[8][7] To get those voicings, scores of different tunings were used by lap steel players.^[9] Some musicians kept an additional lap steel (with different tuning) on hand to be used for certain songs. Players learned to slant the bar ^[10] to alter individual notes within a chord, but the difficulty is that exact bar placement is demanding, varies with string spacing and fret position, and three-note slants may not place every note in perfect tune.^[11] Another approach was to add more strings, thereby extending the instrument’s range and allowing narrower intervals between strings. These smaller intervals made more harmonically complex tunings possible.^[7]: 36

Musicians began placing two or more differently tuned necks on the same instrument. Performers such as Noel Boggs and Leon McAuliffe routinely switched between necks during a performance, and triple-neck instruments such as the Fender Stringmaster or a Rickenbacker 758 remained in use well into the 1950s.^[12][13] The trend ended with guitars with as many as four different necks.^[12] Although effective, multi-neck console steels were cumbersome and unaffordable by many musicians, leading inventors to seek a mechanical alternative.^[14]

Seeking a more sophisticated solution, the goal was at first simply to create a pedal that would change the pitch of all the strings at once to emulate a second neck.^[15] In 1939, a guitar called the "Electradaire" featured a pedal controlling a solenoid, triggering an electrical apparatus to change the tension on the strings.^[16] That same year, bandleader Alvino Rey worked with machinist John Moore to design a pedal-operated electric steel guitar.^[17] Gibson subsequently introduced their design in 1940 as the "Electraharp", which featured pedals radially oriented from a single axis at the instrument's left rear leg.^[18] Only 43 were sold before production was halted, but the U.S. entry into World War II may have been a factor.^[7] After the war, Gibson redesigned and reintroduced the Electraharp and Bud Isaacs used one on the song "Big Blue Diamonds" for King Records.^[7] The Harlan Brothers of Indianapolis created the "Multi-Kord" with a universal pedal that could fairly easily be configured to adjust the pitch of any or all strings, but was extremely hard to push when tensioning all strings at once.^[16]

The most successful pedal system from the various contenders was designed about 1948 by Paul Bigsby, a motorcycle shop foreman and racer who also invented the commercially successful Spanish guitar vibrato tailpiece.^[19] Bigsby put pedals on a rack between the two front legs of the steel guitar. The pedals operated a mechanical linkage to apply tension to raise the pitch of certain strings.^[18]

Bigsby built guitars incorporating his design for the foremost steel players of the day, including Speedy West, Noel Boggs, and Bud Isaacs; but Bigsby, age 56, was a one-man operation working out of his garage, and was not capable of keeping up with demand.^[16] One of Bigsby's first guitars was used on "Candy Kisses" in 1949 by Eddie Kirk.^[20] The second model Bigsby made went to Speedy West, who used it extensively.^{[19][21]: 30} West remembered Bigsby as a perfectionist who did all of his own work, even secretarial work, and said, "He would not hire employees ... he just didn't think anyone else could do what Paul Bigsby could do."^[21]: 30

In 1953, Bud Isaacs received one of Bigsby's new creations, a double-neck steel which featured pedals to change the pitch of only two strings. On this record, Isaacs was the first to push the pedal while notes were still sounding. Other steel players strictly avoided doing this, because it was considered "un-Hawaiian".^[13]

"Slowly" by Webb Pierce

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When Isaacs performed on the 1953 recording of Webb Pierce's "Slowly", he pushed the pedal while playing a chord, to produced a situation of one note remaining the same, one note slurring up a half step, and one note a whole step to join the existing first note.^[22]: 71 This bending up from below into the existing chord to harmonize with the other strings created an pleasing effect which was virtually impossible with the older (non-pedal) lap steels.^[a][23] The resulting new and distinctive style of playing became a defining characteristic of the country music coming out of Nashville for decades thereafter.^[7]: 2 It caused a virtual revolution among lap steel players who wanted to duplicate it but their lap steels could not.^[8][19] Of this recording of "Slowly", Hall-of-Fame steel guitarist Lloyd Green said, "This fellow, Bud Isaacs, had thrown a new tool into musical thinking about the steel with the advent of this record that still reverberates to this day."^[19] The song was the first Billboard country chart-topper to feature pedal steel.^[24] Isaacs' recording demonstrated that pedals could be "played" skillfully during a performance as an expressive musical device rather than simply to change tunings between passages, fundamentally changing the role of the steel guitar in country music.

The pedal steel design was rapidly adopted by country music lap steel players in the early 1950s. In accordance, the number of non-pedal lap steel players diminished with only pockets of devotees remaining in country and Hawaiian music.^[7]: 2 Taken together, these technological evolutions transformed the relatively straightforward lap steel into a complex machine requiring highly skilled players, used almost exclusively in country music.^[25]

Steel Guitar Hall of Fame member Zane Beck pioneered the use of knee levers in the 1950s, and was the first to install them on production guitars.^[26][27] Beck extended the pedal concept by recruiting the player's knees to control a separate mechanism to lower the pitch of certain strings.^[25] The levers are located unobtrusively underneath the body of the guitar, protruding downward on each side of each of the player's knees. The addition greatly expanded the instrument’s harmonic possibilities.^[13] Depending on the instrument, the player operates the levers by moving either knee to the left or right or by raising it. Like foot pedals, knee levers change the pitch of selected strings and may be used alone, with another knee lever, or in combination with the pedals^[28] Beck’s original knee levers lowered string pitches rather than raising them; on modern pedal steels, knee levers may be configured to raise or lower selected strings.^[13]

Certain players prefer different setups regarding which function the pedals and levers perform, and which string tuning is preferred.^[25] In the early 1970s, musician Tom Bradshaw coined the term copedent (/koʊˈpiːdənt/ koh-PEE-dənt), a portmanteau of "chord-pedal-arrangement".^[25] Often represented in table form, the copedent chart is a way of specifying the instrument's tuning, pedal and lever setup, string gauges and string windings.^[25] The term is unique to pedal steel guitar.^[13] The copedent chart was a way players could communicate with each other and with guitar manufacturers.^[22]: 187 In addition to these contributions, Bradshaw’s entrepreneurship was instrumental in establishing the larger pedal steel community of professionals and amateurs. At first it was newsletters and gatherings, later websites including the Steel Guitar Forum.^{[22]: 192–3}

When Webb Pierce's "Slowly" was released in 1953, Paul Bigsby was in the process of building a new pedal steel guitar for Buddy Emmons. After hearing Bud Isaacs bend two strings simultaneously with a single pedal on the recording, Emmons asked Bigsby to make his guitar setup to split the function of Isaacs' single pedal into two pedals, each controlling a different string.^[13] He could easily push both pedals simultaneously to achieve the same effect as Isaacs, but had the option to push either independently, giving more options to play minors and suspended chords without moving or slanting the bar.^[13] This "split-pedal" setup became the standard copedent in the E9 tuning, since it allowed greater musical flexibility. Jimmy Day had the same idea, but reversed which strings were affected by the two pedals. This prompted future manufacturers to ask customers if they wanted a "Day" or an "Emmons" setup.^[13] In 1957, Emmons partnered with guitarist/machinist Harold "Shot" Jackson to form the Sho-Bud company, the first company devoted solely to pedal steel guitar manufacture.^[13][29] Emmons later expanded the standard tuning by adding two chromatic strings and a third pedal, giving players greater melodic range and harmonic flexibility.^[30] The Sho-Bud company was the first manufacturer solely dedicated to the pedal steel guitars.^[13] Sho-Bud instruments incorporated all the innovations developed through the 1950s, including 10 strings, the third pedal, and Beck’s knee levers, standardizing the E9 single-neck pedal steel guitar.^[13]

The Nashville E9 tuning for a steel guitar (also called the "E9 Chromatic Tuning")^[31]: 7 is the most common tuning used in Nashville's country music. The tuning evolved from 1950 to 1970 by incremental innovations by many professional steel guitarists. Hall of fame steel players including Emmons, Jimmy Day, Ralph Mooney and others made contributions that eventually became permanent changes to the instrument.^[32] By the mid-1970s, major manufacturers had largely standardized the ten-string E9 instrument with three pedals and four knee levers, although individual players continued to customize their pedal and lever arrangements.^[13]

Since the 1950s, the double-neck pedal steel had been the professional standard.^[22]: 178 The C6 neck (closer to the player) is typically used for western swing or jazz music and the E9 neck is usually used for country music.^[33] The two tunings differ substantially in their musical capabilities. The C6 has a wider pitch range than the E9, mostly on the lower notes.^[34] The two tunings evolved for different musical idioms and are optimized for them.^[34] Among the factors that influenced the dominance of the E9 tuning was a decision made in 1972 by one of the highest profile steel players of the time, Lloyd Green. Green declared that not only was the C6 not a profitable pursuit, but that the E9 fulfilled his musical needs.^[22] Green made his point by dismantling the C6 neck on his instrument and install a padded arm rest in its place.^[22]: 178His decision had powerful implications for the future of the instrument. ^[22]: 143

The pedal steel continues to be an instrument in transition.^[19] There are proponents of a "universal tuning" to combine the two most popular modern tunings (E9 and C6) into a single 12 or 14-string neck that encompasses some features of each.^[19] It was developed by Maurice Anderson and later modified by Larry Bell.^[15] By lowering the C6 tuning a half-step to make it a B6, many commonalities with the E9 tuning are achieved on the same neck and it is called the E9/B6 tuning.^[35]

The pedal steel is most commonly associated with American country music, but it is also heard in jazz, sacred music, popular music, nu jazz, and African music.^[36][13] In the United States in the 1930s, during the steel guitar's wave of popularity, the instrument was introduced into the House of God, a branch of an African-American Pentecostal denomination, based primarily in Nashville and Indianapolis. The steel guitar was embraced by the congregation and often took the place of an organ. The sound bore no resemblance to typical American country music.^[37] The first documented use of a pedal (rather than lap) steel in this tradition was in 1952, but it did not become common until the early 1970s.^[37]: 60 This musical genre, known as "Sacred Steel" was largely unknown until, in the 1980's Robert Randolph^[38] took up the instrument as a teenager, popularized it and received critical acclaim.^[39] Neil Strauss, writing in the New York Times, called Randolph "one of the most original and talented pedal steel guitarists of his generation.^[40] Campbell Brothers are another American Sacred Steel gospel group from Rush, New York.The ensemble features pedal steel guitar and began as the house band for a House of God Keith Dominion congregation.

The pedal steel guitar became a signature component of Nigerian Juju music in the late 1970s.^[41] Nigerian bandleader King Sunny Adé ^[25]featured pedal steel guitar in his 17 piece band, which, wrote New York Times reviewer Jon Pareles, introduces "a twang or two from American blues and country" ^[42]

Norwegian jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, considered a pioneer of future jazz (a fusion of jazz and electronic music), released the album Switch, which features the pedal steel guitar.^[43] In a 2021 interview, Molvær explained that he was drawn to the pedal steel because "its sound is very similar to that of the trumpet," allowing the timbres of trumpet, pedal steel, voice, and electronics to merge so that "the boundaries between the individual instruments" become blurred.^[44] A review in London Jazz News highlighted Geir Sundstøl's languid pedal steel phrases and the instrument's recurring presence throughout the album Buoyancy, describing the resulting sound as "weird and wonderful."^[45]

• Steel guitar
• Console steel guitar
• Lap steel guitar
• Electric guitar
• Frying Pan (guitar)
• Resonator guitar
• Slack-key guitar
• Slide guitar

• Universal tuning
• The British Steelies Society Forum
• Steel Guitar Forum – A discussion site for pedal steel, lap steel, and related musical instruments
• Steel Guitar Jazz – A website featuring pedal and nonpedal steel guitar in jazz music – run by Jim Cohen
• www.pedalsteel.co.uk – website run by Bob Adams

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