Buying a PEDAL STEEL GUITAR / Cheapest way to get into steel guitar / How to start pedal lap steel

[Music] howdy folks hamilton belk here i've been getting a lot of questions from people who are interested in getting into pedal steel so i wanted to make this video to cover some of the ideas that you want to consider before you might decide to take the plunge it's a complex and expensive instrument and it's not as easy as just hopping on craigslist or going to your local music store or even a chain and finding something so people generally ask a combination of what's the best way to learn pedal steel or what's the cheapest way to get one if you're one of these people there's basically two approaches you can take by far the cheapest way to get into steel guitar is to buy a lap steel you can often find them used for 50 to 100 or you can actually get a really nice quality instrument for less than 200 they're really simple they require relatively little care and maintenance i got this recording king it was about 170 it's got great tone i've used it on countless recordings a bunch of tours and it can also really take a beating i haul it around in a soft gig bag i don't even have a hard case for it and you can see like i dropped this thing many times so it's not precious but it sounds great the benefit of this approach is it's really inexpensive and you'll develop a lot of right hand technique picking and blocking um also some left hand technique with the bar although it is a little different it's a great way to get your feet wet before deciding to take the plunge and you know committing to purchasing a pedal steel if you decide to go that route and you're interested in playing country music i would recommend setting yours up with a c6 tuning which is um c e g a c e you get that hawaiian sound with that six chord okay so the second approach is to just take the dive if you're ready to track down a pedal steel um you've got to decide if you want to start out on a student model or if you want to go ahead and buy something that'll last you a little longer possibly even you know a lifetime instrument pedal steels are generally built by boutique manufacturers to order so you're going to need to decide if you want to buy a used guitar or a new one you also need to consider the kind of tuning and setup that you want to match the styles you're interested in playing alright so there's a bunch of discontinued student models floating around out there that you can find some of them have a very simple setup with even just one floor pedal sometimes one to three floor pedals and one two four knee levers now this is my my you know lifetime guitar right here it's an immense push pull it's got three floor pedals four knee levers and that is kind of the standard issue these days for in e9 tuning and it's pretty ubiquitous in instructional material you're going to be coming across instructions that are for that setup so i would strongly discourage anyone from buying a pedal steel that has anything less than three floor petals and four knee levers because if you stick with it it's only a matter of time before you want to get something that has three petals and four levers okay so some of the more common student models that you'll see out there used ones are the show showbud maverick the msa red baron or sidekick and the carter starter so some of these come with less than three pedals and four levers and i would not recommend those when i got started i had a carter starter it was you know fully set up for e9 three pedals four levers it was a great guitar for me for a year so if you come across a carter starter i think that could be a good option when i was getting started in 2014 you could find a used student model for around five hundred to seven hundred dollars and that is still somewhat the case although i've been seeing carter starters go for up to 1k and in my opinion if you're gonna spend that much you might as well fork out a couple hundred more bucks and get a brand new student model they'll be newer they'll be sturdier they're i think they've come a long way and the two companies that are making solid student models new these days are gfi they make one called the student model our zoom which makes stage one although i think stage one is kind of like slightly separate but under the umbrella of zoom those go for around twelve hundred dollars new uh fully set up and then the gfi student model i think is what it's called and those are closer to sixteen or seventeen hundred dollars you can get those straight from the dealer and that will be a solid beginner instrument if you feel a little more passionate about the endeavor you want a guitar that's going to last you a long time you're ready to invest the money i think one great option could be the mullen discovery i've played them they sound great an added bonus is they come in at 47 pounds in the case that comes with it so you can fly with it easily if you're traveling to play gigs those go for 22.50 around i think new and then there's tons of pro models that you can find used from reputable manufacturers like eminence showbud fessenden mullen zoom deckley williams there's gonna be a lot of great options for you out there if you're start if you're starting to dive into the used pro pedal steel market you can probably with some effort find one that's going to be between 1.5 and 3 000 okay so where to buy uh if you're going the used route i would do a quick search on craigslist just to see what's out there you know you can go on facebook check the facebook marketplace more importantly look to see if there are any local facebook groups for pedal steel guitar in your area um there might be some local players that are either getting rid of a guitar or people who could steer you in the right direction by far the best place to look online is the steel guitar forum there's people buying and selling pedal steels and the classified sections on there every day and it's also an awesome community with tons of resources you might already be on there if you're really interested in steel guitar there's also a lot of dedicated pedal steel stores slash distributors around the country and if you're in the us you might live close enough to one that could be an easy day trip this would be a great option because it gives you the opportunity to sit down at a bunch of guitars with a knowledgeable person who can help you kind of go over what you're looking at and figure out what is the best thing to suit your needs and this would also likely be a safe bet for getting a pedal steel that's been set up properly that's well maintained that's like ready to go out the gate um by someone who knows what they're doing oh yeah that's another thing these instruments are finicky they can easily sound pitchy and out of tune if they aren't set up right there's a lot of nuances in the mechanics it's possible that if you get a used guitar from someone on craigslist or someone online you might need to have it shipped to a technician to get it properly set up before it's ready to be played if you decide you want to get a new guitar you can go directly to the manufacturer and have them built you a guitar that's set up with the exact specifications and options that you want and that can be a good option too if you're like ready to fork over the cash and you want to get something that's going to last you forever other things you're going to need to get into pedal steel or lap steel you're going to need a steel bar most pedal steel players play with one that's a bullet shape like this although you'll see some guys especially the folks who are playing gospel or sacred steel they might be playing with one of these that's got a more ergonomic setup you can kind of wrap your fingers around it's it's a little faster you can more easily do hammer-ons and pull-offs and that sort of thing also if you're playing dobro or lab steel you're probably going to want to get a bar that's shaped like one of these you're going to need finger picks most guys play with a plastic thumb pick and three finger picks i think you get the best tone that way you're going to need a stool and an amplifier now you could use any guitar amplifier but eventually you're going to want to get something that sounds really great that's got a nice clean tone with a lot of headroom i play with a pv session 400 most of the time a lot of guys like twin reverbs there's a lot of amps that are known for being great for steel guitar and that's something to consider as well all right so hopefully that answers some of your questions about getting into pedal steel let me know if you have any questions in the comments below i've got more videos planned from lessons and tips for steel guitar banjo bass dobro even some engineering and mixing so make sure to like and subscribe if you're interested in licks and tricks

Channel: Licks and Tricks

Views: 23,484

Rating: 4.962121 out of 5

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Id: Z_2CWRauQZU

Length: 8min 38sec (518 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 19 2021