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This page: Buying a Pedal Steel Guitar; It's Very Hard to Learn, or Not
Buying a Pedal Steel Guitar
"Sales are through the roof and the prices of good used guitars are going up," comments Bobbe Seymour. Of course, such testimony is not what the prospective pedal steeler, looking for an inexpensive "trial" instrument, wants to hear. At the same time, there's no time like the present for buying an affordable pedal steel. And online outlets -- be they auction sites like eBay or vendor Web sites -- have made buying and selling easy. Bob Hoffnar, however, emphasizes caution and a second opinion when buying a pedal steel. "Lots of people get taken on eBay," he comments. "They'll see a pedal steel selling for five- or six-hundred and wind up with a piece of junk." One such instrument is the Maverick -- an infamously poor student model manufactured by Sho-Bud (a pioneering steel guitar maker owned by Gretsch) in the '60s and '70s. With only one knee lever, the Maverick offers very limited voicings, and most student players outgrow it within a year.
Generally, the beginner should look for a dependable 10-string, single-neck guitar with three pedals and three or four knee levers (four is preferred). The search, however, doesn't end there -- the "right" guitar will also return to pitch after the string is raised or lowered. It's pickup will not pick up any pedal noise, and its finish will not be a "sissy" color that will get you booted from a shitkicker bar. A good example can cost US $1,000-$1,500, but in many cases as low as $800. "People often mention that it's a lot to spend for something their kid may not stick with," says Bobbe Seymour. "But I usually tell them that with today's market, they can turn around and resell it and make a profit if they don't take to the instrument."
Fortunately, concurrent with the pedal steel's newfound popularity is the introduction of "can-do" pedal steels at student-level prices. One such entry, Carter Steel Guitars' Carter-Starter model, features the three pedal/four knee lever combination, and comes with a seat, volume pedal, and necessary accoutrements for $895.
It's Very Hard to Learn, or Not
The pedal steel bears the mantle of being a truly formidable instrument to learn. "I've seen plenty of great guitar players give up in total frustration with the steel," remarks Bob Hoffnar. But with some determination, you can be playing rudimentary pedal steel within a month. Mike Ihde, lap and pedal steel guitar teacher at Boston's Berklee College of Music, looks at it this way: "The initial learning curve is fairly low, and it's not too hard to learn the basic I, IV, and V chords in a song and figure out which strings to pick and which pedals and or knee levers to push. Like the electric guitar, you can be playing a song or two within a few hours."
Ironically, right-hand technique -- the area where most standard guitarists believe their experience will help the most -- proves the most exasperating. "The steel guitar differs from the electric guitar mostly in right-hand technique," Hoffnar says. "It's hard for people to get used to finger picks. [But] you'll get good and start playing with people pretty quick, depending on how much you work at it." For Whiskeytown's Mike Daly, "pretty quick" meant four weeks -- the time between his pedal steel's arrival at his door and Whiskeytown returning to the road. "I had no choice," Daly recalls. "I sat down and practiced for hours ... ten to 12 hours [at a time]. I was really inspired to get it together."
A good teacher is crucial. "The earliest stage is where you can pick up all the bad habits," remarks Hoffnar. And while videotape courses -- particularly those taught by Buddy Emmons, Doug Jernigan, and Joe Wright -- and instructional tablature are unquestionably excellent learning mediums, nothing beats one-on-one instruction with a seasoned (preferably basted in years of sweat) teacher.
The prospect of supplementing your income and enhancing your employability is incentive enough to want to learn pedal steel. But for me -- $1,300 poorer and indisputably happier -- my investment has bought me enjoyment that I haven't felt since I began unlocking the secrets of the six-string guitar some 20 years ago.
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