The pedal steel guitar is a type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings. This allows musicians to play more varied and complex music than other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can produce sliding notes (called glissandi) and deep vibrato, which are similar to the sounds of the human voice. The pedal steel guitar is most often linked to country music and Hawaiian music.
In 1940, pedals were added to a lap steel guitar. This allowed performers to play a major scale without moving the bar and to press the pedals while striking a chord. This created a unique sound where passing notes could smoothly blend into harmony with other notes. This sound became popular in country and western music and was not possible on steel guitars before pedals were added.
The steel guitar first became popular in Hawaii in the 19th century. By the early 20th century, its sound was widely enjoyed in the United States. This led to the creation of instruments designed to be played horizontally, known as "Hawaiian-style." The first of these was the Hawaiian guitar, also called a lap steel. Later, a lap steel with a resonator (made by National and Dobro Corporation) was developed to increase volume. In 1934, the electric guitar pickup was invented, allowing steel guitars to be heard clearly with other instruments. This led to the development of electrified lap steels, console steels, and finally the pedal steel guitar.
Playing the pedal steel guitar requires using both hands, both feet, and both knees (knees control levers on the sides of each knee). The only other instrument with similar requirements is the American reed organ. Important pioneers in the instrument’s development include Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Bud Isaacs, Zane Beck, and Paul Bigsby. In addition to American country music, the pedal steel guitar is used in sacred music in the eastern and southern United States (called Sacred Steel), jazz, and Nigerian music.
Early history and evolution
In the late 1800s, Spanish guitars were brought to the Hawaiian Islands by European sailors and Mexican "vaqueros." When first introduced, Hawaiians did not use the standard guitar tuning that was common at the time. Instead, they changed the tuning so that when all six strings were strummed, the guitar produced a major chord. This type of tuning is now called "open tuning." It is also known as "slack-key" because some strings were loosened to create this sound. To change chords, Hawaiians used a smooth object, such as a piece of pipe or metal, and slid it over the strings to the fourth or fifth position. This made it easier to play simple three-chord songs. Holding a steel bar against the strings while playing was challenging, so Hawaiians placed the guitar across their laps and played while sitting. This style of playing became popular throughout Hawaii and later spread to other parts of the world.
Electrific amplification
Hawaiian lap steel guitars were too quiet to compete with other instruments, a challenge that many inventors tried to solve. In the 1920s, a steel guitar player named George Beauchamp in Los Angeles saw new designs that added a horn, like a megaphone, to steel guitars to increase their volume. Interested, Beauchamp visited a shop near his home owned by a violin repairman named John Dopyera. Dopyera and his brother Rudy showed Beauchamp a prototype that attached a large Victrola horn to a guitar, but it did not work well. Their next attempt used a resonator cone, similar to a large metal loudspeaker, placed under the guitar’s bridge. This design was successful, and Beauchamp joined the Dopyera brothers to form a company to develop the invention. The new resonator guitar was introduced at a party in Los Angeles, where it was demonstrated by a famous Hawaiian steel player named Sol Hoopii. An investor immediately wrote a check for $12,000 that night.
A factory was built to produce guitars with the new resonator design. However, financial problems and disagreements arose, leading to a legal battle. The Dopyera brothers won the case and formed their own company, "the Dobro Corporation," named after their initials. Beauchamp lost his job and focused on his long-term idea of an "electric guitar." He studied electronics and first tried making a single-string guitar from a 2×4 piece of wood, using parts from a record player, but this did not work. Eventually, he created a design with two horseshoe-shaped magnets around the guitar strings and six small metal rods wrapped in wire to strengthen the magnetic field.
When connected to an electronic amplifier and loudspeaker, the design worked. Beauchamp partnered with an engineer named Adolph Rickenbacker to build the guitar. The final product resembled a frying pan, earning it the nickname "frying pan." Beauchamp applied for a patent on June 2, 1934, and received it on August 10, 1937. He asked Rickenbacker to help manufacture the instrument, and together they founded a company initially named "Ro-Pat-In," later renamed "ElectroString." The guitar brand was called "Rickenbacker" because the name was easier to say than "Beauchamp" and because Adolph’s cousin, Eddie Rickenbacker, was a famous pilot in the United States.
In 1931, during the worst year of the Great Depression, people were not buying guitars. Additionally, the patent office delayed approval because it was unclear whether the invention was a musical instrument or an electrical device. Competitors copied the design without paying for the patent, and ElectroString could not afford to fight them in court. Beauchamp did not benefit financially because competitors quickly improved on his design, making his specific patent outdated. ElectroString’s most successful product was the Hawaiian guitar (lap steel) A22 "Frying Pan," the first electrified instrument of any kind. It had a metal body, was smaller than a traditional Spanish guitar, and was played on the musician’s lap.
Two major developments followed: first, the need for a separate guitar amplifier to use the invention; and second, the realization that electric guitars did not have to follow the traditional guitar shape. This idea greatly influenced the future design of electric guitars.
Lap steel
The first lap steels had a smaller body but kept a guitar-like shape. Instrument makers started making them into a rectangular block of wood with an electric pickup, which was the first version of the pedal steel. According to music writer Michael Ross, the first electrified stringed instrument on a commercial recording was a western swing tune by Bob Dunn in 1935. He recorded with Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies. Brown has been called "The father of western swing." The main problem with lap steels was that they could only play a few chords that couldn't be changed during a song without re-tuning. For that reason, many different tunings are available for lap steel players.
Lap steel becomes console steel
The next challenge was the need to use different ways of tuning the strings on the same guitar. At that time, the only way to do this was by adding another neck and set of strings to the instrument, each tuned differently.
As musicians wanted more options, they added more necks, eventually creating instruments with up to four necks. These larger, heavier guitars were called "consoles" and needed to be placed on stands or legs instead of being held in the performer’s lap.
Noel Boggs, a lap steel guitarist who played with Bob Wills, was the first person to receive a steel guitar made by instrument maker Leo Fender in 1953. Fender worked with famous musicians to test his instruments. Boggs was among the first players to switch between different necks during a solo.
Leon McAuliffe, the composer of the song "Steel Guitar Rag," also played with Bob Wills and used a multi-neck steel guitar. When Wills said his famous phrase, "Take it away, Leon," he was referring to McAuliffe.
In 1959, a Fender Stringmaster triple-neck console steel guitar was featured in the number one hit song "Sleep Walk," a steel guitar instrumental performed by Santo and Johnny, the Farina Brothers.
Console steel becomes pedal steel
Building many necks on one instrument was expensive, so most players could not afford them. A better solution was needed. At this time, the goal was to create a pedal that could change the pitch of all strings at once, like having a second neck. In 1939, a guitar called the "Electradaire" had a pedal connected to a solenoid, which controlled an electrical device to adjust string tension. This did not work. That same year, bandleader Alvino Rey worked with a machinist to design pitch-changing pedals, but these also failed. The Harlan Brothers in Indianapolis made the "Multi-Kord," which used a universal pedal that could adjust any or all strings. However, the pedal was very hard to push when tightening all strings together. In 1940, Gibson Guitar Company introduced the "Electraharp," which had pedals arranged around a single axis on the instrument's left rear leg. The instrument was not popular, and only 43 were sold before production stopped. The U.S. entering World War II likely reduced demand for the instrument. After the war, Gibson redesigned the Electraharp and reintroduced it. Bud Isaacs used one on the song "Big Blue Diamonds" for King Records.
The most successful pedal system was created around 1948 by Paul Bigsby, a motorcycle shop worker and racer who also invented a commercially successful Spanish guitar vibrato tailpiece. Bigsby placed pedals on a rack between the front legs of a steel guitar. The pedals controlled a mechanical linkage to adjust string tension and raise pitch.
Bigsby built guitars with his pedal design for top steel guitar players of the time, including Speedy West, Noel Boggs, and Bud Isaacs. However, Bigsby worked alone from his garage at age 56 and could not meet demand. One of his first guitars was used by Eddie Kirk on the song "Candy Kisses" in 1949. The second model he made was used extensively by Speedy West.
Pedal steel in country music: the birth of a new sound
In 1953, Bud Isaacs received a new type of steel guitar called a double-neck steel. This instrument had pedals that could change the pitch of only two strings. Isaacs was the first person to press the pedal while notes were still playing. Other steel guitar players avoided this practice because it was thought to be "un-Hawaiian."
When Isaacs used this setup on the 1953 recording of Webb Pierce's song "Slowly," he pressed the pedal while playing a chord. This caused the notes to bend upward from below, blending into the existing chord and creating a new, amazing sound that had not been possible before with older lap steels. Lloyd Green, a skilled steel guitar player, said that Bud Isaacs introduced a new way of playing the steel guitar with this recording. This innovation had a lasting influence on the future of country music and inspired many steel players to try to copy it.
In the 1950s, Zane Beck, a famous steel guitar player, added knee levers to the pedal steel guitar. These levers could lower the pitch of notes. A player could move their knees left, right, or up (depending on the model) to trigger different pitch changes. The knee levers work similarly to foot pedals and can be used alone, with the other knee, or with one or two foot pedals. They were first added to Ray Noren's console steel. At first, the knee levers only lowered the pitch, but later improvements allowed them to raise or lower the pitch as needed.
Buddy Emmons' contributions to pedal steel
When the song "Slowly" was released, Bigsby was working on building a guitar for steel guitar expert Buddy Emmons. Emmons listened to Isaacs' performance on the song and asked Bigsby to adjust the guitar setup so that one pedal controlling a single string was divided into two pedals, each controlling a different string. This change allowed players to form chords, such as minor and suspended chords, without tilting or shifting the bar. Another skilled steel guitarist, Jimmy Day, made a similar change but connected the two pedals to different strings in the opposite way. This led future guitar makers to ask customers if they preferred a "Day" or "Emmons" setup. In 1957, Emmons partnered with guitarist and machinist Harold "Shot" Jackson to create Sho-Bud, the first company dedicated entirely to making pedal steel guitars.
Emmons also introduced other improvements to the steel guitar, including adding two extra strings (called "chromatics") and a third pedal. These changes are now standard on modern E9 instruments. The additional strings let players play a major scale without moving the bar. He also created and patented a system that could raise and lower a string's pitch on a steel guitar and return it to its original pitch without causing the instrument to go out of tune. Sho-Bud guitars from that time included all the latest features: 10 strings, a third pedal, and knee levers.
Modern pedal steel
The pedal steel guitar is a changing instrument. In the United States, as of 2017, the E9 neck is more commonly used, but most pedal steels still have two necks. The C6 neck is often used for western swing music, while the E9 neck is more frequently used for country music. Each neck has unique sound patterns. The C6 neck covers a wider range of musical notes, especially on the lower end.
Some musicians prefer different setups for how the pedals and levers work and which string tunings are used. In the early 1970s, musician Tom Bradshaw created the term "copedent," which combines the words "chord," "pedal," and "arrangement." This term is often shown in tables and describes the instrument’s tuning, pedal and lever settings, string thickness, and string winding.
Some people support a "universal tuning" that combines the two most popular modern tunings (E9 and C6) into one 12- or 14-string neck. This idea was first developed by Maurice Anderson and later improved by Larry Bell. By lowering the C6 tuning by a half-step to make it a B6, the E9 and B6 tunings share similarities on the same neck, and this setup is called the E9/B6 tuning.
Use in non-traditional genres
The pedal steel guitar is most often linked to American country music, but it is also used in jazz, religious music, pop, nu jazz, and African music. In the United States during the 1930s, when the steel guitar was very popular, the instrument was introduced into the House of God, a group within an African-American Pentecostal church mainly located in Nashville and Indianapolis. The sound of the steel guitar was very different from typical American country music. The congregation accepted the instrument and often used it instead of an organ. The first known use of a pedal steel (not a lap steel) in this tradition happened in 1952, but it became more common only in the early 1970s. This style of music, called "Sacred Steel," was not well known until the 1980s, when a teenager named Robert Randolph, the son of a minister, began playing the instrument. He later gained recognition and praise as a musician. Neil Strauss, who wrote for the New York Times, described Randolph as "one of the most original and talented pedal steel guitarists of his generation."
The pedal steel guitar became an important part of Nigerian Juju music in the late 1970s. A Nigerian bandleader named King Sunny Adé included the pedal steel guitar in his 17-member band. A New York Times reviewer named Jon Pareles noted that the band added "a twang or two from American blues and country." Norwegian jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, who is known for blending jazz with electronic music, released an album called Switch that features the pedal steel guitar.