Hello & howdo?

[JohnGuitarSteel]

I have been playing 8-string lap for a while now (a Lap King Bel Aire) and have been inspired to learn pedal steel. I'm looking for a PSG and all the good advice I can get - where should I start?

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Hi John,
Here is some good advice
Tell us where you are located and there should be someone local to you that can help....... Don`t rush out and buy a steel until you get advice from a player...... people who don`t know what they are looking for get burned here all the time...tell us what kind of music you want to play on it, and a little about yourself?????? there are lots of good guys on here that will help you!

[JohnGuitarSteel]

Thanks for your reply John,
I live in East Surrey and I recently talked to a very experienced steel player called Gerry Hogan from Newbury. He advised going for an all-pull PSG as they are easier to configure and maintain than the push/pull variety. I have seen a number of instruments listed on ebay and elsewhere on the net and it is surprising how few of the sellers know (or profess to know) anything about the guitars they are selling. As a novice steel player I'm not able to distinguish the changer mechanism simply by looking - does anyone know of any info. regarding this? Best wishes John.

[henry]

welcome aboard, John

here's my best attempt at an explanation!

'push pulls' pull the changer fingers to raise and push them to lower

'all pulls' pull to do both. they do this by having a joint in the changer fingers (the bits that move back and forth). so when the top half of the finger is pulled it raises, and the bottom half lowers. because the finger pivots on the joint and pushes the top half in the other direction

hope this makes sense, it would if i could show you a pic.

anyway, the obvious difference between a 'push pull' and an 'all pull' is that there's a joint in all the fingers of 'all pulls' but 'push pulls' have solid fingers.

hopefully someone who knows what they're talking about will post soon and clear this up! Richard, Bob...?

[henry]

btw I just said Richard and Bob then not in any way to imply that they're the only people who could explain this, but they're both engineers and have provided useful diagrams in the past..
i'll keep on digging

[Tony Russell Davis]

The simplest thing to look for is - if the guitar has an oblong cutout in the endplate at the "tail" end and there are a number of nylon nuts on the ends of rods in there, it's a typical all-pull (note - ZB brand is a very good all-pull that tunes differently). Bear in mind that one brand of push-pull (p/p's for short) is the revered Emmons and many players would mortgage their house for one. While A/P's are simple to understand, P/P's are just another, slightly less intuitive, way of tuning and are not inferior.
BTW - there are also "pull-release" and "hybrid" mechanisms to further screw your head up.
The things to be careful about are "student" guitars. Some can be good many are bad - you need our help to check, so ask! Look for at least 3 pedals and 4 knee levers. You may not use them all for some time, but if they are there it suggests the guitar has promise mechanically. Tony.

[James Crowbear]

Welcome to this forum John
Gerry Hogan gave you good advice
stick w: an all pull psg - it's easier to maintain, work on & play on
Ted Nesbitt from Rainbow Musik in Northern Ireland is a top notch dealer
he's a member here - look him up

John Davis, i was a bit surprised by this : people who don`t know what they are looking for get burned here all the time
do you mean here on the BSS ? are you Sirius ?

[Donny Johnston]

Welcome to the site, Gerry did give you good advice, listen to him, listen to Ted, ask as many questions as you want before you hand over your hard earned cash.

[JohnGuitarSteel]

Thank you John, Henry, James, Tony & Donny,
Your posts have all been very helpful & have given me much to think about. I remember learning to play the guitar (longer ago than I care to remember) on my dad's old no-brand, Spanish guitar and after 8 months or so of torture, then realizing that what I was really struggling with was a terrible instrument rather than the difficulty of learning alone. I'm keen not to repeat this mistake in PSG-world! Forgive me in advance for pestering the community with further naivety over the coming weeks! ATB John.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Crowbear.... its easy to get mis understood here... of course I did`ent mean they get burned on the BSS This place is an oasis in a desert of ignorance as far as pedal steel goes!!
What I meant was, I am constantly getting newbies coming to me to help get them started....... and they turn up with inferior student & home mades that I struggle to get a tune out of!! What they have done wrong is to buy first AND THEN! start asking questions........ now we both know this is the wrong way around.
Another popular misconception among newbies ( IMHO) is that a brand new starter guitar is gonna be better than an old pro clanker ...... well I don`t think so (my most playable steel is my Red emmons,first one they made in 1971 !) and the clincher for me is .... if you bite the bullet and buy an old pro guitar to learn on ,, you will get your money back from it when you sell it so nothing is lost unlike some student models I could mention.........