Calum, thanks for the compliment on my worms, coming from an expert like you it's an honour to get it
Retuning to the pockets issue, an earlier
non pedal steel method was shown to me many moons ago and I still use it to this day when learning Toons
This method does not hurt your " pocket " and it let's you see where to "dig deep" and get the notes you want, but your brain has to figure out how to get the progressions needed in order to get there
Buddy understood that and he used scales and fills to get up down and around the neck
Regards C6th tuning Jerry Byrd had no trouble playing anything on it without pedals, the more I get into it I find notes and chords are readily available and can be found all around the neck, I know I'll never understand it completly, but I enjoy what I'm doing and I've only been back at guitar for less than 3 years
The notes are there to be found somewhere and I made up a card with them all on it to slide beneath the strings, it let's you work on progressions between them.
This method will work on pedal steel, but you need a brain to figure out what pedal or lever comes into the equasion, I've no pedals or levers on a "lap steel" and I'm a bit short on brains as well

I'll endevour to post a picture showing my set up, as a picture can be worth a thousand worms ( or words )

I hope this adds something constructive to this post if not it will boost my " tally " if your still counting

Nae pedals with the same amount of brains
Robert