Unnecessary Mechanical Complexity

[Zebedee]

Some of todays steels are way over the top with super-duper engineering that, quite frankly, is completely unnecessary for what is basically a plank of wood with some strings on it.

Give me the old, simple steels anyday.

Why ??

Because they had tone, a tone that wasn't strangled at birth by a million adjusting screws and convoluted string arrangements that kept the strings only remotely connected to the body of the steel, via 3 or 4 plates riveted together.

[Dave Nutt]

Richard.
Truer words were never spoken, I am amazed at some of the complex copedents and pedal/knee lever setups nowdays,
do they sound any better? (excluding the franklin 4th pedal) If they do, I certainly dont hear it.
Three pedals & one knee lever, you can create a lot of music with that simple setup.
Dave.

[telboy]

Pedal...Knee lever?

[Dave Nutt]

Terry, we are talking 'rich guys' here

[Ken Byng]

Spot on Richard. I've rarely heard a fully loaded pedal steel sound as good as one that has a more basic set up. Lloyd Green's old LDG has a wonderfully transparent, yet rich tone. That's why he goes back to it time after time.

As good as they are, the Zum that Buddy played towards the end of his career did not have the sonic clarity that his Emmons guitars had. Although he was not a great technician, Pete Drake always got a wonderful tone from his old Sho-Bud. Tom Brumley's tone was nicer to my ears through the basic ZB guitars that he owned than his Mullen and Anapeg guitars.

My old Ormston steel had probably the most basic mechanical system ever, yet had a tone to compare with anything that came out afterwards from the USA. I wish that I'd kept it just to use as a non-pedal D8. I have always like the unique tone of the Fender cable guitars, although much of that was from the lower output from the pickups.

Maybe there is a trade off of tone against practicality of multi-raise/lower changers with their increased lever.pedal combinations. I would never go over 3 + 5 for E9, and 5 + 2 for C6. Just my opinion, but I think that Richard is quite correct.

[James Crowbear]

i agree wholeheartdly that newer psgs don't have the tone & sound that the old Buds, Emmons & ZBs had
undoubtedly, the recording gear & techniques of those times also contributed to "that" sound ( tubes, natl reverb rooms & mikes)
nevertheless, i find that modern day psgs are far more reliable & precise than them vintage models
as for the lever add ons that we find nowadays,, most are for the C6 & do permit a greater vocabulary
David Hartley has got himself an interesting copedent on his E9 as does randy Beavers, Paul Franklin, Doug Jernigan, others i'm sure
nothin' like progress all the while preserving tradition ( impossible to dismiss the beginning of it all )

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

interesting topic, ive only owned a few steels so far, 3 sho buds, and two carters, i found the carters very well built and pedals and knee levers very precise, but i do think they lacked 'that' tone that the bud's have, never owned or played Emmons, but i have a ZB on route to me, so cant wait to hear 'that' ZB sound, that seems to be so much loved by their owners, i dont think my buds pedals and levers played as easily as the carter though,