Owning more than two pedal steels !

[Zumbilly(Murdoch)]

For nothing more than curiosity I ask,
I am fortunate enough to own two good steel guitars. One is set up in the bedroom and that is where it stays.The other is in it's case and is taken out to gigs Therefore both guitars are being played regularly.
If I had another (or more) steels they would remain in their cases due to space restrictions and it would be a bit of a hassle to set them up to play,
Do owners of three or more steels make use of all their steels on a regular basis? It is a bit different having several six stringers removing one from a wall bracket or a case is painless and easy.
Owners of one steel are welcome to give their thoughts on this too.
Keep the forum interesting
Billy

[Uncle Roy]

Billy, that is an interesting question which I often wondered. I have two steels and they are both played regularly . Why would you want more as you say if they are not being played?
Come on Ken you have a herd what is your reason? Are all yours played regularly?

[Ken Byng]

OK - I'll take the bait Roy. On instruction from she who must be obeyed I am thinning out my herd, and have sold one of my 2 Emmons push pull's and a very nice D10 Mullen in the past 3 weeks. One of the reasons that I have kept a collection of 6 or 7 steels in the past is that I get students in who don't own a pedal steel. I let them use mine, and they can choose which one they wish. It gives them an idea of how pro guitars play, and what they sound like for future reference should they decide to make that major investment in the future. So, yes Roy - they do all get played regularly and are all set up in my studio.

I like all of my guitars - and they all sound different. One band that I used to play with would do a double take every time I set up a different steel on stage. That was funny. I am not looking to sell any more guitars for the foreseeable future, and am now down to 5 steels. I am very seriously considering ordering a D10 Rittenberry Prestige however, and that guitar is up there with the Infinity, Zum and Show Pro for excellent mechanics, while it is very Emmons-like for tone. It is costly, but there again quality doesn't come cheap.

I have some 25 six string guitars, including C F Martin, Gibsons, Fenders, PRS, Burns, Blueridge, Epiphone, Harmony, Regal, Dobro, Ozark and others. I have a beautiful Ozark Eagle 5-string banjo, and an Ovation mandolin. A couple of Roland keyboards, my late father's accordion and well over £60K's worth of recording gear. Wifey is frightened to death that when I pop my clogs she will be left with all of this 'stuff' to dispose of. I have told her who I want to dispose of all of my instruments and studio gear to make sure that she doesn't get ripped off. It's all set out in my will. I have a Martin D45 that is worth a lot, plus other guitars that I have had specially made for me. I have a garage full of amps, plus more in my studio.

So in answer to Billy's question of why all of the guitars, I guess it's because I can. I don't mean that in a big-headed way, it's just that I have reached the stage in life where I can just buy something if I want it. I have no mortgage and a bob or two in the bank (not as much as Mr McMiser mind you)! When I was in my late teens and early 20's, and young fit and strong, I would have loved to have what I have now in the way of instruments and amps. But I just made the most of what I had. As a youngster I always craved after a Harmony H75 semi acoustic guitar, but it was right out of my price range. Ten years ago I spotted one for sale in mint condition in a guitar shop in California and had it flown home. I love that guitar as much as anything that I own because I had to wait so long in my life to get one.

[Tony Russell Davis]

OK - I have one set up at home, one "housed" with an amp at the irregular gig venue, and one on the workbench. That last one is waiting for knee-lever parts, which I need to make; the "making" has been waiting several weeks for my workshop to be re-homed.
I have one amp and a twin-8 consul for sale on here, but there may well soon be a D-10 to part with (PM for details if interested).

[Shaun]

I have often considered a second steel, so I can have one permanently set up and one packed ready to take out to steelie meets. My playing has gone backwards over the last 12 months but with JD's and Matt Parks help I'm slowly getting back into it. I've told myself when I get a decent sound out of this contraption I'll consider a second steel. I think its definately worth it.
Three or more, why not if you can. Definetly usefull if you're teaching I would have thought.

[alan cannell]

Me and my Harmony H75(1961)

This is an interesting subject and Kens take on it brought back some old memories of my early experience of getting my first quality musical instrument. I know this is a Steel Forum so please excuse my rambling on ...but in 1961 I had only been playing standard guitar for a couple of years and so decided to get some professional tuition. My first guitar cost me £7/6d for a Rosetti Lucky Seven which was about twice as much as I was earning in a week but my teacher thought I should invest in a better instrument and he imported me a Harmony H75 which cost about £125 which seemed a bit pricey but was nowhere near the price of a Gibson 335 which was far superior. My dad acted as a guarantor and I paid for it weekly on Hire Purchase. Although it was a decent instrument it was by no means top of the tree and after a couple of years I traded it in for a Gibson 345. It seems strange how some of those old budget instruments now demand such a high price...?..I remember having a Watkins Dominator Amp at the time which again was all I could afford and today you see them on eBay going for around a grand.....they were not that good in 1962 and certainly not worth such an inflated price? The point I am trying to make is that the plan was to get as good an instrument as possible and then trade up for a better one , I can't remember many people collecting or owning more than a couple at a time not like nowadays when it seems OK to own enough stock for a music shop.
O.K. I must confess , my current collection includes three very nice Gretsch models. Anyway back to Steel matters , I don't play much Pedal Steel nowadays but when I started back in 1976 my first instrument was a ZB Custom followed by an Emmons , an M.C.I. and a G.F.I. , but I never held on to more than one at a time perhaps because they are so expensive and don't look as sexy as a GRETSCH 6120!

[Zebedee]

I own a Emmons push-pull SD 10, a ZB SD 11 (with only 10 strings, so that I don't get confused), and a Marlen pull-release SD 10.

I don't need 3 steels, especially now that I no longer gig, but I just can't bring myself to sell any of them.

I occasionally think about putting one up for sale, but then I'll play it, and know that I will regret parting with it, so the idea is abandoned

From a logical point of view, it's total madness, and one day, I'll have to bite the bullet and thin the herd

[SteelieAJK]

I now own three pedal steels. I think it is fairly easy to convince yourself that 2 is reasonable, one in case ready to gig and another set up at home ready to play at whim. The third is more of a stretch to justify .
Each of my guitars has a it's own charm I would find hard to part with any of them. My GFI is my gigging axe, has been for a number of years and has served me well. My Thomas turned out to be rather too heavy to gig so is just a practise and occasional steel meet axe. My Rains & I are only recent acquaintances still getting to know each other and at present is rotated with Thom as practise steel but I reckon may get to play a gig or 3 soon when I have decided what to do with the copedent.

As asked on US forum recently, for those with multi steels are they all set up the same? My three have slightly differing copedents which makes for 'interesting' moments from time to time.

[Zumbilly(Murdoch)]

My Zum is the gigging guitar and the Rittenberry is the homer. Both guitars have the same copedant(Emmons) with the Zum having the Franklin pedal in position 1. I have removed the Franklin pedal since I am not clever enough to use it and the only drawback is that the location of the pedals due to the Franklin pedal on the Zum which means that A pedal on the Zum is roughly in the position that the B pedal is, on the Ritt.This is only a small problem when I have not been out for a while with the Zum and have been using the Ritt at home,the result can often be that when I play the Zum My left foot hits a bummer now and again so I have to keep My concentration level up.
I will refit the Franklin pedal sometime, so I keep telling Myself.
Thanks for all the interesting posts.
Billy

[Tony Russell Davis]

Allan has introduced an interesting development on the topic. I play ABC ("Emmons" if you like) but had a rather nice old ZB that was set up CBA ("Day"). It was a homer for a while and I liked the challenge of two co-pedents until I found that swapping from one to the other was destructive while busking because my brain defaulted to ABC in a tight corner. So I changed that guitar over and now keep the basic pedals and KLs the same on all guitars.