Ah, so it wasn't a dream... NPSGD

Stuckfast

Turns out I really did buy this:

http://www.themorningpeople.com/psg/psg.JPG 

It's an MSA Classic pedal steel, I guess from the Seventies. Bought very speculatively in an online auction that only had one photo. Thankfully it seems to be in reasonably good shape as far as I can tell.

I have already learned two important lessons. One, that taking a pedal steel through London on public transport is not for the faint-hearted. Two, that if the auction listing doesn't mention a case, it's a mistake to assume that there's going to be a case. Yesterday was a fun day!

Awaiting the arrival of a new set of strings, then I'm going to give it a good clean-up and see if I can figure out what everything does!

sweepy

That looks amazing 

dazzajl

Wow, that’s an amazing thing. Very nice buy. 

SimonC

Looks superb.
 I’d love to have a go on one of those, but I believe you need a brain the size of a planet to play one.

merlin

Lovely. I've had a single neck E9th ShoBud Lloyd Cole model and a twin neck E9th and C6th ShoBud Pro.

Both lovely instruments but to be perfectly honest, the learning curve was too steep. 

Stuckfast

Yes it's pretty daunting isn't it... I'm struggling to get my head round the idea that you need to have two necks because having just one is too limiting!

zepp76

Congratulations, that's a lovely looking piece of kit. There's  hours of fun (learning) to be had there! I'd love to own something like that and get my Gilmour on! What songs are you hoping to learn to play or are you just going to improvise to a beat?

BeardyAndy

That looks amazing, and some what intimidating!

Jimbro66

Eight pedal's and two knee levers?!!! Best of luck with that  

merciful-evans

Looks very inviting. I'm a bit jealous. Enjoy!

Wonky

Wow, that truly is a mad looking bit of kit.  Does it djent?

Kittyfrisk

Stuckfast said:

Turns out I really did buy this:

http://www.themorningpeople.com/psg/psg.JPG 

It's an MSA Classic pedal steel, I guess from the Seventies. Bought very speculatively in an online auction that only had one photo. Thankfully it seems to be in reasonably good shape as far as I can tell.

I have already learned two important lessons. One, that taking a pedal steel through London on public transport is not for the faint-hearted. Two, that if the auction listing doesn't mention a case, it's a mistake to assume that there's going to be a case. Yesterday was a fun day!

Awaiting the arrival of a new set of strings, then I'm going to give it a good clean-up and see if I can figure out what everything does!

That is absolutely awesome.
Did you knit the rug it stands on, while playing it?

Teyeplayer

Sympathies carrying a pedal steel around the city, it’d be bad enough in a case, heavy heavy buggers!

On the flip-side, it’s home now, you can enjoy the swathes of pedal steel loveliness and let them wash over you.
Happy new pedal steel day.

Dominic

Good Man........or rather " Good ' Ol Boy " .........hope it came with a Stetson 
2 necks - One for  Country and one for Western 
My guitar Teacher is one of the top session players in UK along with Sarah Jory and Jerry Hogan
I've had a quick lesson and talk through out of curiosity ......Wow , Good luck with that 

Stuckfast

Still waiting impatiently for my new strings! At the moment I can only use the C6 neck as the E9 is missing four strings. On the plus side it feels as though I can carry over some RH techniques from acoustic fingerpicking which is a bonus. The left hand is more of a challenge. And the feet, and the knees...

Stuckfast

A quick update for anyone who cares... By pure chance it turns out that the UK's leading pedal steel repair / maintenance / teaching guru lives not too far from me. He has been super helpful and done a ton of work on it -- it's basically a very good instrument, luckily, but had been set up in a weird way and needed raising up to accommodate my freakishly long legs. So now I have it back and I'm loving the challenge -- it's going to be a long road, though. Even the church organ doesn't require you to use both knees as well as both feet and hands!

jdgm

I was once in a band with a left-handed pedal steelie......ace player!  They have a beautiful sound but hard work to master.

Very fortunate to find an expert not too far away.

Best of luck, will look forward to hearing about your progress.

DulcetJones

Very cool.  I started learning on a 6 string lapsteel recently, I can't imagine what you're up against.  Lucky you have someone knowledgeable close by.  I'm in Canada and nobody even knows what these things are!

JerkMoans

Lawks!  How do you play that thing?!

Stuckfast

Well as far as I can tell the principle is that you *can* slide the bar up and down the neck, but really it's bad form to do so if you can make changes using the pedals and levers...

Keefy

I play on the country circuit, and a good steelie* is a joy to hear. Takes a while to become 'good' though!


*steelie - player of the pedal steel guitar