Couple o' questions

[captsandwich]

In the car onthe weekend, Neil Young's Heart of Gold comes on the radio. My wife starts asking me about the steel guitar sound, which leads to a few questions.
First: in that song, does anyone know if it is pedal steel or not? I am unclear on how to tell them apart. The pedals just behave like string benders, right? Playing a lap steel would be like playing with a slide, so it would be easier to pick up I assume, but pedal steels look like complicated machinery to me.
Second: I know that Rickenbacker pedal steels are fairly rare (& therefore expensive), but what is the market on lap steels like? Could I pick one up in useable condition for a couple of hundred, or am I looking an $750-1000?
Third: Would I lose all my punk rock street cred if I picked up a steel guitar?

Thanks

[jdogric12]

Greg, adding lap steel to your arsenal would be VERY punk rock, as long as you wear a work shirt from a job you don't work at anymore.

If you hear some notes bending while others are staying constant, that's a pedal steel. If you hear everything move at once, it's probably a lap.

You can easily find an old Rick lap with the horseshoe replaced for about $200-400. With horseshoe, expect $400-800 depending on condition, etc. Just a rough guess. Cruise the bay.

[rshatz]

You can't go wrong with a lap steel in any genre.
You can get a great Rick lap steel for under $500 and a spectacular one for $1000.
Here's an early 60's Rick that won't go over $500 in most auctions on Ebay. IMO it's worth $600.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=014
Recently there have been some high end Rick lap steels that have sold for much less than than I would have expected.

[jps]

Where are the shoes for that lap steel on ebay? Did the guy replace them with a bar magnet?

[admin]

This certainly looks like a beauty, Richard.

[rshatz]

You're right. No shoes--no sale.

[jdogric12]

It's an Electro, not a straight up "Rick." Could that explain the pu?

[captsandwich]

That lap steel looks nice, but how about the xylophone it's resting on.


I did a little research and the steel guitar on Heart of Gold is a pedal steel palyed by Ben Keith.
Lap steels seem to be more in my budget, so maybe I'll start looking. A local shop has one fromthe 40's that looks pretty good, a little expensive though.
http://www.capsulemusic.com/retail/detail.asp?ID=3501
Maybe I'll go check it out.
They also have some nifty looking Nationals and Gibsons, too.

[rshatz]

The model 59 is one of my favorites.
That one looks pretty good. V/T knobs are not original.
The price is too high.
Without a good case it's not worth much more than $500 IMO.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

As far as "Heart of Gold" that's Ben Keith on pedal steel. He joined the sessions for the Harvest album midway through, claims that Neil never even got a chance to introduce himself until they were finished...although they work together to this day, and you will see Ben on the newer "Heart of Gold" DVD concert movie.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Oops, too late, you already found that out. Ben's been around the block, played with dozens of major artists, even produced a Jewel album.

[rshatz]

It's an Electro, not a straight up "Rick." Could that explain the pu?

The earliest and latest Rick steels sported the "Electro" logo.
The company was originally named Electro-String. It became Rickenbacher in the early 30s and Rickenbacker in 1947, I think.

[jimk]

If you hear some notes bending while others are staying constant, that's a pedal steel. If you hear everything move at once, it's probably a lap.

Sorry to get in on this thread so late.

Some years ago, I thought I'd learn to play a bit of Dobro and maybe play in a bluegrass band. I bought an instruction book, and went through several of the lessons.

The lesson that intrigued me most was the one on non-bluegrass styles of playing; blues, C&W, Western Swing, etc. In one of the pieces, an altered tuning was used called a G9 tuning thus: GBDGAD. You could get a really neat pedal steel effect by choking the string (bending, really) with your ring finger behind the bar. It was really cool.

If done on a lap steel, it might end up sounding like Clarence White's B bender on the Byrds' recordings.

JimK

[wittyair]

Talk about joining a thread late.....but better late than never.
That is indeed a pedal steel on Harvest and Isn't it Bill Keith??
I played pedal steel for many years in a band all over the Boston area. Beautiful instruments
but much, much different than a lap steel. The pedals ( and they have knee levers) are hooked
up to certain strings and when depressed ( or moved over in the case of the knee levers ) they raise
the attached string by a half step thereby enabling the player to change notes without moving the bar.
Tough instrument to play but such a great sound.