How to Set Up a Pedal Steel Guitar

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, my name is Bill Bassett and I am here to tell you about how to play the pedal steel guitar. Well to set up a pedal steel guitar, first it is a little daunting. There are a lot of mechanisms here, a lot of attachments, legs, metal rods and what not but we are going to take it step by step and simplify it considerably. This is one of the legs and it simply screws into the body of the guitar and the other one goes across here. Next thing up is the pedal bar. This is what the rods will attach to and activated by the pedals, it's along with the clamps at the bottom of the legs. Hold on securely like that. The next step I am going to take is to put the pedal rods on. There are seven pedals on this guitar and each rod has a number on them to keep them straight. Each rod might be slightly different in length so I want to make sure that I have the exact rod in the right position. So when I sit down to play it, it doesn't feel funny to me. This is pedal rod number 6 and it attaches to the pedal with the little thumb screw there. Like I said before, all seven rods has its own number and it goes pretty quick once you get the hang of it. Number 1 and this must be number 4. Now the front legs again, just screw right in the chassis of the steel guitar. It is basically the same type of thing you might find on a standard microphone stand or chrome plated steel legs. Screw right into the threaded inserts there. Now the steel guitar weighs about 30 pounds so when you lift it up, you just have to have a good grip and make sure it doesn't get loose from you. And that is an assembled pedal steel guitar. "