What is a Pedal Steel Guitar?

If you are not familiar with the fascinating way a traditional pedal steel guitar works, both musically and mechanically, check out the following two videos. Then, browse this website about PSG construction. After that, read the history of the OnePSG.

First, let Steve Fishell explain how the PSG works musically.

A pedal steel guitar player uses a steel bar, pedals, and knee levers while playing to change the pitches of different combinations of strings. This, to create chords, single note lines, and that most "pedal steel" of sounds, the glissando change of multiple notes simultaneously.

The next video is about how traditional PSGs are built, but you can get a good sense of how they work mechanically, especially between 3:12 and 3:30. You'll see how the different rods, bellcranks, levers, and the all important changers physically stretch and loosen strings in order to change their pitches in different combinations.

The painfully quirky contraption seen in the above video is the only thing we’ve changed in the OnePSG. We’ve replaced all the rods and bellcranks and changers with electronics to do the pitch-changing. Otherwise it’s just a pedal steel. Plays like one. Sounds like one.

To learn more, click to read about The Revolution.