In the 1950's Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day were credited with more innovations. It is noted that in 1952 Zane Beck who played for Hank Williams, Jim Reeves and many other notables, was credited to adding knee levers to a console steel.īud Isaacs is credited to adding a pedal to his console steel and was the first to record a song and change the pitch of two strings while holding a chord and thus the crying pedal steel guitar sound we hear today was born. One of the first electric steels to actually have pedals was designed by Paul Bigsby most notably known today for his vibrato tail piece used on many electric guitars even to this day.Įven with the addition of floor pedals steel players of that day still needed more versatility. Gibsons system of pedals seemed to work very well for the Electroharp. The Gibson Corporation in 1940 created the Electraharp which allowed the musician to change the pitch of certain strings without the use of a bar by using floor pedals. Alvino Ray is credited to having pedals added to the electric lap steel. The late 1930's and early 1940's the light bulb went on and pedals were added to the electric lap steel. But, even with these limitations players such as Herb Remington, Jerry Byrd, Joaquin, and Leon McAuliffe push onward and made fantastic music with what they had to work with. Even with all this there was something missing. Multiple necks, adding extra strings, various tunings, and bar slanting. Players tried everything to be able to play on the songs they loved. People such as Charlie Christian Boggs, Noel Boggs, Leo Fender, Leon McAuliffe, and Santo were all involved in the progress of the electric lap steel with multiple necks.Įven with the strides made by adding an extra neck or two to the lap steel, the musicians were still limited and they knew it. With the need to have some versatility in playing songs in different keys and scales, the addition of an extra neck tuned to a specific tuning seemed to be the logical answer at that time.

Soon legs were added and the instrument was called a console steel. It has actually evolved over the years dating back to the early 1930's with the electric lap steel. The pedal steel guitar is a very unique instrument.

Emmons pedal steel guitar set up