Steve Fishell explains how pedal steel guitar works

Emmylou Harris’s pedal steel ace shows us how it’s done Gear demos playlist: Subscribe for more from Guitarist: Watch the video to see Steve demonstrate how his ZumSteel D-10’s mechanisms can make magically expressive sounds. Steve walks us round the instrument, explaining why -- in the world of pedal steel -- a guitarist’s legs aren’t just used for knee slides, but for changing pitch. We got excited when he told us there was a bar involved, but it turns out that’s just another of the note-forming tools that makes pedal steel such a tough but rewarding discipline... “The pedal steel is really simply a horizontal guitar tuned to a chord with pedals and knee levers that allow you to alter the chord that it’s tuned to,“ Steve explains. “It’s basically tuned to an open E chord on the outside neck, which is E, G#, B -- just the way you have an open E chord on a regular guitar. “Actually, the n