awaiian, blues, Western swing, country, rock and pop – the lap steel guitar crops up frequently in all kinds of music. Tuned to an open chord, most guitar players can slide out a lick or two on these simple beauties, such is their close relation to a regular sixstring. Not so the frankly frightening pedal steel. With more strings, multiple bending pedals and levers it requires a freakish set of aptitudes and a fairly fat wallet to play one. So how about a lap steel augmented with a sprinkling of mechanical bendables? What a jolly good idea...

 

Author   Mick Taylor   Issue   Guitarist 04/2009   number of pages   1