Steel Guitar Builder

So did most of you get your start building pedal steels by purchasing one and then reverse engineering it and trying to improve upon it ?
Did anyone on here build there first without actually having a guitar and or parts of the guitar to copy off of ?

Keep these dimensions coming .
I appreciate all the information so far .

I am excited about building a pedal steel , just having difficulty finding any drawings . I am trying to look at the photos everyone has posted and scale them to get an idea on the dimensions but hate to scrap out $$$$ aluminum due to being off on my dimensions. I have started machining the keyhead ...

My recommendation is to watch Craigslist and industrial auctions . There's some very nice machinery available for a modest price if you take your time . If you have the space available I would save my money a little longer and go with a industrial size mill . Take a couple indicators with you when y...

Maxi19 , I see you purchased the Gluck CD . Does it provide dimensioned drawings for most of the parts ?

Thanks

Hello all , just discovered this forum and am pretty excited about what I am seeing and reading . As for me I have zero steel guitar experience , but have always thought about building a pedal steel . I own a machine shop so I have the machining experience , just need to learn all the fine details o...