Steel Guitar Builder

I am making a steel guitar that will have up to 4 whammy bars to bend 2 strings at once.

According to this chart: http://www.gfimusicalproducts.com/Table ... Tables.htm

It seems that each pedal only bends 2 strings at once And I imagine there is a reason for this (besides the extra tension of bending 3 strings).

If I only have 4 bars (pedals) which 4 would be the most important? Well aside from the B-Bender, which 3 other than the B Bender for Country Music.

Thank You!

Your back is firmly up against the wall on this one and I'm afraid that I'm not going to be a friendly helper.

The GFI chart that you reference is a stock-standard E9 tuning which has evolved over many decades so as to access many different note intervals and chord fragments in a couple of different registers. To arbitrarily choose a combination of only four functions out of the eight shown will ultimately be an exercise in futility.

If, for example, I chose to use only P1, P2, LKL, and LKR then I might be happly as a clam - for no more than a week. I'd then be frustrated that I didn't have, say, P3 or LKV. LKL is another which follows closely behind. In short, every time that you eliminate a given function, you limit the versatility of the instrument in that copedant in spite of the fact that redundancy can be found for many intervals between different combinations of functions. Yes, some will not be missed as much as others but it appears to me that the genre called "country music" will be severely compromised with anything less than six of the listings in the chart.

As regards the pulling of more than two or three strings on a given pedal or lever, I'm mindful of the fact that Paul Franklin pulls SIX strings on one of his pedals and claims that the effort required is not exorbitant.

I can visualize the reasoning behind limiting your levers to only four, but I cannot believe that you will be happy with the result as you venture beyond "do-re-me" in the country music idiom. Sorry, but I gotta tell it like it is.

Richard

I appreciate your answer.
I'm making this steel just to keep me busy for the 90 days until I can get a standing pedal steel made.
I only have a limited amount of space behind the bridge to mount the bars.
Coming from a standard guitar perspective, I can do a few steel-like bends using the G and B strings. Therefore I am looking at string spaces such as Maj 3rds, Maj 6ths, P4ths as mandatory.
That gives me a lot of options compared to my affinity strat with 2 bolts JB welded on each end tuned to e B G# F# D D#.

Thank You!