How to Maintain and Take Care of Your Pedal Steel Guitar

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Maintaining your pedal steel guitar is something that every player should do daily. If you’re a professionally touring musician, or just a weekend warrior playing in your local honky-tonk, taking care of your instrument is the most important thing you can do for yourself.

Here are some tips on how to maintain and take care of your pedal steel guitar:

* Change your strings regularly. This should be done at least once a week if you’re playing often, and at least once a month if you’re playing occasionally.

* Clean the frets with rubbing alcohol and a soft cloth. This will remove any dirt or fingerprints on them.

* Keep dust off of the pickups by wiping them down with a lint free cloth after each gig/practice session.

* Use an electronic tuner to tune up before every practice session or gig.

* If you’re not using your pedal steel guitar for more than two days between gigs or practices, keep it in tuning by holding down all four pedals while the strings are tuned up (this will keep them from going flat).

Pedal steel guitars are the workhorses of country music. In general they can be very expensive, but they don’t have to be. Even a low priced pedal steel guitar can sound great if it is properly maintained.

When you first get a pedal steel guitar it might not be set up properly or have some parts missing. Once you get everything you need and set the pedal steel guitar up properly, you should know how to maintain it in order to keep it sounding great.

A pedal steel guitar is a complex instrument and requires more time to set up and maintain than an acoustic guitar. If you do not properly maintain it, the instrument will degrade in performance over time. Taking care of your pedal steel guitar is not difficult, but it does require some time and effort.

The most important thing for maintaining your PSEG is to keep the strings tight. You should tune them every day before you play, and you can adjust the tuning on the bridge to make sure they are always in tune with each other. It’s also important that you clean the strings after playing so they don’t rust or corrode. In addition to keeping them tight, cleaning off any dirt will help keep them sounding new.

You may need to adjust the action on your PSEG from time to time; if it gets too high or low, it won’t play well and may even cause damage to itself or other instruments around it (like a piano). To adjust the action:

1) Put a capo on the first fret of your PSEG and turn tuning key until string tension is about halfway between slackness and tightness (this varies depending on how much tension you want).

You can use this method for any kind of stringed instrument!

For the last few years I have been trying to find out information about pedal steel guitars and maintenance on them. I have only found bits and pieces here and there. So, I decided to put all the information I have gathered into one place. If you have any suggestions or comments, please email me at info@pedalsteelguitar.net

I will be adding a lot more information to this site as well as links, pictures and more. This is intended to be a resource for pedal steel guitar players of every level. All suggestions are welcome!

Keep your pedal steel guitar in its case when not playing.

Keep a small dry cloth in the case and wipe off any sweat while you are playing.

Remove all moisture with a clean dry cloth after playing.

Keep your pedal steel guitar away from heat, humidity and direct sun light.

Change the strings regularly (about every 60-90 days).

Use a good quality string cleaner/lubricant to keep your strings clean and polished. Finger stains can eat into the strings and shorten their life span.

Keep the finger board clean and dry.

Oil the finger board regularly (about every 3 months). I prefer boiled linseed oil but you can use any good instrument grade oil such as lemon oil or rosewood oil. If you use rosewood oil make sure that it does not contain silicone or any other silicone based products like furniture polish or waxes etc. Silicone is bad for fret boards as it does not let the wood breathe and traps moisture under it which can damage the finger board over time.

The most important thing to keep in mind when caring for a pedal steel guitar is that the finish on the guitar is its main defense against rust and corrosion. The finish is there to protect the metal, not just to make it look nice. One of the best things you can do after playing your steel guitar is to wipe down the steel parts with an oily rag. This will help prevent moisture from settling on your guitar and causing rust and corrosion.

Another area of concern is with the tuning pegs. If you notice any binding or resistance when tuning, oil or grease may be required. It is also a good idea to use oil or grease on the pegs before extended storage or travel.

The pedal rods can be oiled or greased as well, but only sparingly. Too much oil or grease can attract dirt and dust, which will get into the pivot points of the pedals and levers and cause binding and sticking.

Welcome to the Web site of E9th Tuning Software. The software on this site is designed to help you tune your pedal steel guitar.

My name is Joe Wright. I have been a pedal steel player for over 50 years, and I have been programming computers for about 20 years. I decided to combine my two interests by creating software that would help me tune my steel guitar. The result of this endeavor is E9th Tuning Software, software that will help you tune your pedal steel guitar and maintain it in tune.

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