(from wikipedia.com)
The pedal steel guitar is a musical instrument that produces sound by strings vibrating over a magnetic pickup. The instrument has reference lines where frets would be, but no actual frets—the player changes the pitch of one or more strings by sliding a metal bar (a steel) from one position to another while plucking the strings with the other hand, or vibrating them with a mechanical device. Pedal steels may have one or two "necks" that typically have 10 strings each, but may have as many as 14.
Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal" steel guitar. The steel in the name comes from the metal tone bar, which is called a steel.
The instrument is horizontal, with strings that face up, and typically is plucked with a thumb pick and fingers, or two or three fingerpicks. The pedals are mounted on a cross bar below the body and the knee levers extend from the bottom of the guitar's body and stretch or slacken the strings to change pitch as the guitar is played. The action of the pedals may either be fixed, or may be configurable by the player to select which strings the pedals affect. The pedal steel, with its smooth portamenti, bending chords and complex riffs, is one of the most recognizable and characteristic instruments of American country music.
While there are some fairly standard pedal assignments, many advanced players devise their own setups, called copedents. The range of copedents that can be set up varies considerably from guitar to guitar. Aftermarket modifications to make additional copedents possible are common.
The pedal steel evolved from the console steel guitar and lap steel guitar. Like the console steel, a pedal steel may have multiple necks, but the pedals make even a single-neck pedal steel a far more versatile instrument than any multiple-neck console steel.
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