Everyone need this. Lap steel for electric.

[pappasmurfsharem]

Saw this on hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/09/servobender-the-electronic-pedal-steel/

Servo controlled lapsteely goodness.

Sounds amazing.

[italianguy63]

Kind of a cool idea.  But, a lot of work/clunky, and I am afraid it wouldn't stay in tune well.... 

[samhay]

That's cool, and the playing is pretty hot too.
While it might be a little clunky, that's the nature of the beast. It looks a lot easier to use than a B-bender, and being able to bend 4 strings opens up some possibilities.

[~arph]

Yeah just saw that too.. need to combine this with the hex pickups just posted recently. 

[Mark Hammer]

Ever seen a Bigsby palm pedal?  Most of us are familiar with Bigsby units that pitch-bend all 6 strings at once.  Palm pedals can be had that allow for selective bending of multiple individual strings.  The one shown below will do 2 strings, but they can be had for all 6.  I first learned about these in 1982, when I was blessed to have a tour of the Bigsby factory by none other than Ted McCarty, who pulled a gorgeous gold-plated unit off the shelf to show me.  I doubt I would ever have the skill level required to use one, though.

[samhay]

^I doubt I would ever have the skill level required to use one, though

That's the kicker. There's a reason why pedal steels have foot pedals.

[armdnrdy]

Ted McCarty

The father of the Flying "V" among other things.

Not to be confused with Joe McCarthy who probably thought that if you played guitar....you were a communist! 

[italianguy63]

Or Melisa McCarthy... oh nevermind!

Makes you wonder if the Gibson Firebird X self-tuner mechanism could be used to do something like this.. reverse engineering....

MC

[Mark Hammer]

Ted McCarty

The father of the Flying "V" among other things.

...those other things being the SG, Explorer, and the 335.  Not a bad track record if you ask me.
I framed the business card he gave me.  Sweet guy.

[armdnrdy]

Ted McCarty

The father of the Flying "V" among other things.

...those other things being the SG, Explorer, and the 335.  Not a bad track record if you ask me.

And he didn't play a lick of guitar!

[Jdansti]

Very cool!

[wavley]

MSA bender

[jimbeaux]

Inventor of the Palm Pedal is Boomer Castleman.

I bought one of these in the early 70's, but the biggest issue I had - is you can't mute the strings (at least not with your palm) - I sold it last year for about five times what I originally payed for it.

(the palm pedal was available in recent years from Dan 'db' Balde, unfortunately he passed away & all of the links are gone)

Thanks for linking the hackaday project - great idea - you can pick, bend & mute -

[Mark Hammer]

Inventor of the Palm Pedal is Boomer Castleman.

I bought one of these in the early 70's, but the biggest issue I had - is you can't mute the strings (at least not with your palm) - I sold it last year for about five times what I originally payed for it.

(the palm pedal was available in recent years from Dan 'db' Balde, unfortunately he passed away & all of the links are gone)

Thanks for linking the hackaday project - great idea - you can pick, bend & mute -

Thanks for that info.    And it's always something, eh?