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{{Short description|Musical instrument}}
{{Good article}}
{{Infobox Instrument
|name=Lap steel guitar
|names= {{hlist|Hawaiian guitar|lap steel|console steel|kīkākila|[[Dobro]]}}
|image= Fender Champion lap steel @ 2010 TSGA Jamboree.jpg
|image_size = 240
|image_capt= Fender Champion electric lap steel guitar
|background= string
|classification= [[String instrument]], [[Fingerpick|finger picked]]
|hornbostel_sachs_desc = Composite [[chordophone]]
|inventors= Popularized by [[Joseph Kekuku]]
|developed=1885
|range= Variable depending on choice of tuning
}}
The '''lap steel guitar''', also known as a '''Hawaiian guitar''' or '''lap slide guitar''', is a type of [[steel guitar]] without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's [[lap]]. Unlike the usual manner of playing a 
traditional [[acoustic guitar]], in which the performer's fingertips press the strings against [[frets]], the pitch of a steel guitar is changed by pressing a polished [[steel bar]] against strings while plucking them with the opposite hand. The steel guitar's name is derived from this steel bar. Though the instrument does not have frets, it displays markers that resemble them. Lap steels may differ markedly from one another in external appearance, depending on whether they are [[Acoustic guitar|acoustic]] or [[Electric guitar|electric]], but in either case, do not have pedals, distinguishing them from [[pedal steel guitar]]s.

The steel guitar was the first foreign musical instrument to gain a foothold in American pop music. It originated in the [[Hawaiian Kingdom]] about 1885, popularized by an [[Oahu]] youth named [[Joseph Kekuku]], who became known for playing a [[Steel-string acoustic guitar|traditional guitar]] by laying it across his lap and sliding a piece of metal against the strings to change the pitch. The instrument's distinctive [[portamento]] sound, characterized by a smooth gliding between notes, became popular throughout the islands. American [[popular culture]] became fascinated with [[Music of Hawaii|Hawaiian music]] during the first half of the twentieth century – to the degree of becoming a musical [[fad]]. Americans were curious about the lap steel instrument featured in its performance, and came to refer to it as a "Hawaiian guitar",{{efn|According to music historian Lorene Ruymar, Hawaiians do not use this terminology. To them, a "Hawaiian guitar" refers to [[Slack-key guitar|slack-key]], an indigenous folk guitar style.<ref name="ruymarslidesteel">{{cite web |last1=Ruymar |first1=Lorene |title=History of Hawaiian Steel Guitar |url=http://www.hsga.org/history.htm |website=webarchive.com |publisher=Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316204058/http://www.hsga.org/history.htm |access-date=April 8, 2021|archive-date=2018-03-16 }}</ref>}} and the horizontal playing position as "Hawaiian style". Hawaiian music began its assimilation into American popular music in the 1910s, but with English [[lyrics]]; a combination Hawaiians called ''[[Hapa haole music|hapa haole]]'' (half-white). In the 1930s, the invention of [[Electric guitar|electric amplification]] for the lap steel was a milestone in its evolution. It meant that the instrument could be heard equally with other instruments, that it no longer needed a resonance chamber to produce its sound, and that electrified lap steels could be manufactured in any shape (even a rectangular block), with little or no resemblance to a traditional guitar.

In the early twentieth century Hawaiian music and the steel guitar began to meld into other musical styles, including [[Blues Music|blues]], [[Jazz music|jazz]], [[Sacred Steel (musical tradition)|gospel]], [[country music]] and, particularly, the country music sub-genres [[Western swing]], [[honky-tonk]], and [[Bluegrass music|bluegrass]]. Lap steel pioneers include [[Sol Hoopii]], [[Bob Dunn (musician)|Bob Dunn]], [[Jerry Byrd]], [[Don Helms]], [[Bud Isaacs]], [[Leon McAuliffe]], [[Josh Graves]], [[Pete Kirby]], and [[The Campbell Brothers|Darick Campbell]].

Conceptually, a lap steel guitar may be likened to playing a guitar with one finger (the bar). This abstraction illustrates one of the instrument's major limitations: its constraint to a single [[Chord (music)|chord]] that is not changeable during a performance without re-tuning the instrument. An early solution was to build lap steel guitars with two or more [[Neck (music)|necks]], each providing a separate set of differently-tuned strings on a single instrument. The performer's hands could move to a different neck at will. Although in the early 1940s, elite players recorded and performed with these multi-neck guitars, most musicians could not afford them. The problem was addressed in 1940 by adding pedals to the lap steel to change the pitch of certain strings easily, making more complex chords available on the same neck. By 1952, this invention revolutionized how the instrument was played, in many ways making it virtually a new instrument, known as a "[[Pedal steel guitar|pedal steel]]". An overwhelming majority of lap steel players adopted the pedal design, and, as a result, the lap steel became largely obsolete by the late 1950s, with only pockets of devotees in country and Hawaiian music remaining.

==Early history==

{{For|a more detailed history of the steel guitar|Steel guitar}}
[[File:Rickenbacker Electro Bakelite Hawaian 7 string model - 2011 TSGA Jamboree.jpg|thumb|Rickenbacker Electro Bakelite Hawaiian 7 string model lap steel c. 1938 – a type played by [[Sol Hoopii]]. Note that it is a solid block with only a token resemblance to a guitar shape.]]
Spanish guitars were introduced into the [[Hawaiian Islands]] as early as the 1830s.<ref name="volklap">{{cite book |last1=Volk |first1=Andy |title=Lap Steel Guitar |date=2003 |publisher=Centerstream Publications |location=Anaheim, California |isbn=1-57424-134-6}}</ref>{{rp|11}} The Hawaiians did not embrace the standard guitar tuning that had been in use for centuries.<ref name="standard-tuning">{{cite web|last1=Owen|first1=Jeff|title=Standard Tuning: How EADGBE Came to Be|url=https://www.fender.com/articles/tech-talk/standard-tuning-how-eadgbe-came-to-be|website=[[Fender Musical Instrument Corporation|fender.com]]|access-date=October 18, 2017}}</ref> They re-tuned the guitars to make a chord when all the strings were sounded together, known as an "[[open tuning]]".<ref name="weissmancompr">{{cite book |last1=Weissman |first1=Dick |title=Guitar Tunings: A Comprehensive Guide |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=9780415974417 |page=xi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVLdAAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Playing+the+guitar+(%27How+the+guitar+is+tuned%27)&pg=PR11 |access-date=February 26, 2021}}</ref> This was called "slack-key", known in [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] as "''kī hōʻalu''",<ref name="slackey">{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Margalit |title=Ray Kane, Master of Slack-Key Guitar, Dies at 82 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/arts/music/05kane.html |access-date=January 1, 2021 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 5, 2008}}</ref> because certain strings were "slackened" to achieve it.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|11}} Hawaiians learned to play [[Fingerstyle guitar|fingerstyle]] this way, creating melodies over the full resonant tones of the open strings, and the genre became known as [[slack-key guitar]].<ref name="slackey"/> About 1885, after guitar strings made of steel<ref name="troutmankika">{{cite book |last1=Troutman |first1=John William |title=Kīkā kila : how the Hawaiian steel guitar changed the sound of modern music |date=2016 |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=978-1-4696-2793-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02M3CwAAQBAJ&q=kika+killa+troutman |access-date=January 19, 2021 |language=en}}</ref> became available, [[Joseph Kekuku]], on the island of [[Oahu]] developed and popularized playing an open tuning while seated with the guitar across his knees while pressing a steel bar against the strings.<ref name="premier-ross">{{cite magazine |last1=Ross |first1=Michael |title=Pedal to the Metal: A Short History of the Pedal Steel Guitar |url=https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/22152-pedal-to-the-metal-a-short-history-of-the-pedal-steel-guitar |magazine=Premier Guitar Magazine |access-date=September 1, 2017 |date=February 17, 2015}}</ref> Following Kekuku's lead, other Hawaiians began playing in this new manner, with the guitar laid across the lap, instead of in the traditional way of holding the instrument against the body.<ref name="premier-ross"/> Once the horizontal style became popular throughout the islands, the technique spread internationally, and was referred to (typically outside of Hawaii) as "Hawaiian style".<ref name="premier-ross"/>

Hawaiian music, with the sound of the steel guitar as a marked featured of it, became a popular musical preoccupation or [[fad]] in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century.<ref name="duchoi-gibson">{{cite book |last1=Duchossoir |first1=A.R. |title=Gibson electric steel guitars : 1935–1967 |date=2009 |publisher=[[Hal Leonard Books]] |location=Milwaukee, WI |isbn=978-1-4234-5702-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYmWrWeuB_0C}}</ref>{{rp|8}} In 1916, recordings of indigenous Hawaiian music outsold all other U.S. musical genres.<ref name="smithsoniainins">{{cite web |last1=Shah |first1=Haleema |title=How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed American Music |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-hawaiian-steel-guitar-changed-american-music-180972028/ |website=smithsonianmag.com |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |access-date=October 22, 2020 |date=April 25, 2019}}</ref> This popularity initiated the manufacture of guitars designed specifically to be played horizontally.<ref name="duchoi-gibson"/>{{rp|13}} The archetypal lap steel guitar is the acoustic Hawaiian guitar.<ref name="phillipsbook">{{cite book|last1=Phillips|first1=Stacy|title=The Art of Hawaiian Steel Guitar|date=2016|publisher=Mel Bay|location=Pacific, MO|isbn=9781610654753|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1bNsT7v0acQC&q=dobro|access-date=December 8, 2017}}</ref>{{rp|11}} Despite incorporating a resonant chamber in their body, these early acoustic versions of the instrument were not loud enough relative to other instruments. However, in the early 1930s a steel guitarist named [[George Beauchamp]] invented the [[Pickup (music technology)|electric guitar pickup]].<ref name="beauchamp">{{cite web|title=The Earliest Days of the Electric Guitar |url=http://www.rickenbacker.com/history_early.asp |website=rickenbacker.com |publisher=Rickenbacker International |access-date=September 7, 2017}}</ref> Electrification not only allowed the lap steel guitar to be heard better, but it also meant that their resonance chambers were no longer essential, or even required.<ref name="brennersga">{{cite web |title=Early History of the Steel Guitar |url=http://steelguitaramerica.com/instruction/history/ |website=steelguitaracademy.com |publisher=Steel Guitar Academy |access-date=January 9, 2021}}</ref> The result was that steel guitars could be manufactured in any shape – even in the form of a rectangular block bearing little or no resemblance to the traditional guitar shape.<ref name="premier-ross"/> This led to table-like instruments in a metal frame on legs called "[[console steel guitar|console steels]]".<ref name="beauchamp"/>

==Types of lap steel guitars==

There are three categories of lap steel guitars:
* '''Acoustic lap steel guitars''': These are traditional acoustic [[steel-string acoustic guitar]]s modified to be played on the performer's lap.<ref name="perezcompl">{{cite book |last1=Perez |first1=Fernando |title=The Complete Acoustic Lap Steel Guitar Method |date=2016 |publisher=Mel Bay |isbn=9781619115965 |page=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_xkxDwAAQBAJ&q=Page%204 |access-date=February 26, 2021}}</ref> The modification is to raise the strings higher off the fingerboard than a traditional guitar, which can be done by inserting an adapter on the instrument's [[Bridge (stringed instrument)|bridge]] and its [[Nut (string instrument)|nut]].<ref name="raisestrings">{{cite web |last1=French |first1=Paul, Ed. |title=Sound Advice: Setting up your guitar for slide |url=https://mixdownmag.com.au/features/columns/sound-advice-setting-up-your-guitar-for-slide/ |website=mixdownmag.com.au |date=29 November 2017 |publisher=Mixdown Magazine/Furst Media |access-date=January 9, 2021}}</ref> This prevents the steel bar from hitting against the frets.<ref name="raisestrings"/>
*[[Dobro|Dobro-type]] guitars or [[National String Instrument Corporation|National]] guitars: These are typically acoustic steel guitars with a large aluminum cone under the bridge, called a [[Resonator guitar|resonator]], that increases volume output.<ref name="carlindobro">{{cite book |last1=Carlin |first1=Richard |title=Country music : a biographical dictionary |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=9780415938020 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ZjrAgAAQBAJ&dq=dobro+in+hawaiian+music&pg=PA109 |access-date=January 2, 2021}}</ref>{{rp|109}} Wood-body resonator guitars are called "Dobros" and steel bodied ones are called "Nationals".<ref name="sallissgmag">{{cite journal |last1=Sallis |first1=James |title=The Lap Steel Guitar |journal=Steel Guitarist |date=May 1, 1980 |volume=5 |issue=May, 1980}}</ref>{{rp|38}} The types do not sound the same — the Nationals are brassier and are usually preferred by blues players.<ref name="sallissgmag"/>{{rp|38}} Either type offers round necks (Spanish) or square necks (Hawaiian).<ref name="sallissgmag"/>{{rp|38}} Square necks are sometimes necessitated both by the use of thicker strings and by the increased force the instrument is subject to as a consequence of its raised strings.<ref name="phillipsbook"/><ref name="squareneckguit">{{cite web |title=Square Neck versus Round Neck Resonator Guitars |url=https://www.theguitarjournal.com/square-neck-versus-round-neck-resonator-guitars/ |website=theguitarjournal.com |publisher=The Guitar Journal |access-date=July 18, 2020 |date=April 29, 2014}}</ref>
* '''Electric lap steel guitars''': Describes instruments that are specifically designed to be played horizontally and feature an electric [[Pickup (music technology)|pickup]] so that they do not require any resonance chamber. Guitars in this category may differ markedly from one another in external appearance, and include instruments made from rectangular solid blocks of wood.<ref name="duchoi-gibson"/>{{rp|13}} Some may be small enough to be played on the lap; others may have more than one [[Neck (music)|neck]] (making the instrument heavier), and may be built on a frame with legs, which is then known as a [[Console steel guitar|console steel]].<ref name="duchoi-gibson"/>

==Tunings==
Over centuries in Western countries, the traditional [[Classical guitar|Spanish guitar]] developed a near-universal [[Guitar tunings|tuning]] of ascending fourths (and one major third) consisting of E–A–D–G–B–E;<ref name="standard-tuning"/> however, no such standard existed for the Hawaiian "open tunings" (guitar tuned in a chord). The Hawaiians simply tuned to a chord that suited the singer's voice.<ref name="slackey"/> Beginning in the days of slack-key guitar in the 1850s, Hawaiian tunings came to be as closely guarded as any trade secret, handed down in families.<ref name="slackey"/> Many players de-tuned their instruments when they were not playing them to keep others from discovering their tuning.<ref name="ruymarhawaiian">{{cite book |last1=Ruymar |first1=Lorene |title=The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and Its Great Hawaiian Musicians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WlDSDopg3HoC&pg=PA31|publisher=Centerstream Publications|page=31 |date=1996|isbn=9781574240214 }}</ref>{{rp|159}}

The tuning chosen for these instruments is a crucial foundation on which steel guitar style is built.<ref name="cundellthesis">{{cite web |last1=Cundell |first1=R. Guy S. |title=Across the South: The origins and development of the steel guitar in western swing |url=https://b0b.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Across-the-South.pdf |website=b0b.com |publisher=University of Adelaide |access-date=November 29, 2020 |ref=PhD Thesis, Elder Conservatorium of Music |location=Adelaide, Australia |date=July 1, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|131}} The tuning used determines the notes that the player has available in a chord, and affects how notes can be played in sequence.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|131}} Experimenting with different tunings was a widespread practice of the Hawaiian music of the 1930s<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|41}} and provided templates that became a foundation for the playing style of later musicians.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|131}} Scores of tunings are available for lap steel players.<ref name="bradtunings">{{cite web |last1=Bechtel |first1=Brad |title=Common Tunings For Lap Steel Guitar |url=https://people.well.com/user/wellvis/tuning.html |website=people.well.com |access-date=February 14, 2021}}</ref> The addition of a [[Major sixth|sixth interval]] into a tuning had a dramatic effect on the steel guitar because it created numerous positions and playing pockets which were not accessible in a simple [[major chord]].<ref name="anderson">{{cite web|last1=Anderson|first1=Maurice|title=Pedal Steel Guitar, Back and To the Future!|url=https://www.b0b.com/infoedu/future1.htm|website=The Pedal Steel Pages |access-date=September 16, 2017 |date=2000}}</ref> The [[C6 tuning|C<sup>6</sup>]] was a common tuning for six string lap steels in the 1920s and 1930s.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|120}} Tunings with a sixth interval are popular in Western swing and jazz, while tunings containing [[Dominant seventh chord|sevenths]] are often chosen for blues and rock music.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Helms |first1=Johnie |title=The Hal Leonard Lap Steel Guitar Method |date=2009 |publisher=Hal Leonard |location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin |isbn=9781495031816 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xu4fDAAAQBAJ&q=most+common+tunings+for+lap+steel+guitar |access-date=January 30, 2021 |format=ebook}}</ref>

A fundamental challenge of lap steel guitar design is the inherent constraint it places on the number of chords and [[Inversion (music)|inversions]] available in any given tuning.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|34}} To address the meager array available to them, some early players would simply have a second lap steel at hand, with a different tuning, ready when needed.<ref name="playboypkrs">{{cite web |last1=Kienzle |first1=Rich |title=Bob's Playboy Pickers |url=https://www.vintageguitar.com/18687/bobs-playboy-pickers/ |work=Vintage Guitar Magazine |access-date=November 22, 2020 |date=March 1, 2006}}</ref> Another strategy was to increase the number of strings on the instrument<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|36}} (the more strings available, the smaller the pitch intervals between them, and therefore more notes available when the [[Steel bar|bar]] is placed straight across the strings).<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|36}} A third strategy was to add additional necks to the same instrument, thus providing separate sets of strings that could each be tuned differently.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|36}}

==The Hawaiian "craze" in the United States==
In the [[Contiguous United States|U.S. Mainland]] in the early 20th century, after the 1898 [[annexation of Hawaii]],<ref name="shamelannex">{{cite web |last1=Shamel |first1=Wynell |last2=Shamel |first2=Charles E. |title=The 1897 Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii |url=https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hawaii-petition |website=archives.gov |publisher=Social Education |access-date=February 14, 2021 |ref=VOl 63, No. 7 |pages=402–408 |date=November 1999}}</ref> the Hawaiian "[[Fad|craze]]"<ref name="herald-fad">{{cite news |title=Bird of Paradise Brought Hawaiian Music Fad East |newspaper=[[The Washington Herald]] |date=April 14, 1918 |issue=4188 |page=1 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/75988934 |access-date=December 9, 2017}}</ref><ref name="duchoi-gibson"/>{{rp|8}} was in full force, as evidenced by radio broadcasts,<ref name="radiohawcalls">{{cite web |last1=Soboleski |first1=Hank |title='Hawaii Calls' radio program broadcasts from Kauai |url=https://www.thegardenisland.com/2013/10/13/lifestyles/hawaii-calls-radio-program-broadcasts-from-kauai/ |website=thegardenisland.com |publisher=The Garden Island |access-date=November 26, 2020 |date=October 13, 2013}}</ref> stage shows,<ref name="ruymarhawaiian"/>{{rp|31}} and motion pictures<ref name="duchoi-gibson"/>{{rp|8}} featuring Hawaiian music.<ref name="wrightstyle">{{cite web |last1=Wright |first1=Michael |title=Island Style: How Hawaiian Music Helped Make the Guitar America's Instrument |url=https://acousticguitar.com/how-hawaiian-music-helped-make-the-guitar-americas-instrument/ |work=[[Acoustic Guitar (magazine)|Acoustic Guitar]] |access-date=July 11, 2020 |date=November 28, 2018}}</ref> [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] films perpetuated the musical image of an idealized island lifestyle.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|11}} Hawaiian guitars and lessons for youth were widely available. For example, the [[Oahu Music Company]] sold their ''Oahu''-brand guitars and lessons to young people by door-to-door sales, canvassing nearly every city in the United States.<ref name="bradshawsg79">{{cite journal |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Tom |title=Jeff Newman: Steel's Foremost Instructor |journal=Steel Guitarist |volume=3 |issue=September 1, 1979}}</ref>{{rp|13}}

The steel guitar was the first "foreign" musical instrument to gain a foothold in American pop music.<ref name="ruymarbook">{{cite book |last1=Ruymar |first1=Ruymar |title=The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and its Great Hawaiian Musicians |date=1996 |publisher=Centerstream Pub. |location=Anaheim Hills, CA |isbn=1574240218}}</ref>{{rp|29}} Pioneer lap steel players between 1915 and 1930 included [[Sol K. Bright Sr.]], [[Tau Moe]], [[Dick McIntire]], [[Sam Ku West]] and [[Frank Ferera]]. Ferera was the most-recorded of any lap-style guitarists in that time period.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|11}} Hawaiian music began to meld into American popular music in the 1910s – a combination Hawaiians called ''[[hapa haole]]'' (half-white)<ref name="Johnsonhapa">{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=Akemi |title=Who Gets to be 'Hapa'? |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/08/08/487821049/who-gets-to-be-hapa |website=npr.org |publisher=National Public Radio |access-date=January 1, 2021 |date=August 8, 2016}}</ref> – which was essentially Hawaiian music, sung in English,<ref name="kanahele">{{cite book |editor1-last=Kanahele |editor1-first=George S. |editor1-link=George Kanahele |editor2-last=Berger |editor2-first=John |title = Hawaiian Music & Musicians |edition=2nd |orig-year=1979 |year=2012 |publisher=Mutual Publishing, LLC |location=Honolulu, HI, USA |isbn = 9781566479677 |oclc = 808415079}}</ref> intended for white audiences.<ref name="hustoniamagz">{{cite web |last1=Shey |first1=Brittanie |title=Legendary Steel Guitarist Herb Remington Looks Back |url=https://www.houstoniamag.com/news-and-city-life/2017/10/herb-remington-profile |work=Hustonia Magazine |access-date=November 30, 2020 |date=October 30, 2017}}</ref> As an example, Honolulu-born [[Dick McIntire]] and his ''Harmony Hawaiians'' recorded Hawaiian songs sung by American pop crooner [[Bing Crosby]] in 1936.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|19}} [[Tin Pan Alley]] obliged the demand for Hawaiian songs by publishing a large supply of ''hapa haole'' music.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|11}} Many amateur and professional musicians throughout America formed Hawaiian combos in the 1930s and 1940s.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|11}} The introduction of electrified guitars in the 1930s had a profound effect, boosting commercial Hawaiian music.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|11}}

==Lap steel pioneers==
In the development of lap steel guitar in the early twentieth century, many innovators contributed; among the most prominent were:

{{listen |filename=Sol Hoopii-Fascinatin' Rhythm.ogg|title=Sol Hoopii– Fascinatin' Rhythm (1938) |description=This 1938 song by Hoopii was added in 2011 to the [[Library of Congress]]'s [[National Recording Registry]] list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."<ref>{{cite web|title=The National Recording Registry 2011|url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/complete-national-recording-registry-listing/|work=National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|date=May 24, 2012}}</ref>}}
[[Sol Hoopii|Sol Ho'opi'i]] (pronounced Ho-OH-pee-EE) was perhaps the most famous Hawaiian musician whose work spread the sound of instrumental lap steel play worldwide.<ref name="premier-ross"/> He was the first steel guitarist to combine Hawaiian music with American jazz.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|12}} Born in Honolulu in 1902, Hoopii was a gifted talent on lap steel from an early age. When he was a teenager, he stowed away on a [[Matson, Inc.|Matson liner]] on its journey from Hawaii to San Francisco. After his arrival in California, he formed a trio and became well known in clubs, theaters, movie appearances and recordings from 1925 to 1950.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|12}} He combined Hawaiian music with the jazz he heard from clarinet and horn players. He was a trendsetter in his use of the metal-bodied National Tricone guitar and, later, the [[Rickenbacker]] [[Bakelite]] (''[[#Early history|see photo above]]'') and Dickerson electric steels.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|13}}

[[Bob Dunn (musician)|Bob Dunn]] was the first steel guitarist of renown playing Western swing.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|54}} Born in 1908 in [[Fort Gibson, Oklahoma|Fort Gibson]], Oklahoma, he quit school in the eighth grade to join traveling musical troupes.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|89}} Considered a musical revolutionary,<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|89}} according to music writer Michael Ross, Bob Dunn played the first electrified instrument of any type on a commercial recording.<ref name="premier-ross"/><ref name="dunn-oklahoma">{{cite web |last1=Foley | first1=Hugh W. Jr. |website=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture |title=Dunn, Robert Lee (1908–1971) |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/D/DU009.html |publisher=[[Oklahoma Historical Society]] |access-date=May 8, 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905014233/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/D/DU009.html |archive-date=September 5, 2008}}</ref> It was a Western swing tune released in 1935, performed by Dunn in collaboration with "[[Milton Brown]] and his Musical Brownies".<ref name="milton-brown">{{cite book |last1=Ginell |first1=Cary |title=Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing |date=1994 |publisher=[[Univ. of Illinois Press]] |location=Urbana, IL |isbn=0-252-02041-3}}</ref> The guitar he played was a Rickenbacker A22, nicknamed the "[[Frying Pan (guitar)|Frying Pan]]".<ref name="Martinfrypan">{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Andrew R |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvb2DwAAQBAJ&q=musical%20brownies |title=Music around the world : a global encyclopedia |last2=Mihalka |first2=Matthew |date=2020 |publisher=ABC–CIO |isbn=9781610694988 |location=Santa Barbara, California |access-date=February 19, 2021}}</ref>{{rp|837}} Formerly a trombone player, Dunn's guitar playing introduced horn-like solos, with the [[staccato]] phrasing of jazz players, and, according to historian Andy Volk, was of indelible influence on subsequent generations of steel players.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|90}}

{{listen |filename=Jerry Byrd– I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry.ogg|title=Jerry Byrd—Solo on I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams |description=}}
[[Jerry Byrd]] was born in [[Lima, Ohio|Lima]], Ohio, in 1920.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|27}} As a youth, he attended a traveling tent show that came to town; it was a troupe of Hawaiians playing Hawaiian music and featured a polished National steel guitar. Byrd was smitten by the sound as well as the physical appearance of the instrument and said, "That was the day that changed my life".<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|28}} In a musical career divided between Hawaiian music and country music, Byrd helped lay the foundation for the Nashville steel guitar sound.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|28}}  He is credited with developing the C<sup>6</sup> tuning that became the standard of C<sup>6</sup> pedal steels.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|33}}  With [[Hank Williams]], Byrd recorded songs like "[[I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry]]", "[[Lovesick Blues]]" and "[[A Mansion on the Hill]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/003048.html|title=Kayton Roberts Interview – The Steel Guitar Forum|website=Steelguitarforum.com}}</ref> Byrd also recorded with [[Marty Robbins]], [[Hank Snow]], [[Ernest Tubb]] and others.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|28}} After his Nashville career, Byrd made Hawaii his permanent home.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|29}}

==Western Swing==
[[File:Rickenbacker Console 758 tripleneck steel - 2011 TSGA Jamboree.jpg|left|thumb|Rickenbacker Console 758 tripleneck steel]]
In the early 1930s, the newly electrified lap steel guitar took a prominent position in a type of dance music known as "[[Western swing]]",<ref name="premier-ross"/> a form of [[Swing music|jazz swing]] that combined elements of country music and Hawaiian music.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|88}}<ref name="cundellthesis"/> Pioneers of the genre include bandleaders Milton Brown<ref name="milton-brown"/> and Bob Wills.<ref name="playboypkrs"/> Wills in turn hired and nurtured innovative players, who subsequently influenced the genre, including [[Leon McAuliffe]], [[Noel Boggs]], and [[Herb Remington]].<ref name="playboypkrs"/>
{{listen |filename=Leon McAuliffe– Steel Guitar Rag.ogg|title=Leon McAuliffe–Steel Guitar Rag|description=}}
In October, 1936, [[Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys|Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys]] and McAuliffe, performing with a Rickenbacker B–6 lap steel, recorded the remarkably well selling record, "[[Steel Guitar Rag]]".<ref name="playboypkrs"/> Due to the need to have different chords or [[Voicing (music)|voicings]] available, the design of the lap steel and the way it was played underwent continual change as the style evolved.<ref name="cundellthesis"/> McAuliffe had two Rickenbackers, each tuned differently.<ref name="playboypkrs"/>  The instrument's constraints caused leading steel guitarists to add [[Multi-neck guitar|additional necks]] with different tunings on the same instrument.<ref name="boggsquad">{{cite journal |last1=Meeker |first1=Ward |title=Boggs' Quad |journal=Vintage Guitar Magazine |date=November 1, 2014 |url=https://www.vintageguitar.com/20992/boggs-quad/ |access-date=November 22, 2020}}</ref> Lap steels were the first multi-neck electric instruments.<ref name="marxmulti">{{cite web |last1=Marx | first1=Wallace Jr. |title=Two Necks Are Better Than One: A Brief History of Multi-Neck Guitars |url=https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Two_Necks_Are_Better_Than_One_A_Brief_History_of_Multi_Neck_Guitars |website=premierguitar.com |publisher=Gearhead Communications |access-date=February 7, 2021 |date=December 17, 2009}}</ref> The added size and weight meant that the instrument could no longer be reasonably supported on the player's lap and required placement in a frame with legs known as a "console" steel guitar, that is still ostensibly a lap steel.<ref name="premier-ross"/> Prominent players of that era, including Herb Remington<ref name="boggsquad"/> and Noel Boggs,<ref name="encylopcm">{{cite book |last1=Coffee |first1=Kevin |title=The Encyclopedia of Country Music : the ultimate guide to the music |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780195395631 |page=43 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLZz02EzmBYC&dq=Noel+Boggs&pg=PA43 |access-date=November 30, 2020}}</ref> accommodated by instrument maker [[Leo Fender]], eventually played instruments with four different necks.<ref name="boggsquad"/>

==Honky-tonk==
By the late 1940s, the steel guitar featured prominently in the emerging "[[honky-tonk]]" style of country music, developed in Texas and Oklahoma bars and dance halls (called honky-tonks).<ref name="campbellpopular">{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Michael |title=Popular music in America : the beat goes on |date=2018 |publisher=Cengage Learning |location=Boston, MA |isbn=9780840029768 |page=125 |edition=Fourth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8A9EDwAAQBAJ |access-date=January 15, 2021}}</ref> The style features a simple [[Beat (music)|two-beat]] sound with a prominent [[backbeat]].<ref name="campbellpopular"/> Honky-tonk singers who used a lap steel guitar in their musical arrangements included Hank Williams, [[Lefty Frizzell]] and [[Webb Pierce]].<ref name="campbellpopular"/>

{{listen |filename=Your Cheating Heart, solo by Don Helms.ogg|title=Don Helms' solo on "Your Cheating Heart" by Hank Williams |description=}}
[[Don Helms]] (1927–2008), born in [[New Brockton, Alabama]], played a double-neck [[Gibson (guitar company)|Gibson]] lap steel using an E<sup>6</sup> and a B<sup>11</sup> tuning<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|59}} on recordings by all three of these artists, as well as on more than 100 Hank Williams songs, including "[[Your Cheating Heart]]", "[[I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)]]" and "[[Cold, Cold Heart]]".<ref name="grimesnyt">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/arts/music/17helms.html |work=The New York Times |title= Don Helms, 81, Who Put the Twang in the Hank Williams Songbook, Is Dead |date=August 16, 2008 | first=William | last=Grimes | access-date=January 8, 2021}}</ref> Helms' playing style helped move country music away from the hillbilly string-band sound popular in the 1930s and toward the more modern electric style that took over in the 1940s.<ref name="grimesnyt" /> His guitar [[Intro (music)|intros]], [[Guitar solo|leads]], and [[Fill (music)|fills]] have been widely imitated for 50 years.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|57}} Other classic country recordings featuring Helms' work were "[[Walkin' After Midnight]]" ([[Patsy Cline]]) and "[[Blue Kentucky Girl (song)|Blue Kentucky Girl]]" ([[Loretta Lynn]]). Many recordings of that era (1950s) were made using a steel guitar tuning in a [[sixth chord]], often a [[C6 tuning|C<sup>6</sup>]], which is sometimes called a "Texas tuning".<ref name="borisoffhowworks">{{cite web |last1=Borisoff |first1=Jason |title=How Pedal Steel Guitar Works |url=https://makingmusicmag.com/how-pedal-steel-guitar-works/ |website=makingmusicmag.com |date=27 September 2010 |publisher=[[Making Music (magazine)|Making Music Magazine]] |access-date=August 30, 2020}}</ref>

==Dobro==
[[File:Dobro guitar - Bluegrass Band, Kentucky (2011-10-16 by Navin75).jpg|thumb|Dobro guitar – Dobro guitar played standing. Note the height of strings off fretboard.]]
The [[Dobro]] or [[resonator guitar]] is a uniquely American lap steel guitar with a resonator cone designed to make a guitar louder.<ref name="carlindobro"/>{{rp|109}} It was patented by the [[Dopyera brothers]] in 1927,<ref name="carlindobro"/>{{rp|109}} but the name "Dobro", a portmanteau of DOpyera and BROthers, became a generic term for this type of guitar.<ref name="owenspremier">{{cite web |last1=Owens |first1=Richie |title=Resonator Guitars 101 |url=https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/27317-resonator-guitars-101?page=2 |website=premierguitar.com |access-date=March 16, 2021 |date=July 5, 2018}}</ref> The dobro never became popular with blues players, who generally prefer the [[National String Instrument Corporation|National]] guitar, which has a similar resonator design but uses a metal body.<ref name="owenspremier"/> In the opinion of music writer [[Richard Carlin]], the dobro probably would have disappeared from the musical scene had it not been for two influential players: Pete Kirby and Uncle Josh Graves (Buck Graves).<ref name="carlindobro"/>{{rp|109}}

Beecher "Pete" Kirby (1911–1992), known as [[Bashful Brother Oswald]], was born in [[Sevierville, Tennessee]]. As a member of [[Roy Acuff]]'s "[[Smoky Mountain Boys]]", in 1939 his dobro playing on the [[Grand Ole Opry]] helped define country music in its formative years.<ref name="ozdobro">{{cite web |title=Dobro Model 27– Brother Oswald's Dobro – Country Music History Maker |url=https://www.vintageguitar.com/1987/dobro-model-27/ |website=vintageguitar.com |publisher=Vintage Guitar Magazine |access-date=February 10, 2021 |date=October 1, 2004}}</ref> Kirby introduced the instrument to a nationwide radio audience.<ref name="carlindobro"/>{{rp|109}} He played a Dobro Model 27,<ref name="ozdobro"/> and sometimes a steel-bodied National guitar. He was known to perform a comedy act dressed as a [[yokel]], wearing a wide-brim slouch hat and overalls.<ref name="bradspos">{{cite web |last1=Bechtel |first1=Brad|title=Brad's Page of Steel |url=https://people.well.com/user/wellvis/oswald.html |website=people.well.com |access-date=January 3, 2021}}</ref> His dobro attracted interest and fascination; he said, "People couldn't understand how I played it and what it was, and they'd always want to come around and look at it."<ref name="bradspos"/> He stayed with Acuff for 53 years.<ref name="bradspos"/>

Buck "Josh" Graves (aka "[[Josh Graves|Uncle Josh Graves]]"), born in 1927, played dobro in the pioneering [[Bluegrass music|Bluegrass]] band "[[Foggy Mountain Boys|Flatt and Scruggs]]" in 1955.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|49}} Graves played a role in establishing dobro as a common fixture in a bluegrass band.<ref name="carlindobro"/> He honed a style that elevated his dobro skills to rival the prowess of his bandmates.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|49}} To do so, he abandoned Hawaiian stylings and adopted [[hammer-on]] and [[pull-off]] notes to combine [[Musical tuning|open strings]] with fretted notes rapidly; additionally, he adopted a three-finger picking style taught to him by [[Earl Scruggs]].<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|49}} Dozens of other bluegrass groups added a dobro after hearing Graves' lightning-fast solos that fit into the bluegrass instrumental style.<ref name="carlindobro"/>{{rp|159}} He took lap steel guitar to a new level, able to complement the banjo, fiddle, and mandolin.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|49}}

Dobro fell out of favor in mainstream country music until a bluegrass revival in the 1970s brought it back with younger virtuoso players like [[Jerry Douglas]], whose Dobro skills became widely known and emulated.<ref name="carlindobro"/><ref name="brysonjazz">{{cite web |last1=Bryson |first1=Alan |title=Top Ten Horizontal Guitar Players |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/top-ten-horizontal-guitar-players |website=allaboutjazz.com |access-date=January 11, 2021 |date=May 4, 2020}}</ref>

==Sacred steel==
{{listen |filename=Darick Campbell—End of My Journey.mp3|title=Darick Campbell: End of My Journey |description=}}
This gospel music tradition, now called "[[Sacred Steel (musical tradition)|sacred steel]]", began in the 1930s church services in the "House of God", a small [[African-American]] denomination where the steel guitar emerged as an alternative to the church organ.<ref name="mcardlepost">{{cite news |last1=McArdle |first1=Terence |title=Darick Campbell, gospel musician who upheld sacred steel tradition, dies at 53 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/darick-campbell-gospel-musician-who-upheld-sacred-steel-tradition-dies-at-53/2020/06/16/9c4080e0-af12-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=January 10, 2021 |date=June 16, 2020}}</ref> [[The Campbell Brothers|Darick Campbell]] (1966–2020) was a lap steel player for the gospel band, [[The Campbell Brothers]], who took the musical tradition from [[Pentecostal]] churches to international fame.<ref name="mcardlepost"/> Campbell played a traditional Hawaiian lap steel:<ref name="mcardlepost"/> a [[Fender Musical Instruments Corporation|Fender]] Stringmaster 8-string (Fender Deluxe-8).<ref name="volklap"/> He regulated the volume up on top of the guitar with his hand as he played and used a [[wah pedal]].<ref name="volklap"/> Born in Rochester, New York,<ref name="spevakwxxi">{{cite web |last1=Spevak |first1=Jeff |title=Darick Campbell of Rochester's The Campbell Brothers dies |url=https://www.wxxinews.org/post/darick-campbell-rochester-s-campbell-brothers-dies |website=wxxinews.org |publisher=WXXI News |access-date=February 19, 2021 |date=May 11, 2020}}</ref> Campbell was a master at mimicking the human singing voice with his guitar. He said, "My method is to always think of my guitar as a voice".<ref name="volklap"/> Campbell played many music festivals, but his renown in rock and jazz circles was not well received by church leaders.<ref name="mcardlepost"/> The Campbell Brothers parted ways acrimoniously with the Nashville-based House of God Church, Keith Dominion, because the Pentecostal church wanted to keep the band's music within the church walls.<ref name="spevakwxxi"/> Campbell recorded with The [[Allman Brothers]] and [[Medeski Martin and Wood]].<ref name="spevacdarick">{{cite news |last1=Spevak |first1=Jeff |title=20 Shows to put on your list |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/111642328/?terms=%22Darick%20Campbell%22&match=1 |access-date=January 10, 2021 |issue=257 |publisher=Rochester Democrat and Chronicle |date=September 14, 2014 |volume=182 |page=8–C}}</ref>

==Lap slide guitar==
{{Main|Slide guitar}}
Lap slide guitar is not a specific instrument, but a style of playing lap steel that is typically heard in blues or [[Rock music|rock]] music.<ref name="herzhaftencyclo">{{cite book |last1=Herzhaft |first1=Gérard |title=Encyclopedia of the Blues |date=1992 |publisher=[[University of Arkansas Press]] |location=Fayetteville, Arkansas |isbn=1-55728-252-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofbl00herzh |access-date=January 7, 2021}}</ref>{{rp|36}} Players of these genres typically use the term "slide" instead of "steel";<ref name="ruymarslidesteel"/> they sometimes play the style with a flat pick or with fingers instead of finger picks.<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|8}} Pioneers in lap slide include [[Oscar "Buddy" Woods|Buddy Woods]], [[Black Ace|"Black Ace" Turner]] (who used a small medicine bottle as a slide),<ref name="walterstexas">{{cite web |last1=Walters |first1=Katherine Kuehler |title=Turner, Babe Kyro Lemon [Black Ace] (1905–1972) |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/turner-babe-kyro-lemon-black-ace |website=tshaonline.org |publisher=Texas State Historical Association/Handbook of Texas Online |access-date=January 23, 2021}}</ref> and [[Freddie Roulette]].<ref name="herzhaftencyclo"/>{{rp|326}} Turner played a National Style 2 square neck Tricone guitar on his lap.<ref name="walterstexas"/>

Another blues guitar playing style is called "[[slide guitar]]", a hybrid between steel guitar and conventional guitar. It is played with a conventional guitar held flat against the body, fretting the bass strings in the usual way (for rhythm accompaniment), while using a tubular slide (or the neck of a bottle) placed on a finger of the same hand to slide against the treble strings.<ref name="acoustic-magazine">{{cite web|last1=James|first1=Steve|title=How to Play Slide Guitar: Bottleneck Basics|url=http://acousticguitar.com/how-to-pla-slide-guitar-bottleneck-basics/|website=[[Acoustic Guitar Magazine|acousticguitar]].com|access-date=October 18, 2017|date=March 25, 2016}}</ref> In 1923, [[Sylvester Weaver (musician)|Sylvester Weaver]] was the first to record this style.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Palmer|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/106|title=Deep Blues|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|year=1981|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url-access=registration|authorlink=Robert Palmer (American writer)}}</ref>{{rp|106}} In the 1940s, blues players like [[Robert Nighthawk]] and [[Earl Hooker]] popularized electric slide guitar this way, using a traditional guitar in standard tuning.<ref name="sokolowslide">{{cite book |last1=Sokolow |first1=Fred |title=Slide Guitar For The Rock Guitarist |date=2011 |publisher=Mel Bay |isbn=978-1-61065-563-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bnMyBFsw45sC |access-date=April 7, 2021}}</ref>{{rp|3}} The term "bottleneck" was historically used to describe this type of playing.<ref name="herzhaftencyclo"/> Early blues players used open tunings, but most modern slide players use both standard and open.<ref name="sokolowslide"/>{{rp|3}}

==Lap steel obsolescence==
The expense of building multiple necks on each guitar made lap steels unaffordable for most players and a more sophisticated solution was needed.<ref name="premier-ross"/> Many inventors sought a mechanical linkage to change the pitch of strings on the steel guitar.<ref name="seymourearlyhist">{{cite web|last1=Seymour|first1=Bobbe|title=Early History of the Pedal Steel Guitar|url=http://pedalsteelmusic.com/?p=733|website=pedalsteelmusic.com|publisher=Steel Guitar Nashville|access-date=February 17, 2021 |date=April 30, 2012}}</ref> [[Gibson (guitar company)|Gibson]] introduced a pedal steel guitar as early as 1940, but it never caught on.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|244}} About 1946, [[Paul Bigsby]] created a new design for the pedal action, greatly improving it.<ref name="rossbigsby">{{cite web |last1=Ross |first1=Michael |title=Forgotten Heroes: Paul Bigsby |url=https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Forgotten_Heroes_Paul_Bigsby |website=premierguitar.com |publisher=Premier Guitar Magazine |access-date=January 18, 2021 |date=November 17, 2011}}</ref> Bigsby, working alone in his shop, made guitars for leading players of the day, including [[Joaquin Murphey]] and [[Speedy West]].<ref name="babibigsby">{{cite book |last1=Babiuk |first1=Andy |title=The story of Paul Bigsby : father of the modern electric solidbody guitar |date=2008 |publisher=FG Publishing |location=Savannah, Georgia |isbn=9780615243047 |page=22 |edition=1st}}</ref>{{rp|22}} Nashville guitarist [[Bud Isaacs]] received one of Bigsby's two-pedal guitars in 1952.<ref name="stimelingoxford">{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Tim Sterner |last2=Stimeling |first2=Travis D., Ed. |title=The Oxford Handbook of Country Music |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190248178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Td4qDwAAQBAJ&dq=Bud+Isaacs&pg=PT212 |access-date=December 3, 2020}}</ref>{{rp|190}} It was a wooden double–eight string model.<ref name="babibigsby"/>{{rp|32}} Isaacs experimented with the new pedals in an [[E9 tuning|E<sup>9</sup> tuning]], trying to imitate the sound of two fiddles playing in harmony. In doing so, he came upon something new – he innovated pushing the pedal ''while the strings were still sounding''.<ref name="stimelingoxford"/>{{rp|190}} This practice had been strictly avoided by other players of the era, because it was considered poor technique and "un-Hawaiian".<ref name="premier-ross"/> Isaacs' intent was to use the pedal mechanism itself as a feature of the music. The technique created a [[Triad (music)|triad]] chord, where two lower notes bend up in [[glissando]] counterpoint from below, to harmonize with a third note on top that remains unchanged.<ref name="stimelingoxford"/>{{rp|190}} The pedal facilitated the move in perfect synchronization and pitch, which was consistent and reliable.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|47}}

Isaacs tried it in a 1953 recording session on a [[Webb Pierce]] song called "[[Slowly (song)|Slowly]]".<ref name="fretboardjrnl">{{cite web |last1=Rauhouse |first1=Jon |title=Wire and Hinges: How Pedal Steel Guitar Legend Bud Isaacs Changed the Course of Country Music |url=https://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/steel-guitar-legend-bud-isaacs-interview/ |website=fretboardjournal.com |publisher=The Fretboard Journal |access-date=December 3, 2020 |date=September 1, 2012}}</ref> The song became one of the most-played [[1954 in country music|country songs of 1954]] and was No. 1 on the [[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard's]] country charts for seventeen weeks.<ref name="fretboardjrnl"/> Isaacs' guitar became the first pedal steel guitar on a [[Hit song|hit record]].<ref name="oermannmusro">{{cite web |last1=Oermann |first1=Robert K. |title=LifeNotes: Pedal Steel Pioneer Bud Isaacs Passes |url=https://musicrow.com/2016/09/lifenotes-pedal-steel-pioneer-bud-isaacs-passes/ |website=musicrow.com |publisher=Music Row Magazine |access-date=December 2, 2020 |date=September 9, 2016}}</ref> More importantly, the sound was immediately recognized by lap steel (non-pedal) guitarists as something both unique and impossible{{efn|Theoretically, it was "possible" on a lap steel, but not to play it rapidly and with perfect intonation; the pedal version was immediately recognizable.<ref name="stimelingoxford"/>}}{{rp|190}} to produce on a non-pedal lap steel.<ref name="duchoi-gibson"/><ref name="stimelingoxford"/>{{rp|190}} Dozens of instrumentalists rushed to get pedals on their steel guitars to imitate the unique bending notes they heard in Isaacs' play.<ref name="fretboardjrnl"/> In the months and years after this recording, instrument makers and musicians worked to duplicate the innovations of Bigsby and Isaacs.<ref name="stimelingoxford"/>{{rp|191}} Even though the instrument had been available for over a decade before this recording, the pedal steel guitar emerged as a crucial element in country music after the success of this song.<ref name="duchoi-gibson"/> The pedals allowed playing more complex and versatile music than it was possible on lap steel.<ref name="stimelingoxford"/>{{rp|192}}

The pedal steel design was adopted by an overwhelming majority of lap steel players in the early 1950s. The resulting new and distinctive style of playing became a defining characteristic of the country music coming out of Nashville for decades thereafter.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|2}} In accordance, the ''non''-pedal lap steel became largely obsolete, with only pockets of devotees remaining in country and Hawaiian music.<ref name="cundellthesis"/>{{rp|2}}

[[Jimmy Day (musician)|Jimmy Day]] was an example of an established lap player who was able to make a successful switch to pedals in mid-career.<ref name="rumbleencyclo">{{cite book |last1=Rumble |first1=John |last2=McCall |first2=Michael |last3=Kingsbury |first3=Paul |last4=Gill |first4=Vince |title=The Encyclopedia of Country Music : the ultimate guide to the music |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780199920839 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLZz02EzmBYC&q=Jimmy%20Day |access-date=March 1, 2021 |format=ebook}}</ref>{{rp|138}} Other prominent lap steel players—including Noel Boggs, Jerry Byrd and Joaquin Murphey—refused to switch. According to music historian Rich Kienzle, this decision hindered Boggs' later career.<ref name="playboypkrs"/> Speaking about the pedal steel in a 1972 interview, Jerry Byrd said: "Mechanically, there were a lot of bugs, you couldn't keep them in tune, and that drove me crazy"<ref name="bradshawbyrd">{{cite journal |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Tom |title=Jerry Byrd |journal=Guitar Player Magazine |date=March 1, 1972 |volume=6, No.2 |issue=Annual Artist Issue}}</ref>{{rp|46}} ... So I decided to stay with what I had and keep my identity and ride it out... I never made the change-over."<ref name="bradshawbyrd"/>{{rp|46}} Joaquin Murphey stayed with the non-pedal lap steel long after his contemporaries had switched over,<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|103}} and with his C<sup>6</sup> tuning. He felt that the Nashville-standard E<sup>9</sup> was, in his words, a "gimmick".<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|105}} He stated in a 1995 interview, "I can't do all that fancy Nashville stuff and I hate it anyhow".<ref name="volklap"/>{{rp|105}}

==See also==
*[[Steel guitar]]
*[[Pedal steel guitar]]–(Contains a sample of the song "Slowly")
*[[Slack-key guitar]]
*[[Slide guitar]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Lap steel guitars}}
*[http://www.hsga.org Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association] – An organization that promotes the development of lap steel guitar.

{{Guitars|state=collapsed|Type}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Guitars]]
[[Category:Continuous pitch instruments]]
[[Category:American inventions]]
[[Category:Steel guitar]]
[[Category:1885 musical instruments]]