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How to Oil a Pedal Steel Guitar

One of the sweetest and most dynamic musical instruments is the pedal steel guitar. Its origins date to the Hawaiian guitar,ad its most recent predecessor was the lap steel guitar. A metal bar is used to choose the notes and chords on the guitar neck. In the late 1940s, mechanically inclined lap steel guitarists experimented by connecting pedals to the strings to lower and raise the pitches. Originally the pedals were attached to the strings by a pulley-and-cable system, but the cables eventually gave way to metal rods. The pedal steel guitar is the product of musical ingenuity and mechanical engineering. Since the pedal steel is constructed from metal and moving parts, its needs periodic lubrication to keep it functioning well.

Things You'll Need

  • 30W motor oil
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Instructions

  1. Introductiion

    • 1

      Check the lubrication section of your pedal steel guitar manual. This will tell you if you need to lubricate the steel. Some steel guitars use non-migrating lubricants. If this is the case with your steel guitar, you do not need to lubricate it.

    • 2

      Buy a small container of 30W oil. A larger container make its difficult to reach many places that need to be lubricated.

    • 3

      Lubricate all the parts that move and have metal-to-metal contact. Make a checklist to ensure that you lubricate all the parts. The list includes rollers, changer mechanism, pedals, pull fingers, pull pins, lower fingers and barrel nuts between the stop bars.

    • 4

      Lubricate the hard-to-reach places. For the places that are more inaccessible, such as the raise-and-lower fingers, dip a rod in oil, and apply it to the desired area.

    • 5

      The lubrication process should be repeated every four to six months. If you play your pedal steel guitar several nights a week, lubricate it more often.

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