pedal steel

noun

variants or pedal steel guitar

plural pedal steels or pedal steel guitars

: a box-shaped electric steel guitar with legs that has usually 10 strings which can be altered in pitch by the use of pedals and which are plucked while being pressed with a movable steel bar

[Ben] Keith broke into the business playing pedal steel on Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" …

—Kevin Dettmar

compare hawaiian guitar, lap steel

Examples of pedal steel in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

His excellent band can walk a squall of droning guitars and pedal steel into an abrupt stop, hover a second, then surge forward as one, without sounding rehearsed. —Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2025

Expanding his creativity, the release blends classic sounds of the mandolin, pedal steel and fiddle. —Andrea Zarczynski, Forbes.com, 28 May 2025

She’s joined on the track by banjo player and acoustic guitarist Dillon Hodges, drummer Bryan De Leon, electric guitarist Matthew Tomasi, fiddler Donny Carpenter, organist Steven Colyer, and pedal steel player Todd Beene. —Matthew Strauss, Pitchfork, 4 June 2025

In the summer of 2014, Chris and Morgane, along with co-producer Dave Cobb, Stapleton’s drummer Derek Mixon and bassist J.T. Cure, and special guests Mickey Raphael on harmonica and Robby Turner on pedal steel guitar entered RCA’s famed Studio A in Nashville. —Deborah Evans Price, Billboard, 29 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for pedal steel

• afebrile
• bookmobile
• cochineal
• nonideal
• peroneal
• philomel
• popliteal
• snowmobile
• waterwheel
• abele
• alkyl
• anneal