Pedal Steel Guitar Strings

Pedal steel is the most specific string purchase a player makes. The tuning decides the gauges, the gauges decide how the pedals and levers return to pitch, and a set that is two thousandths out will not tune back. There are only three questions here, and the part number answers all of them.

1. Which tuning

E9 is the Nashville neck — the high, chiming sound most country pedal steel is played on, and the neck a single-neck player almost always has. C6 is the jazz and Western swing neck, tuned lower and voiced for chords. A double-neck instrument takes one of each. Our ST12 set is for 12-string universal tunings, which combine E9 and C6 on a single neck.

2. Which guitar

Different pedal steels want different gauges, so we cut sets for the two that matter. EM sets are for Emmons guitars. SHO sets are for Sho-Bud guitars. If you play something else, the EM sets are the more common starting point.

3. Buddy Emmons's own gauges

BE sets are Buddy Emmons's gauges. On E9 those are the same gauges as our EM set, with an extra third string in the packet — the .011, which is the string that breaks. On C6 they are genuinely different, because he used different gauges there, starting with a heavier first string and a lighter second than a standard C6 set. If you are chasing that sound, or you simply want the spare, that is the set.

Nickel or stainless

Every set is made in both. Nickel-plated steel is the traditional choice: warmer, rounder, with a controlled top end and a softer feel under the bar. Stainless steel is brighter, with more attack, more sustain and sharper note separation, and it stands up better to constant pedal movement.

The part number tells you which. A PS- prefix means stainless steel. No prefix means nickel. PS-EME9TH and EME9TH are the same set in two materials.

A quieter option

EME9THSL is the EM E9 set built with Silencer semi-flat wound strings. The wound strings are polished so the bar moves across them with far less noise, which matters on an instrument played entirely with a steel bar. Same gauges, so it is a straight swap.

Gauges

Gauges are listed in string order, not smallest to largest. On E9 and universal tunings the third string is thinner than the first two — those are the chromatic strings, and that is correct, not a misprint. The Buddy Emmons E9 set carries an extra .011 third string beyond the ten listed.

The packet prints both the E9 and C6 gauge lists, so check the part number on the barcode label to confirm which set is inside.

How Pedal Steel compares to our other specialty sets

These are our pedal steel sets, cut for 10-string and 12-string instruments with a pedal and lever changer. For non-pedal and lap steel, see Scotty's Non-Pedal / Lap Steel sets, which come in C6, A6, E13 and E7 in six and eight string. For resonator guitars, see our Resonator sets.

Frequently asked questions

Made in the USA.