ELECTRIC PLATE

The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal slide (the "steel") to stop the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it uses foot pedals to affect the sound, hence its name. The instrument is placed horizontally on a stand, with the strings facing up towards the player, and is typically plucked with fingerpicks. The pedals below are used to change the pitch of its strings while being played; the action of the pedals may either be fixed, or may be configurable by the player to select which strings are affected by the pedals. The pedal steel, with its smooth portamenti, bending chords and complex riffs, is one of the most recognizable and characteristic instruments of American country music.
While there are some fairly standard pedal assignments, many advanced players devise their own setups, called copedents. The range of copedents that can be set up varies considerably from model to model. Aftermarket modifications to make additional copedents possible are common.
The pedal steel was developed from the console steel guitar and lap steel guitar. Like the console steel, a pedal steel may have multiple necks, but the pedals make even a single-neck pedal steel a far more versatile instrument than any multiple-neck console steel.