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Originally Posted by Toxer
i saw regular guitars (dobro for ex.) that are laid on your laps, only finger-board with 6+ strings also laid on laps, and a table with strings. and two names - lap steel and pedal steel. which is which?
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A guitar which is played when laid on your lap is a "lap steel"; it may be a Dobro or any other guitar, it may have a square neck or round neck, acoustic or electric, it may have six, eight (maybe even ten?) strings -- it is a lap steel guitar.
Caveat to the above: Junior Brown is an amazing lap steel player but plays an odd double neck guitar which is esentially a Telecaster and a Fender type lap steel. He plays it standing up (not on his lap).
A pedal steel guitar will be on a stand (four legs typically). It has pedals and knee levers which change the tuning of particular strings in different ways. A pedal steel is supposed to be very dificult to learn to play.