Re:Eddie Van Halen has died
by hanklazard on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @08:19PM
(#24704014)
From the image, it looks like it’s intended to be used specifically for two-handed tapping, which was made famous by Van Halen and not commonly used (or at all) in pedal steel playing. Not sure if that would be unique enough to qualify for patent or not.
To my knowledge, steel guitars typically don't even have frets, so it would be essentially impossible.
I play both guitar and pedal steel. The tapping techniques that would be used on a horizontal 6-string guitar would be impractical on a steel guitar (lap or pedal) because the action is too high and there are no frets.
As my comment said I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the patent itself (and really the claims are the thing) just saying that that part of the description is probably wrong. And that the patent system doesn't care.
FWIW all the pedal steel guitars I've ever seen are in fact electric guitars... but I know what you meant.