Maggie Bjorklund hails from Denmark, not usually a nation associated with pedal steel guitar. Nonetheless she has been a session and live musician who has played with Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands, Exene Cervenka and as a session musician for producers Johnny Sangster and Steve Fisk. She plays a Sho-Bud 6139 Pedal Steel. Her debut album, Coming Home, is out now on Bloodshot Records.

Bjorklund’s 6139 is a single neck ten string. She uses a single neck for a simple reason.

“I am not strong enough to lift a double neck from the ground when it is in a case. I also have a 12 string Sho-Bud, but that is very heavy too,” she says. “I love the E9 Nashville tuning and if you get into half steps of the pedals and slanting the bar you can play anything you want on it.”

What makes a good pedal steel in general?

“A good pedal steel needs a good tone. What you always want to strive for is tone,” she says. “Half of the tone lies in your hands and playing, but the rest is the pickup and the body of the guitar. So finding a pedal steel with a good pick up is your first point of focus.”

In other words, initially you are looking for similar things to what you look to in a guitar. But what about when you get an older instrument like the Sho-Bud? Sho-Buds first appeared in the late. Bjorkund says many players modify these guitars upon purchase.

“Personally I love the rich, dark tone of the old Sho-Bud pickups. People tend to change the pickup in the Sho-Buds due to the single coil hum you get, but I think that is a sin,” she says. “The buzz is only adding to the charm of the old sound. But choosing pick up and tone is a matter of taste and very individual.”

But she doesn’t view all parts of the instrument as sacrosanct. She has no problem with making alterations per se. It is just the idea of removing something that gives the instrument character that irks her.

“Next you want a pedal steel guitar that is as smooth and precise in the mechanics as possible. As much as I love my old Sho-Buds I am not very keen on the old noisy and stiff mechanics. I have had the undercarriage changed on one of my Sho-Buds,” says Bjorklund. “This was done by Jeffrey Surratt at show Pro guitars. This gives the smoothness and makes the levers and pedals easy to play. If you want to take your pedal a half step you need the mechanics that will allow you to go there in one even move. It feels like you have put the motor of a new Jaguar into an old Ford- T. It plays with the smoothness like a puma moves.”

But what about the 6139 specifically? How does it sound, play and look?

“My 6139 pro-1 has a great tone. It looks beautiful and it has a lot of personality. It has a depth and variety in the sound and it feels like there is a universe hidden inside it waiting for me to explore it,” she says. “It feels like a love affair with that guitar. When it speaks to you and you end up being truly connected to it. I think I should write a song not called "stand by your man" but ‘stand by your guitar’."

Bjorklund has had the guitar for around seven years and it was her first professional pedal steel. She had been using a Zum Steel student model but it had neither the number of knee levers nor the tone she wanted.

“In Denmark there is no chance of buying a pedal steel guitar in your local music shop, or in Craigslist or anything, so I went on eBay and found this one--gorgeous red, with the old pick up but missing some knee levers,” says Bjorklund. “I was lucky to get it quite cheap and I had it send to Bobbe Seymour’s shop in Nashville to have it checked up and he also added the knee levers that I wanted.”

As mentioned, the one problem she has had is the mechanics being stiff and noisy.

“If you are in the studio and have to record alongside, say, upright bass or cello or some other sensitive instrument, it can be difficult to isolate the noises from the pedals.” she says.

But let’s say you walk into a shop to buy a pedal steel. What should you do? How should you kick the tires of this instrument?

“You should always turn the instrument upside down and look at the mechanics. That will tell you a lot even if it is hard to figure out what is going with all those rods and things. Is it rusty, has it been oiled, are the rods straight?” says Bjorklund. “Are the screws coming loose, are the springs strong and potent. That will tell you if it has been treated right. Mechanics can be replaced and fixed, and pickups can be replaced you just need to know who can help you do it and calculate the extra cost of having it tuned up. Is it worth putting extra money into or should you find one that has been nursed better.”

How did a Danish guitar player wind up playing pedal steel? She has played country music, the style most associated with the instrument but it was more than a genre.

“I have played a lot of country, but as a regular guitar player. I was always so curious to play different instruments and when someone offered me a Fender student model I bought it right away. I didn't have anyone to teach me how to play and my first attempt failed. Some years later I tried again and it was much easier for me. That was just so thrilling to get all those sounds out of it and I have played it every day since!”

Bjorklund’s record, Coming Home, features musicians such as Calexico, Mark Lanegan, Rachel Flotard (Visqueen) and Jon Auer of The Posies.