What is best for a carpeted floor

[Tom Hackett]

My room for my steel is carpeted. Not thick and not thin. Any thoughts on size and type of carpet protector? I have one for my desk that seems too thin, but fine for a desk chair. The steel will sit there along with the seat and would dig into the one I now have probably. Thoughts and thank you so much.

[Fred Treece]

Anything with a pad underlayment is bad. I use 1/4” hardboard, cut large enough for the steel and seat to fit easily. It doesn’t look great, but that wasn’t my objective. It lays nice and flat and was cheap.

[Tom Hackett]

...my carpet has a pad, so it's pretty squishy. I like your hardboard idea thank you. Any other ideas out there?

[Jerry Overstreet]

What Fred said. 1/4 should be sturdy enough and easier to handle.

I have one I built from 3/4 ply but that's b/cuz that's what I had and I planned to take it out for uneven venue floors, grass etc. It's just big enough for a D10 guitar and the seat and has a hand grip for toting/placement.

I borrowed an idea from my friend Doug Taylor and put adhesive carpet squares so it looks better and the guitar doesn't slip around.

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Another option is those spiked carpet cups, coasters or ash trays under individual legs. Pretty annoying though if you want to move your steel around..

[Scott Baumann]

I don't put anything under the steel itself, but I use carpet furniture sliders under the seat so I can move that as needed without having to pick it up. Drives me crazy without them.

[Tom Hackett]

I probably wasted $75, but I bought a 1/4" clear tempered glass floor matt that I think might be OK. It's 36" X 46". Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

[J D Sauser]

What Jerry Overstreet said!
- Just get solid plank of 1/2" plywood, just large enough for the guitar and your seat in playing position.
- Thin hard office carpet glued on to reduce resonance bleeding. Can be made to fold with a piano hinge to make it transportable and even have larger bottle caps screwed on from the bottom up to hold the front legs in place.

A non-pedal steel on carpet, even thick carpet is not a bad idea, it reduces resonance bleeding into the floor (imagine the legs of s SG on a wooden floor: All of a sudden you can hear the SG thru the floor... it takes ENERGY to make a floor move so that it becomes audible, energy which is TAKE AWAY from your tone and sustain!).
But pressing the pedals on a PSG which gets squished into the carpet every time is not desirable.


... J-D.

[David Wren]

I also have a pad under my studio carpet.... I just put a 1" X 4" piece of trim under the left front and rear legs... that seems to be enough to give the pedals clearance, without bottoming out on the carpet.

[Jerry Horch]

I have one of those clear plastic desk chair thingamajigs for the office floor deals ,,and a 1/2” piece of half a sheet of plywood on top of that….cant stand mushy carpet…

[Kenneth Kotsay]

How about using a 5/8” plywood sheeting or even using 1” plywood sheeting
Worked for me until I went to porcelain tile

[Rick Trolinger]

When I had carpet in my music room, I bought a half sheet of 1/2 sheet of MDF and sat the steel and seat on it. I play on a low pile carpet at church, and don’t have much trouble with getting my seat in position and getting up and down.

[Dale Rottacker]

Before we moved to where we are now, I had put click-lock flooring over the carpet and then the fancy looking tapestry type carpet over that, but even with carpet sliders under my pack seat found it a bit difficult to slide.

Since we moved, the carpet in the studio does have padding under it, so I went to Home Depot and bought a 4x6 Black Textured Commercial type carpet, similar to what you'd see entering a some stores or Churches though a bit heavier. My sliders work better on this type of carpet. That said I also use an office chair on that carpet when I move the Steel out of the way when I'm mixing or editing. I found the carpet underneath and the covering carpet just soft enough that the office chair rollers weren't to happy on it, SO I replaced those smaller widish rollers with larger 3" rollerblade type rollers and those work really well.

[Bob Carlucci]

you guys are overthinking this.. For decades when I had to play on a thick carpet, I would take 4 ashtrays off the tables, and place one under each leg of my steel.. Problem solved.. Later on, when smoking was no longer permitted, I would use coasters, or simply some folded over napkins or whatever else was on hand.. Always worked fine , and never felt the need to carry a big sheet of plywood or plastic or plexiglass around..

[Dave Mudgett]

I prefer Berber carpet, which is what's in my entire downstairs music area. The steel doesn't slip, but it doesn't interfere with the pedals.

But in the rare case where I'm stuck on thick, pile carpet - let's say at a gig - I use something like these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DP4JGZNT. These raise the steel slightly, which is OK by me on thick carpet. If you don't want that, there are thinner versions. Or one could use flat furniture sliders. For me, it is much too big a PITA to drag along a huge plexiglass carpet mat or piece of plywood.

[Jerry Overstreet]

I've had a couple hinged plywood pads. They did not work well as the hinges let it sag in the middle.

I also discovered the material needs to be 5/8 or 3/4 to stop it from flexing from the weight of the gear and the player.

I have used ashtrays at venues with thick carpet but outdoors on the ground they don't work well and on wood surfaces, they slide around under the legs. The other issue is putting those under the legs makes the seat too low so there you go putting risers under the seat too. Then, if you have to move the steel, makes for a real PITA. Too much hassle for me but to each his own.

With a one piece pad large enough for the steel and seat, everything stays on the same level.

I built the one in my earlier post just for events where I have to sit on the ground, or on a truck bed with gaps or uneven flooring. I don't have a need to take it everywhere I go and it normally stays in my music room under the steel. The adhesive carpet tiles are not very thick for the pedals, the gear doesn't slide around plus it keeps the pedals from sinking into the plush thickness of the room's carpet. Works for me.

I also built it narrow enough to fit between the wheel wells of my pickup, but that's just big enough for the steel and the seat.

[Ron Funk]

Another idea is to use four of those 4” x 4” ceramic tile samples…..one placed under each leg.