The Steel Guitar Forum

Mikiya, I just signed up for the workshop. I'm looking forward to it. Jean-Sebastien, it looks like yes, you can watch later. The website says: "And, the entirety of our weekend’s activities will be recorded, and all participants will have streaming access to the classes, concerts and worksho...

This is a great podcast. I've listened to four so far after getting pointed to if by this post, (but haven't gotten to the Mooney episode yet). I love comparisons of different recordings of songs, which happens in the first episode with Ernest Tubb's and George Jones' recordings of "Just One Mo...

Thanks for the response Chris. I'll go with the lighter gauges you recommended. When I play standard guitar I prefer a heavier string and I think I transferred that idea to steel without really thinking about it. The behind the bar bends are something I'm working on; I can make pretty good use of it...

I recently picked up a 22.5" scale stringmaster D8. I had been playing a 24" Supro S8. I had been playing an E13 (low to high): [tab] D E G# B C# E G# F# 36 32 26 19 18 15 11 13 [/tab] In the excitement to get the new guitar up and running I forgot to take the shorter scale into account an...

Thanks for the reply Jeff. Good call Steven, I was just going to ask this question.

Similar to a telecaster I have where the strings go into the center of the tuning peg. For that guitar I usually measure 2 strings longer than the string I'm putting on.

Tom says he guesses Bob Willls is responsible for electrifying country music, but didn't Jimmie Rodgers use an electric steel guitar before Wills? I'm not sure Jimmie Rodgers ever played steel guitar did he? I've only heard recordings of him playing standard acoustic guitar. I always like Cliff Car...

Allan Jackson looks like he's rocking it on that ukulele.

Any idea if it was common for people to finger chords on lap steel for photos? In Doug's set of pics. The two guys in the 2nd photo and the kid in the 4th all are playing guitar looking chords!

Came too late to hear the tune (just like the last one you posted), but I’m looking forward to hearing your project. I think it sounds like it will be really cool. I’m at least one steel player who loves Monk; there’s got to be others. To tied myself over, I just listened to Sonny Rollins’ r...

What octave is your low E at? The low E on a guitar, or the E at the 2nd fret on the D string of a guitar? Or, another way to ask the question: what string gauges do you use? I'm tuned in E too, and I start at the higher of the two E's. I use a 36w string gauge for my low E. My highest string is a G...

"I thought the 3rd and 4th string were both sliding up 2 frets" He does show a chord like that (where he plays the same fret on the 2nd and 3rd strings), right around 3:05. But for the life of me I CANNOT get those slants to work. You have to use the nose of the bar, and I always seem to g...

Great stuff Flavio! I really liked the ascending run you do on "Oh Lady B Good" right around 56 seconds in. This and your Vegan Island videos are really cool. There's a thread in the "Steel Players" section called "How important is appearance ???", and I think your band...

Hi Andy, here's from a post I made on the 3rd video, about how I understand the chords to work out: I'm pretty sure Eddie's tuning is an A6 (low to high): F# A C# E F# A C# E 6 1 3 5 6 1 3 5 <-- The intervals in the A6 chord In the examples he's at the 7th fret for an E chord. So, when he does the f...

I play in E6, and went the "other" way when I was working through Cindy Cashdollar's instructional DVDs. There I basically played what she was, but 2 whole steps lower on my neck. As others have mentioned there are differences in tone and some passages get difficult to play, but for the mo...

I couldn't agree more. These are great videos, and not just the steel installments. The whole series is fun to watch. I found the rhythm guitar video with Whit Smith (WSR #5) to also be really helpful (and after showing the guitar player in my band I think he's found it useful too!). https://www.you...

Originally due to the advent of steel strings the words steel guitar were used to set it apart from the usual catgut string guitars which were simply called guitars. It mattered little if you held it upright, on your lap or under your arm nor what you placed on the strings fingers, wooden sticks, g...

Just had a chance to play a session with my band using a Fender Princeton Reverb. My own amp is a Vox and breaks up pretty easily; I crank the master volume and keep the channel volume really low to try and compensate for a cleaner tone. I “knew” that I needed more headroom in an amp, but I didn...

I've been using the universal stand with 3 legs for a year and a half and it's great! I have two supros (a 6 string comet and 8 string airliner) and they switch in and out easily and stay right in place. The 8 string has its own legs but I like the idea of less wear and tear on the old parts if I ca...