The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm really liking Dan's playing with Cass McCombs. He does six-string and pedal steel and makes a very nice sound! I'd be interested to know what his setup is, he has quite an individual tone. Anyone know anything?

Thank you folks -- yes that's the one.

I have a 1970s MSA Classic and the left knee lever is slipping at the point where it's attached to the circular cross rod (sorry, not sure what the technical term is!). It's attached using a hex bolt, but for the life of me I cannot find the right key. Can anyone tell me what size it should be? 3/32...

Thank you for the insight, Frank!

A question from a beginner if you don't mind -- the basic outline of this intro is much easier if you play the first five notes at the ninth fret as shown in Brett's tab, then slide directly to the 16th and play the next two full bars there using just the A and B pedals. But I'm guessing you hear so...

Thanks Pete. It's amazing how much expression he can get out of just a few notes.

Rather than start a new thread... does anyone know who the steel player is on the George Jones album My Favorites of Hank Williams? Jimmy Day perhaps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0359TJQeVk

The playing is lovely.

Just measured my MSA and the spacing is 0.333 on the E9 neck at the changer. That's on an early 70s Classic D10.

Thanks all,

I think that when this lockdown is over I will take the MSA back to John and have him change it to the 9th string instead. I still have a ton to learn about the standard changes before I can think about introducing unusual ones!

I bought my first pedal steel last year, an early 70s MSA Classic. It's a D10 with eight pedals and three levers. It had a weird setup when I got it, but luckily I live quite near John Davis, who is one of the very few people in the UK who can service steel guitars. He did a ton of work on it and it...

Always loved the sound of pedal steel but never dared try one until last year. I was looking at an auction house catalogue and they had a bunch of interesting old musical instruments including a ’70s MSA D10. I put in a low bid sight unseen and I guess no one else bid. Getting it home was... inter...

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/userpix1712/19159_msa_1.jpg Here's mine, sorry about all the clutter -- we have smaller houses over here... Any information would be welcome. I'm guessing it's a 70s model? I know nothing of its history other than that it came from the estate of a composer who lived ...

I don't have any advice to offer on specific licks, but harmonically speaking, the D7 in that song would usually be thought of as the 'dominant of the dominant'. In other words, you'd treat it as the 5th of the G chord that follows, so try playing a 5-1 lick in G rather than thinking in C.

Thanks all,

Heavier strings sounds like a good tip. I am using a set of Ernie Balls and though I no longer have the packaging I think the 3rd might actually be a .010. Not sure how much variety is on offer on this side of the pond but I'll look for something a bit chunkier.

I'm near Cambridge.

Hi all, Hello from the UK, it's great to meet y'all! I'm in the early stages of learning pedal steel on an old MSA Classic D10, and one of the many things I'm struggling with is that some of the strings seem louder than others. I'm wondering if this is just a technique issue, or whether there could ...