The Steel Guitar Forum

I did Mike's boot camp back when he started it. Mike knows everything there is to know about steel! He's hung out with Lloyd Green and Curly Chalker(!) and knows first-hand how those guys playing certain things, especially how Lloyd played without lowering his E string. He's a really valuable resour...

I guess he couldn't get a good steel player so he had to settle for Paul Franklin, Tommy White, or Robby Turner.

Three of the best players ever to touch the instrument!

Jeff Beck was important enough that Paul Franklin refers to him in his instructional material. That's how much his influence was!

I've never played one of his 8-strings but I had a 6-string, birch McKenna and it was monstrous. Loud, clean and clear as a bell. They're way undervalued, worth way more than Mr. McKenna was charging for them. Really wish I hadn't had to sell it.

I had never heard this before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-dZZgd2oj4

Wikipedia says it's Red Rhodes. Pretty cool!

Thank you, Michael! Can't wait to try this tuning, it looks like single note passages would work pretty well with the E major scale tones laid out like that.
Thanks again.

Michael,

What exactly was Murphy's C#min? That's really great that you were able to get it straight from the man himself.

JG

Gary is a great guy to do business with, couldn't be more satisfied with my purchase from him.
Jerry Miller from Indiana

Thanks for all the replies we got concerning this. We ended up getting him a really nice, newer 3x4, but it was hard to decide between all the great and fair offers we got. Thanks again for helping a young kid get started on this instrument!

Thanks for the reply, Jerry. I'm not the guy you know, I'm a more recent transplant to Indiana. I do respond to Mr. Miller, though!
Anyway, I'll relay your info about the BMI to my student, sounds like a really good deal, and see what he thinks. Thanks again!

Looking for a decent single neck 3 + 4 for a student. He's can go up to $1400/$1500. He's a talented young man who already plays guitar and mandolin and is really motivated to learn pedal steel, so I'd like to find a solid instrument for him to learn on. I check the classified regularly and see them...

Tiny, thanks for the update on Dick, it's a shame he's no longer with us. I'm glad I had an opportunity to know him and play with him. He was a great guy and great player. Joachim, I still do sessions. These days almost all my calls are for steel, which is my second or third instrument, but I enjoy ...

Joachim, I played guitar on the record but I'm not the Moby Grape guy.

I knew Dick, I was on that record with Sonny. I haven't seen him since the early nineties and have lost touch with him. Dick lived in the Milford, CT area, maybe some of the CT folks know him. He was a great guy, excellent player. He played a Marrs steel when I knew him, and he used that steel on th...

John, I received your tab, it's excellent. Thanks for doing such a great service for the steel community!

Also thanks for the referral to Sarah's website, I wasn't aware that she had tracks for sale.

Can't wait to start working on the tab, should keep me busy for a while.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
Jon, I see your point about the about the application of the E to F# raise, not being ideal for the Mooney stuff. And the I to vi minor move sounds like it'd have a lot of application.

Jon,
Cool, both of your suggestions would be great for Mooney lick. Thanks!

Bob,
Thanks for pointing that out. I meant raising string 7 from F# to G. Not string 4, that would be a bad situation!
I think I was counting 4 from the wrong end of the guitar.

Greg, thanks so much for the link, wow, really great stuff! I've got the PF instructional CD about the lever that raises the top 2 strings and he strongly stresses that you shouldn't lower the 6th on the same lever, that you should raise the 7th. After hearing your examples I think I'm going to make...

Thanks, Jeff. I might give that a try. I can see some good uses for it, I think Lloyd has that change.

Thanks for the response, Greg. Yep, I think of the standard 5 as pretty close to what you've got except for your LKV. Right now I've got: LKL raises the E's, LKR lower the E's, LKV lowers both B's to Bflat. RKL raises string 1 to G# and string 2 to E and lowers string 6 from G# to F#. RKR lowers str...

What;s a good use of a 6th knee lever on your E9th neck? I'll got the standard 5 but also an inside LKL. I'm not really interested in the Franklin pedal lowers of 10, 6 and 5, I've had that on a pedal before and didn't use it much. Plus I wouldn't be able to use it with the E lower because that's on...

This guitar is sold, pending payment. Thanks for all the inquiries.

Ron, I'm not sure what setup Billy was using on his Derby. This one seems like is a standard 10-string pedal steel neck. The string spacing is 3/8 inches and I have it strung standard C6th with a D on top.

The only time I've seen another one of these Billy Robinson was playing one in St. Louis at Scotty's convention sometime back in the '90. I bought this one from the great player and technician John Widgren around 2005 and got a lot of use out of it. Just needing to thin the herd a little bit. Open t...

I'm selling my single 10 string Derby lap steel. It sounds great, it's in very good shape, got a couple of bar dings, wear from normal use. The finish is two-tone/green to purplish blue flourescent. I've used this guitar to record and play western-swing type gigs. Also, very portable and great to pr...