The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey Basilh, Sorry to throw you off about merle Travis' Bigsby steel guitar! I posted some photos of it but I didn't want to reveal the location with my phone's GPS, so I said I was in France to throw off any would-be steel guitar thieves who might track it down using GPS positioning!! Travis' Bigsby...

I'm just now seeing this post--I just want to thank Bob for hosting the party in Portland. That was a really special night. And yeah, as far as "steel guitar mancaves," that has to be the best one in the world. Todd's work was impeccable and so were the extra bits done by Jeremy Wakefield ...

Maybe we have to post this in the "STEEL GUITARS FOR SALE" to get anybody to care, Russ? (no, Speedy's steel isn't for sale, but would love to see some people as excited about this as I am!!)

Thanks Andy--I love me a good guitar mystery!

Andy, my guess is that it's probably a combination of eras. After all, knee levers weren't even a CONCEPT until the early 60's, right? If I had to lay money on it, I'd say the steel itself was built in the 40's with those Rickenbacker pickups and the PA Tone Levers. The roller nuts and the knee leve...

John, I'm certainly one of the ones that looks forward to more photos of this thing! When you take photos of the front, can you also take some more detailed photos of the "PA Tone Levers"?? This thing is super intriguing. Would also love to know who was the owner of this thing, that might ...

Hi there everybody--I'm writing the biography of Merle Travis and trying to see if Marian Hall's husband, Larry Landers, is still with us. All the phone numbers I have don't seem to work, which isn't a good sign, but I also can't find an obituary online either. Back when Marian died, quite a few of ...

Thanks for the good words, everybody! Honestly, my biggest motivation for trying to own Speedy's guitar is because it broke my heart to see it displayed at the country music hall of fame in such piss-poor condition. It needed to be restored. It will probably go back into the CMHOF at some point afte...

Just FYI for the members of this list. here's a rare as hen's teeth Bigsby part:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/311424114019

Hope it finds a good home! thanks!

Peter-- I just read your post. Thanks for the good words! I thought I would clarify one thing, though. The Lefty Frizzell Bigsby guitar was listed for $350,000 when it was for sale a few years back, but actually sold for $150K to Merle Haggard. However, the record price goes to Merle Travis' Martin ...

Jim-- I wasn't the one who estimated the price on the Bigsby. I believe the people at Heritage were getting that figure because that's what they listed in the "Vintage Guitar Price Guide" for. The truth is, none had sold on the open market since 1990, so nobody really knew what the market ...

Friends--I'm reporting to the list from Nashville. I've known about this for some time, but can now reveal it publicly--believed lost, not seen since 1956, Speedy West's original 1948 Bigsby T-8 pedal steel guitar is now on display at the new "Bakersfield Sound" exhibit at the Country Musi...

Howdy you all, Thought I would post to the forum info about the upcoming Guitar Geek festival! We've got an incredible lineup this year including a reunion of the HELLECASTERS, Nokie Edwards of the Ventures, metal shredder Paul Gilbert, Los Straitjackets, Lady Bo, Rick Vito, Dave Bunker, Joel Paters...

hey there gang, This Saturday night, December 3rd, we'll have NOKIE EDWARDS with VENTURESMANIA! The show is at Joe's Great American Bar & Grill, 4311 W. Magnolia, Burbank, CA 91505. In addition to having Nokie, Venturesmania (made up of myself, Garrett Immel, Mel Bergman and Chris Sprague), we'l...

No problem, glad to help!

Matt-- The fretboard on the Merle Travis famous 1948 Bigsby solidbody appears to have been taken off of his 1920's Gibson L-4 (check out the dot pattern on the 12th fret, different than the playing card suit inlays). Merle's L-4 body was later used to make a 12-string acoustic guitar, which Travis g...

Hi guys-- I know I'm a little late to this thread, but though i would throw this out there as a possibility. The Bear Family CD lists "Dusty Stewart" as "guitar player" on the Mercury sessions. Dusty Stewart was actually a steel guitar player who played a T8 Bigsby non-pedal, and...

I was going to interview Chuck when I went up through the Northwest earlier this year, but the tour got cancelled. Next time I am heading up that way I hope to spend some time with him. Such an interesting guy with a TON of steel guitar history in his instruments. On a similar note, David you'll be ...

I know that Chet came out to the West coast in 1957 to play at a Gretsch event sponsored by Jimmie Webster. I heard this story from Tommy Turman, who had developed a pedal-type attachment that ran through a brake cable up to a standard guitar Bigsby vibrato, where it would "pull" the B-str...

P.S. This was in 1967, just as a frame of reference.

Just to throw this into the thread--first recorded example I know of a steel guitar doing the organ this is Norm Hamlet w/Merle Haggard & the Strangers, who played his pedal steel through a Leslie on a few songs on the Strangers instrumental albums. The only song that comes to mind is "The ...

Those Alvino guitars were brought down from Utah by noted collector Lynn Wheelwright, who knew Alvino very well and wound up purchasing a bunch of Alvino's instruments from the family.

Hi mark, yes, on the inside of the CD booklet I talk about the recording chain, and it may look like some fake retro b.s., but in this case it's actually true. The JW record was recorded live to an Ampex 350 2-track recorder, no overdubs, just really great players playing great instruments all toget...

Thanks for the kind words on jeremy's CD. It was one of the easiest recordings I have ever done, because the level of musicianship was so high. All I had to do was turn up the faders and that sound was already there. JW is the man! The CD is still available from cdbaby.com and also from my website, ...

Thanks for the kudos, guys. TC Furlong and Paul Warnik turned me on to Letritia, and wanted to make sure the article got written. Without Paul's doggedness in pursuing the story it's likely Letritia would have been completely forgotten. I'm glad I was given the chance to write about her story. Deke