The Steel Guitar Forum

Happy New Year bOb. More people will be using this resource that you have created than you can ever know. It will continue to be the primary source for all those who want or need the invaluable information that can only be found here. My best to you in all of your future endeavors. Warmest regards, ...

This picture showed up on my Twitter feed. A happy birthday wish to Peter Frampton. Obviously taken during George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass sessions.

The Epiphone Varichord did not have pedals. Rather, it had a unique system of levers on the top above the strings that when moved would raise or lower the pitch of the individual string it was attached to. Not sure how many were built but the number has to be low. They came out about 1939 or 1940 an...

In 1969 John Fogerty posed with a Dobro on the cover of the CCR album Green River. Years later he said in an interview that he didn’t really know anything about resonator guitars but at a Guitar Show in Southern California he met and talked with a gentleman who patiently explained the differences be...

bOb, I am guessing that Tampa Red might have disagreed with you.

Kent Armstrong is the son of Dan Armstrong. He has the rights to his fathers name and I’m sure he is the one behind this product. I was fortunate to know Dan and develop a friendship with him. I am not aware of any lap or pedal steel guitars built by Dan himself.

My understanding was that Marty had them build the door in so that he could park his bus in the lot right next to the building and go directly from the bus to the stage.

Deke Dickerson played a gig in Ashland and was very pleased to discover Don performing there. He tried for persuade Don to come down to Los Angeles and play a show here. Don resisted for some time - literally years - despite Deke offering to have a limousine filled with bikini-clad girls come to get...

I noticed this as well. It just goes to show how little understood the lap steel guitar is, even today. Goofy, isn’t it? BTW Cousin Jody is one of my heroes. He called his steel (among other things) the “Electric Biscuit Board”. Lonzo and Oscar is the name of the duo that he played with. Over ...

Yes, Webb always had a Bigsby player. After Bud Isaacs left, taking his Bigsby with him, Webb called Bigsby up and demanded to be placed next in line. Bigsby refused. Webb was able to get a second hand Bigsby - note that the original owners name was replaced with a blank piece of maple in the film. ...

I saw your other post on the amps and thought they might have been from Alan’s collection. The BR-1 amp was very cool and AFAIK pretty stock. I was kind of amazed that Gibson chose to use perforated sheet metal for a grill cloth! The Epiphone Zephyr amp was also quite remarkable. When he first got...

Alan Jesse Foust was a friend of mine for almost 40 years. We met at Pacific Telephone when we were both telephone operators. I was the one who got him into guitar (Spanish, then steels) and he sort of took off with it. He caught cancer and passed away leaving no heirs and without a will. Ultimately...

I don’t think that the recording was sped up. Roy was actually that fast. This record is readily available on vinyl and CD. All the tracks show off Roy’s amazing abilities. He is pretty speedy on “Tiger Rag”, on the banjo. Very creative use of the knee mute lever there. The one that threw me...

Sister Rosetta was simply a STUNNER. She had more in common with steel players than you might realize. First, she used an open tuning - usually a C# Vastapol based tuning. She started preaching in the streets with a National steel guitar! She had a Gibson L-5 by 1940 and had a pickup mounted on it b...

Looks like somebody wanted a wood body guitar rather than aluminum or Bakelite and took the electronics from an early Rickenbacher. The knob is like those used on the earliest models I’m kind of amazed at how clean the pickup looks. No patent number so before mid-1937. 1.64k seems pretty weak, mig...

So interested in seeing these! Email sent.

There are two of them at Norman's Rare Guitars. Both slightly modified. Everybody looks at them and makes remarks, but no one is interested in taking them home.
Trying to send pictures but having problems with it, will try again later.

There are two of them at Norman's Rare Guitars. Both slightly modified. Everybody looks at them and makes remarks, but no one is interested in taking them home.
Trying to send pictures but having problems with it, will try again later.

It's very early but I doubt it's a prototype. The earliest frypans did not have a Rickenbacher insignia, merely the word "Electro" etched on the headstock. This guitar mostly matches other production Frypans that I have seen including the one I previously owned. Silver Duco finish on sides...

Oma Thomas had a music studio in South Gate, CA not too far from Bigsby's home in Downey. The unusual configuration of one ten-string neck, two eight-string necks and one six-string neck (!) was certainly so she could teach a variety of styles (I am not aware of another Bigsby six-string steel guita...

I wrote out a long reply earlier today on my tablet, but it went away before I could post it. The restoration of my 401 was recently completed, after a couple of years. I still owe some money on it. I was hoping to have it paid off in time to take it to the upcoming Dallas guitar festival and displa...

In the past I directed cars where to park at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. I was fortunate to work the VIP/Press/Performers gate and met many famous and non-famous musicians and artists. Worked in a Radio Station (KGBS-FM, no longer in business) for about a year, then at the original Schecter ...

Hello there. I was notified of this thread through a private message, sorry to say I have not been keeping up on my Forum readings lately (working nights). The Volu-Tone was on the market by 1933, making it one of the earliest electric guitars, and perhaps the first true solid body guitar, as oppose...

That's a Regal pickup. It looks like a humbucking with its two blades but it's not. These were used on May-Bell guitars as well as numerous house brands. Note the little bump at the lower right edge under the tone control. this was often the point where the cable came out. that way the pickup could ...

This clip is from a movie called "Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar" (Marathon, 1965). Most of the music in the film is lipsynched, but to tracks that were probably recorded on the same stage around the same time. It has been quite an adventure trying to identify the musicians in the various...