Guitar Players Who Sound Like Pedal Steel Players

[Tracy Sheehan]

Funny how many steel players sounded like a lead guitar here in Tx.back in the 50s.Some one said something about Johnny B Goode being played on a steel.My self and many other Texas steelers did that years ago,Just a fact.For instance i am tuned to D9th sort of and can play Buckaroo on steel or rock and roll and no one can tell it is not a lead guitar with out looking.
No big deal.I am talking about 50 plus years ago when we didn't have the internet for some one to tell us it coulden't be done.
I never really gave it any thought back then.It was just a way to survive.lol.Pun intended as i have never heard the song but read where many people talk about it.And don't recall his name but there was a lead guitar player in Mo.I knew back in the 60s who played sounding exactly like a pedal steel.
I have no dog to inter into the ring but must admit it sort of gets my goat for people to say so and so can't be done.Can't think of how to spell his last name but Thumbs Carlile could jam with Chalker and if you didn't watch you coulden't tell which one was playing,In fact they had a friendly bet going to see if one could come up with some wild chords the other couldent play.Neither ever did far as know.
I haven't seen or heard Bobbe Seymore in 40 or so, years but bet he knows exactly what i am talking about and bet he can do the same thing on a steel as he used to play here in Texas.Reece,Jr.Knight,the Late Shady Brown,Buzz Evans,Harley Brendal and many more.End of lecture,:x Tracy

[Donny Hinson]

I've heard some of the best, but I won't go as far as saying that they sound just like a pedal steeler. I do some banjo licks on steel, but I don't sound like no Bela Fleck. My banjo licks might impress a steeler, but they sure as heck wouldn't faze a good banjo player. I think of the lead players with bender-levers in the same way. They might impress a lead player, but Paul or Tommy or Lloyd ain't got nothin' to worry about. By the same token, both lead players and steelers use Leslie simulators.

When you find one that sounds like Joey DeFrancesco, give me a call.

[Glen Derksen]

Sneaky Pete did a fantastic job of sounding like a lead guitar on Gram Parson's version of 'Ooh Las Vegas'.

[Tim Sergent]

Herb,
I'm glad you mentioned Boomer Castleman. After all, he had the patent on the Bigsby palm pedal. When I first moved to Nashville, I played for an artist named Larry Boone. Boomer was the guitar player. Randy Beavers was there before I was so he knows of "Boomer's Bends". Boomer had pedals on all six strings so it is IMPOSSIBLE to copy what he did with just a B bender. If you ever hear him play Danny Boy or something similar, you'll hear what I'm talking about.

I haven't read all of the posts in their entirety, but I'm not sure if anybody has mentioned Jerry Donahue. He's a master of having 2 strings going in two different directions and having them come back to finish out a lick.

Rod Janzen...our guitar player with Dierks Bentley...probably knows as many (0r more) steel licks than I do. And the list goes on and on........................probably always gonna be guitar players playing steel licks......and vice versa.

[Tim Sergent]

Just went back and saw where Dave Mudgett had started off his post with Jerry Donahue. Sorry for the oversight Dave, but I'm glad you got Jerry in there.

I must also say that Gregg Galbraith will always be one of my favorite guitarists....whether he's playing steel licks or not!!

[Michael Johnstone]

I played with a lot of the guys mentioned - the West Coast ones anyhow and I gotta say the guitar player that sounded the most like a steel player I ever heard was in Nashville back in Sept 1973. I was passing thru town and hit all the Broadway bars one night looking for some good steel. I saw one guy - didn't catch his name - fronting a trio playing a Gibson 335 with a volume pedal and Twin Reverb. No benders,no bigsby,and no string bending - just a stop tailpiece. He did everything with thumbpick,fingers and back-to-back block chord solos with lots of counterpoint internal voice leading. Sounded exactly like Chaulker playing C6 and had Chaulker's volume pedal technique down to a "T".

[Billy Tonnesen]

This was probably sometime in the 70's. The group called "Dave & Sugar" (a guy & two gals) became quite popular. I appreciated that they used a Steel Guitar until I saw a video and what I thought were steel guitar sounds came from their lead guitar player. I don't know who he was or if he had any assesories to help, but he sure fooled me !

[Pat Comeau]

I used to do alot of Pedal Steel licks in the 80's i just had a volume pedal and use to bend my neck to get a vibrato effect but since i started playing pedal steel i forgot almost all my steel licks on guitar...sometimes i go back and watch some old VHS tape i recorded in those days and i'm amazed of how they sound it pretty good but now i don't find there are important in my playing style cause i know i can get the right licks on a real steel guitar.

Playing a B bender guitar and doing steel licks on a guitar is two different thing all together, one can play a B bender guitar and have a great style of playing, the only thing that i don't like about some b bender player is that they use it too much and it's start to sounds all the same in every songs, i think one has to learn to be tastefull in any instruments they play

[JACK HEERN]

To back up what Steve Hinson sez. Get a copy of Gene Watson's song ( Trailer Trash) Emmons was on steel, GG was on guitar. Buddy took the first break,the second break that sounds like Mooney is GG on regular gitter. Needles to say Gregg is also my hero!!!
Jack

[Dave Harmonson]

Concerning the above mention of Sneaky Pete on Gram Parson's Ooh Las Vegas, unless there is another version I'm not aware of James Burton plays all the leads and plays some steel sounding licks as well as a bunch of other hot pickin'on that one.
Have any of you heard a song from Fairport Convention on their Fairport 9 album entitled "Pleasure And Pain"? Jerry Donahue plays some amazing parts that have a real crying steel feel to them.
I've been a B Bender player since the mid 70's and agree that it's not meant to take the place of PSG. I don't think Clarence ever intended that. I also agree that many bender players overdo it. Now that I've had one for over 30 years many times I'll go through a whole night and never activate it as opposed to when I first got one and every song had to have it. Older and wiser maybe. (well older at least)

[Jim Sliff]

As Steve Gambrell said, Clarence White's playing (other than the fact he used a mechanical device to bend strings) is about as far from "faux pedal steel" as you can get. I hear far more non-bender players who play "fake" steel. I've been playing b-benders for 30+ years, am currently working with the original production b-bender maker, Dave Evans, on tweaks in his original design, and while you *can* sort of play faux-steel on one, most seasoned bender players...at least the players influenced by the first two shoulder-strap bender players, Clarence White and lesser-known but absolute monster player Bob Warford...play bender as a completely different instrument, and intentionally try NOT to play like a pedal steel player.

Listen to Clarence on "Untitled", or the newest release "Live at Albert Hall" (or even better on a few of the bootlegs, of which a Palladium recording has him at his most aggressive style) and you'll hear "stringbender" as a completely different instrument, not as "fake steel", nor as normal 6-string with a gadget tacked on. With a good player it's used sparingly but with seamless timing and attack.

It's really funny to me in a way, as my steel playing (which started when I was was having severe hand problems) sounds like a Stringbender Tele player - what I DON'T sound like is "normal" pedal steel!

but guys who play with string-benders and think they're playing like a steel guitarist have to be some of the most charmingly self-deluded musicians I've run across.

Herb nails it. and usually it's rookie players who try to emulate steel players...many of them don't play bender as their "regular" guitar, but use it for "steel" parts...lame steel parts IMO, and as Herb said, most of what they do is possible without the bender. The bender gives you a completely different perspective and set of musical tools to work with that are NOT pedal-steel in nature, but again - it's a totally unique instrument.

In fact I could not find "my" bender-like parts playing E9 steel, and only when I changed to Sneaky's B6 did I discover a lot of the same kind of things I was used to playing...which no doubt relates (in reverse) to how Sneaky was able to play "lead guitar" on some of the early Burritos stuff.

People used to ask Clarence why he didn't try to play more like a pedal steel, and he'd answer with the same answer he gave Gene Parsons when Parsons suggested hooking up pedals to his Tele (the reason for the bender was to emulate behind-the-nut 6-string guitar bends, mostly harmonics, in closed positions - not to sound like steel) - "If I wanted to sound like a pedal steel I'd buy a pedal steel".

He (and Warford gets a good amount of credit as well, especially for his distinctive work with Linda Ronstadt) created a whole new guitar lexicon that simply didn't exist before.

Ps - Dave's absolutely correct - That's James Burton doing a great job of sounding like a Telecaster player doing manual bends on Ooh Las Vegas... Al Perkins plays steel on the album, but that one is all Burton - listen closely and the tone never changes.

[Scott Shipley]

Quote:
but guys who play with string-benders and think they're playing like a steel guitarist have to be some of the most charmingly self-deluded musicians I've run across.

But it's ok for a psg player to "emulate" the dobro? Or a banjo?

[Glen Derksen]

There are two guitars on Las Vegas, someone is playing some Telecaster banjo style licks further back in the mix, which is definitely James Burton, but if Burton played all those steel licks, he must have stepped out of character and went wild with the string bending....something he normally didn't do.

[scott murray]

that's Al Perkins playing those parts on "Ooh Las Vegas"... Burton plays the intro and joins in on the outro (at 3:14) but the solos and fills are Al, who enters at about the 12-second mark playing the bassier stuff (while James is still playing the intro lick). Not sure if he played an 11-string a la Tom Brumley, but he obviously had a low E. The phrase he plays at 2:09 is trademark Perkins. according to Al, James has been known to take credit for those parts.


The solo on Roger Miller's "In the Summertime" sounds a lot like Ralph Mooney to me, but I'm pretty sure it's Hank Garland on a guitar.


Phil Baugh did a lot of great stuff, including a tune called "Exit Loneliness" that really sounds like a steel.
Listen to it HERE

[Joe Shelby]

I'm sure we're forgetting some of the lesser known string-bender guys, but even though he's been a steel player for many years now, Fred Newell deserves
mention.
I saw him in the mid-70's with Waylon Jennings. His
tone was very steel-like, as some of the aforementioned players had going for them. More impressive than his tone was the bends. They recalled
Hal Rugg and Weldon Myrick, some pretty intricate phrases.
He was one of the first players I recall using a rack setup; it was as tall as a later Dual Showman
speaker cab. He was playing a strat.
Jim mentioned Bob Warford, who for pure string bending genius is delightful to hear.
Al Perkins also has played some great bender stuff, in the Clarence tradition. "Slipping Away," by Chris
Hillman has some of Al's work. I'd say that "Last of
the Red Hot Burritos," (Flying Burrito Bros.) also
has some bender-like playing on it. I just haven't heard that album in a long time, but Al's guitar playing (and of course, steel playing) is stellar.

Joe.

[Ben Hoare]

Jerry Donahue's 2 and 3 string bends - including a lot of gorgeous contrary motion - come the closest of anybody I've ever heard. I agree that chord voicings are a critical issue, not just a bunch of bends. I don't get the impression that he's particularly trying to imitate a steel - it's its own thing - but sometimes the effect comes off like that, to my ears. No string benders involved, either.

.

Im with Dave on that

[Dave Harmonson]

[quote="scott murray"]that's Al Perkins playing those parts on "Ooh Las Vegas"... Burton plays the intro and joins in on the outro (at 3:14) but the solos and fills are Al, who enters at about the 12-second mark playing the bassier stuff (while James is still playing the intro lick). Not sure if he played an 11-string a la Tom Brumley, but he obviously had a low E. The phrase he plays at 2:09 is trademark Perkins. according to Al, James has been known to take credit for those parts.

I certainly don't have any inside info on this, but I don't hear a difference in tone that would tell me there's anyone but James B. on this tune.
Gotta agree that Bob Warford played some outstanding bender guitar. Does anyone remember a tune he played with Rick Roberts where he played the same solo that he later put on Ronstadt's "Willin"? I recall hearing it years ago on the radio, but I never had the record and can't remember what song it was.
I remember a guy named Jack Daniels from Boise who played in a band called Silver Creek back in the 70's who could do some pretty incredible steel licks on an old Strat with no bender. A few years back he was playing with Highway 101 but I don't know what he's up to now.
Some of you California folks might remember Harry Robinson. I met him in LA in 74 and he got me some info on getting in touch with Gene Parsons to get my bender. I believe he had Parsons/White #5. My first one was #29. I don't have it anymore, but it belongs to a good friend.

[scott murray]

well, there's clearly two guitars. you can hear that right?

the intro lick is still being played when the bassy picking kicks in at 12 seconds. That's Al!

Burton's tone is much thinner. He used light strings and he's playing up the neck. Al's tone is thicker, lower. And aside from the intro, he dominates on this song.

not to mention he confirmed the fact that it's him on the solos and fills.

[Dave Harmonson]

There are at least 3 guitar parts overdubbed, but I was only referring to the solo parts. It sounds like the same instrument to me where it comes out of the steel sounding licks and then into a kind of Mystery Train feel. At any rate, it's full of hot licks.

[chris ivey]

herb...you're right about danny holder. he spent a good period of time in the sacramento country scene in the seventies. don't know where he went, but he was a great tasty player. danny and also jimmy baughman could both out-play any steel player...very intimidating to a young player..as i was at the time.

danny even sat down at my old sho-bud back then and played the crap out of it!

[scott murray]

There are at least 3 guitar parts overdubbed

i disagree. i only hear one guitar and the steel.

i do agree about the hot licks however.

[Jim Sliff]

but if Burton played all those steel licks, he must have stepped out of character and went wild with the string bending

The several times I saw Burton with Emmylou Harris, when she did that song the WHOLE solo was played by Burton almost note-for-note off the Parsons record, and Hank DeVito laid out every time (which for the Hot Band was unusual, as Emmylou let everyone stretch out most of the time - one show had Burton AND Warford and the solos were good-natured gunslinging...wish I'd recorded THAT one!). And again, like Dave, I hear no tonal change, have read Burton talking about playing it (yes, it IS more than one take spliced together but not unplayable - splicing together pieces of different solo takes is very common) and haven't heard anything about Al taking claim for it. If Al says it's him I wouldn't doubt him, but I don't hear it - and if it's steel playing, it doesn't sound like *Al's* steel playing of that era.

BTW - there's no bender on Last of the Red Hot Burritos. Al's guitar playing on that one is pretty straightforward rock playing. To hear Al's bender playing in what I consider another one of the "this is NOT a steel" examples, get Mike Nesmith's Live at the Palais - Al plays his Evans Pullstring guitar and just tears it up. There are also some fascinating stories about that guitar, Richie Fray, the Souther-Hillman-Furay band and what Ritchie's "day job" is today...if you ever get to talk to Al, ask him.

[James Cann]

OK, bandleader, which would you prefer: straight Tele, rhythm, and steel, or "Telesteel" and rhythm?

. . . and steel player, your colleague? Straight or Telesteel?

[Pete Burak]

My fave B-Bender player is David Nelson of New Riders and David Nelson Band fame.
He never sounds like a steel player, and typically blends it in in such a "seemless" way, that if you didn't know what a B-Bender was, you would never notice it.

Who played on Arlo's "Mr.Customs Man" song ('not sure of actual song title)?
That sounds pretty Pedal Steel-ee to me (I hear it on local radio stations occassionally).
~pb

[Stu Schulman]

Pete,That's Clarence White on Mr. Customs Man..One of my favorites.