Derek Trucks

Bill Leff · Post by **Bill Leff** » 7 Mar 2009 8:22 am

Yeah, I know he's not a lap steel player, but check out this "lesson" video for some ideas and inspiration for your playing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1b1uOvX ... re=related

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 7 Mar 2009 8:40 am

He's a great slide player with his own voice, no doubt about it. He gets a good tone out of his setup at a relatively low volume. Awesome left hand.

My one beef with modern (rock) slide and lap steel players is that they use too much gain in an effort to sound like Lindley and Trucks. You've got to back the gain off to get the real singing tone.

Rant over.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 7 Mar 2009 10:11 am

Mike Neer wrote:they use too much gain

Is that possible?

Great video!

Randy Reeves · Post by **Randy Reeves** » 7 Mar 2009 11:20 am

Steinar Gregertsen wrote:
Mike Neer wrote:they use too much gain
Is that possible?

Great video!

yeah. I wear a T shirt that has a knob pictured.
it is numbered 1 - 11

despite what my T shirt exclaims
I do believe the adage...'less is more'.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 7 Mar 2009 11:41 am

I remember Trucks had his gear stolen last year. From what I can recall, he was using Super Reverbs. I wonder if they recovered any of it....

edit--Wow, my sense of time and space is all out of whack--it was 2006.

Ray Langley · Post by **Ray Langley** » 7 Mar 2009 12:00 pm

I attended a 2-hour Slide Workshop with Derek Trucks a few years ago. The other guy he was jamming with used 5 different guitars in 5 different tunings. Derek played one guitar in 5 keys, while remaining in open E tuning!

John Tuggle has a series of lessons on Open E slide, mostly with the styles of Duane Allman and Derek Trucks. Here is sample on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuORclqt ... re=channel

Scott Thomas · Post by **Scott Thomas** » 7 Mar 2009 12:49 pm

I caught him awhile back when my local PBS station aired the big Clapton Crossroads concert. Derek's set was a definite standout for me. Him and his wife Susan Tedeschi did a couple of tunes off the classic Layla album, including a killer version of "Anyday". I became a fan on the spot.

Rocky Hill · Post by **Rocky Hill** » 7 Mar 2009 2:03 pm

Derek Trucks was a child prodigy on the guitar. I was reading an article in a Rolling Stone that has a picture of him playing with the Allman Brothers when he was 9 years old.

Rocky

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 7 Mar 2009 4:25 pm

"The other guy he was jamming with used 5 different guitars in 5 different tunings. Derek played one guitar in 5 keys, while remaining in open E tuning! "

There's a perfectly good, and completely valid. reason for having guitars in different tunings.

Ray Langley · Post by **Ray Langley** » 7 Mar 2009 4:29 pm

I have no argument with that, John. I was just stating an observation. I also use several tunings.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 7 Mar 2009 4:34 pm

Cool Ray! I doubt this thread will last long here. Every time I post something about slide, it gets bumped down to the basement of "Music!"

Website · Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 7 Mar 2009 4:41 pm

Well, the forum description is pretty clear. I'm willing to leave this up if people prefer to have slide guitar considered as part of this area rather than Music.

Steel Without Pedals
Lap steel, Hawaiian console and acoustic steel guitars

Music
Musical topics not directly related to steel guitar

I would point out that there are more topics and posts in Music than there are in Steel Without Pedals, so it's hardly a "basement".

If you don't view the other sections of the Steel Guitar Forum, you don't know what you're missing. I always log into the main page and click on the link "View posts since last visit" or "View past 24 hours".

Ray Langley · Post by **Ray Langley** » 7 Mar 2009 4:42 pm

Hi John, I don't quite understand your meaning? I love slide. My lap steel blues style is closer to slide than to most lap steel "music"......

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 7 Mar 2009 5:10 pm

Brad, I hope I haven't jerked your chain too hard, because you've always been very fair with me. Remember my "Misty" thread? I have always considered bottleneck/slide guitar to be a form of steel guitar. Yeah,,, it's kinda primitive, but you're still sliding a bar up the strings, whether it be a bolt a kid found by the railroad side, or Danny Gatton's Alka Seltzer bottle. I have several pedal steels, and several lapsteels. But,,,, I still feel that bottleneck IS still steel guitar!

Peter Jacobs · Post by **Peter Jacobs** » 8 Mar 2009 7:41 am

Simply unbelievable -- not just how inventive the lines are, but how clear each note is. His blocking/muting is exceptional.

Mark Mansueto · Post by **Mark Mansueto** » 10 Mar 2009 5:07 am

At one time I played some bottleneck but I'm dedicated to lap steel. That said I do draw insperation from bottleneck players so in this case Bill's post seems relevent to me especially since I use the open E tuning.

One thing I'm always concious of is to not get too locked into playing the typical bottleneck lines which is real easy to do, especially when playing in E. There are many great bottleneck players and it's generally easy to copy what they do on a steel so I'm selective about who I draw from. Trucks is a great source.

Keith Cordell · Post by **Keith Cordell** » 11 Mar 2009 4:02 am

I tend to get my inspiration from brass players; my dad was a trumpeter and my favorite steel tone is derived from trombones- thanks Mr. Dunn...

That being said, I love the sound guys like Derek get. As a blues player I can say that the tone I love most is overdriven, and I am probably more overdriven, on average, than Derek is. I recently got a new amp, a Carvin X-60, and clean tones tend to sustain better with it; I am playing more clean parts now, so maybe part of my tendency to play "brown" will go away now that I am getting a better tone.
By the by, next time someone tells you your sound is all in your fingers, just nod and smile. It's not true, but you'll never win that argument.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 11 Mar 2009 5:22 am

Keith Cordell wrote: By the by, next time someone tells you your sound is all in your fingers, just nod and smile. It's not true, but you'll never win that argument.

"Tone" is in the fingers, "sound" is in the guitar/amp...

AJ Azure · Post by **AJ Azure** » 11 Mar 2009 8:22 am

Keith Cordell wrote:I tend to get my inspiration from brass players; my dad was a trumpeter and my favorite steel tone is derived from trombones- thanks Mr. Dunn...

.

It's Bix Beiderbecke for me

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 11 Mar 2009 10:00 am

Dereks roadie brought his SG by my house one day to check it out and see if it needed some new frets on it. I could not believe how low the action on it was for a slide player!!!!! He must have the lightest touch with the slide.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 11 Mar 2009 10:09 am

10 years or so ago Derek played on our First CD release show with Blueground Undergrass. He set up his rig next to me, and I had a hard time playing, I was so fascinated with the utter maturity and finesse in the playing of such a young player.

I've been privileged to witness many true masters on their instruments, when you're sitting right in front or next to a Jerry Byrd or Buddy Emmons, there is really an unmistakable mastery visible and audible in the way they touch and manipulate their instrument. Really obvious, and magical.

Derek Trucks has demonstrated that mastery from a very young age. Amazing.

Nathan Golub · Post by **Nathan Golub** » 12 Mar 2009 6:22 am

Wow, that was great. Thanks for posting. It'd be nice to find the whole video that came from. Trucks and his gear get discussed pretty regularly on The Gear Page, if anyone's interested in what he's currently using.