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Topic: Speedy West's equipment |
W. Van Horn
From:
Houston, texas
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Posted 13 Jun 2009 1:38 pm |
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Hey everyone,
I'm a five-string player and I just got my first steel guitar, a BMI s-10. I love Speedy West's playing style and I'm wondering how he does all of his tone control stuff. Someone told me he used a volume/tone pedal, but I've seen footage of him hitting what looks like a killswitch on the right of his guitar. Anyone know? And on the same note, has anyone played the Fender vol/tone pedals? I don't have a volume pedal yet, and figure if west used one of those I might get one and try to emulate his tricks. Thanks!
-Will |
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Dan Burnham
From:
Greenfield, Tennessee
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Posted 13 Jun 2009 6:50 pm Volume Knob
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Will,
Welcome to the BMI Family. Don Fritche, owner of BMI put a volume knob on the back righthand side of the steel guitar for Speedy. Hope this helps,
Dan (BMI)
_________________
BMI S12 Zane Beck's Tuning
www.danburnham.com
Last edited by Dan Burnham on 15 Jun 2009 4:55 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Jussi Huhtakangas
From:
Helsinki, Finland
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Posted 14 Jun 2009 10:43 pm
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On most of the stuff you hear Speedy doing that doo wah effect, it's the tone control knob on his Bigsby guitar. He did have a Bigsby vol/tone pedal too, which does the same trick. A Fender vol/tone pedal is the same kind of animal, although I've heard that the new ones have had issues with getting that effect right ( not properly valued caps or something? ). Speedy switched to a Fender 1000 pedal steel in the latter part of the 50's so on his solo recordings from that era you'll hear a Fender.
Last edited by Jussi Huhtakangas on 15 Jun 2009 1:25 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 12:57 am
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Same thing on his Fenders. His volume knob was side-mounted to manipulate with his right little finger instead of on top as with the production models.
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"Gopher, Everett?" |
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Terry Wood
From:
Lebanon, MO
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Posted 15 Jun 2009 10:22 am
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Hi Will,
I knew Speedy West and he was a dear friend of mine.
He was raised on a dairy farm and owned it later when first got married early 1940s. It was only 10 miles up the road from where I now live. He left and went to California in about 1946. Later in his last years he lived near Tulsa, OK at Broken Arrow, OK.
Speedy was a Master Showman and Master of the Volume Control pedal. His original recordings were done with knob controls on the steel and using a foot volume pedal.
As Dan Burnham mentioned later he had Don Fritsche and Zane Beck place a tone control knob on the end plate of his pedal BMIs. I had Zane and Don put one on the right endplate of my 14 string BMI to duplicate Speedy's "Doo-Wah" sounds. You roll the tone control of the steel with your right hand finger or fingers after you pick the strings.
Call me sometime and we can talk about Speedy if you like. My number is 417-468-2102.
Terry Wood |
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