How long have you been playing steel guitar?

Joe Smith · Post by **Joe Smith** » 3 Oct 2009 10:33 am

I just realized that I have been playing the steel guitar for 60 years. I started with a lap steel when I was 12 and I am 72.
You would think that I would have learned how to play the darn thing by now.

John Coffman · Post by **John Coffman** » 3 Oct 2009 10:56 am

LOL I started in March 2005 so I got a long way to go. I guess it helps to be stubborn and dedicated.

Robert Thomas · Post by **Robert Thomas** » 3 Oct 2009 11:02 am

Hi Joe,
I took my first lesson from American Institute of Music when I was ten, continued with them for one year and have been playing ever since. I am now approaching 76 very rapidly. Still learning new things every week. It has been the love of my life, until I met my wife 54 years ago.
Keep having fun!

Johnny Thomasson · Post by **Johnny Thomasson** » 3 Oct 2009 11:02 am

5 years. Fiddle for 36. Guitar for 45.

I ain't much count at any of 'em.

richard burton · Post by **richard burton** » 3 Oct 2009 11:21 am

I built my first steel in 1984, so that makes it 25 years

Calvin Walley · Post by **Calvin Walley** » 3 Oct 2009 11:27 am

7 years here

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 3 Oct 2009 11:28 am

Joe, I started on a lap steel that my dad made for me in 1963.

The people I play for think I sound good...

After going to ISGC I tend to disagree with them...

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 3 Oct 2009 3:12 pm

Started taking lessons in 1944. That makes about 65 years of pickin'. Golly, that really makes me an old man. I still love to play and still do a few gigs and steel guitar things. Last year was my last year of full time playing. Did 150 gigs, plus a few steel guitar shows and steel guitar club meetings. Jody.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 3 Oct 2009 3:19 pm

I started playing guitar exactly fifty-two years ago yesterday (Oct 2nd). My brother and sister, although separated by several years in age, shared the same Birthday, and it had become a family tradition to give me a small something as a 'consolation present'. In 1957 I got the best gift I could have wished for - a guitar with real strings on, and tuned up and ready to go!

(No-one told me that they'd slip out-of-tune when new, so that was my first 'lesson'!)

I was earning my living at it only three years later.

I bought my first pedal-steel in either '72 or '73 - a ZB Student with 3+1. Strangely enough, I think I was better - or, maybe, less inhibited - twenty years ago than I am now, but I continue to put in lots of effort.....

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 3 Oct 2009 3:21 pm

You're 72 ! Geeze I didn't think you were older than 35...

I'm here to tell you all that Joe has brought forward all of the knowledge he has gained over the years, one of the finest players I have ever come across. We don't get to visit much but I sure do consider him my buddy..

and we live in the same town !

Well I have been playing since around 73 but took off 10 years thru the 90's, so that makes it 36 years minus 10 for a grand total of 26.. Sometimes I feel like I have repeated the first year 26 times

t

Jonathan Cullifer · Post by **Jonathan Cullifer** » 3 Oct 2009 3:42 pm

12 years. I'll be 22 next month. I still feel like I'm new to this game.

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 3 Oct 2009 3:50 pm

I started at age 7, now 73, so that has to be approximately 66 years, more or less. Still trying to discover something new each day.

Billy Carr · Post by **Billy Carr** » 3 Oct 2009 4:28 pm

Pedal steel since 71' and lap steel started in late 60's with that. Not even close to being finished yet!

Bob Tuttle · Post by **Bob Tuttle** » 3 Oct 2009 5:37 pm

I started taking lessons using the Oahu method in 1950. I got a brand new Fender T-8 Custom and a Magnatone amp for Christmas in 1953. Traded the T-8 for a Fender 400 in 1958. I've been through several pedal steels since then. I'll be 70 next month and I'm still playing almost every weekend.

Les Green · Post by **Les Green** » 3 Oct 2009 6:00 pm

Somewhere around 55 years. Started when a freshman in high school. I think.........

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 3 Oct 2009 6:28 pm

I started playing bass at 14, then dobro at 15 and steel at16. I'm 47 now so, steel would be 31 years. Where has time gone!

Tony

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 3 Oct 2009 6:35 pm

I started taking lessons around this time in 1948, so; that would make it just at 61-years, although I really haven't had much opportunity to play in the past 20-yrs. or so! I guess I haven't looked hard enough for work and now it would be difficult for me to do, even when offered the chance!

Delvin Morgan · Post by **Delvin Morgan** » 3 Oct 2009 6:54 pm

I feel kind of silly saying I have only played the steel for 4 years with so many of you with 50 to 60 years of experiance. But I have loved the sound of the steel all of my life, so I am fullfilling a life dream, and loving every minuet of it. I am retiring soon, then I will lots more time for my dream.

Pat Comeau · Post by **Pat Comeau** » 3 Oct 2009 7:23 pm

Started playing the steel about 19 years ago and played regulary for the first ten years and then hardly touched it for almost 8 years

, started playing almost daily last year when i build my own steel

and i've learned more in the last year then all years before, this forum and it's members is a big part of my come back for good on the steel,and learned so much from members here

, now it's like an addiction or drug i have to play atleast 30 min to an hour everyday

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 3 Oct 2009 7:37 pm

Georg Sørtun wrote:Pedal-less since 78, PSG since 81. Subtracting 4-5 years break until I started up again this summer, means I haven't really played steel all that long.

Wow Georg, you're an old pro compared to me:
I got my first steel in 1972, in Norway. Went to Canada in '73. In 1980 I got hired in my first band playing steel. I worked with this band for 3 1/2 years
After that I freelanced a wee bit. Then I put the steel on the shelf(read: sold) in 1988. Never touched a steel again until I built my first prototype in 2006.
It just goes to show, once steel gets in your blood, it never leaves.

Chuck Thompson · Post by **Chuck Thompson** » 3 Oct 2009 10:57 pm

3 years next month. Im more addicted to pedal steel now than ever. I messed with pedal steel for a short time 35 years ago when I was a kid. I sure wished I would have stuck with it then.

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 3 Oct 2009 11:24 pm

30 years, and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it.

Shane Glover · Post by **Shane Glover** » 4 Oct 2009 12:04 am

1 year. I feel like I have'nt learned to walk yet. But All I want to do is run !!

Ray McCarthy · Post by **Ray McCarthy** » 4 Oct 2009 3:14 am

It was around '94 or '95 (pushin' 50) that I borrowed an old fender student model that came with the Winston book (thank God for that!). I've always been intrigued with the steel guitar, in all of its forms, but having never really played anything but some bar chords on a six-string, this contraption was quite daunting at first, to say the least. There were times when the frustration kept me from going near the steel for months at a time. I'm happy to say now that I've made it over the hump to the point where I feel I can actually play the thing good enough to play with some guys at fund-raisers ETC. Now I play some every day, and learning new stuff is fun, not frustrating

Derby SD-10 (#316), TruTone, NV-112

The Steel Guitar Forum

How long have you been playing steel guitar?

How long have you been playing steel guitar?

Trying to remember yesterday is hard enough.................

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