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Topic: A humble beginning... |
Clete Ritta
From:
San Antonio, Texas
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Posted 23 May 2010 10:47 pm |
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...or,
How I spent much of 2006 learning pedal steel on my Carter Starter.
Wasnt sure about playing PSG and, well, I was frugal, but it was Christmas 2005, and I already had the amp, pedal and chair. This little rig, along with Bruce Boutons DVD and FM radio was all the inspiration I needed to get thoroughly hooked!
Just goin' thru some photos and this seemed like yesterday. Hey wait, that was 4 years ago!
$500 Used Carter Starter
$ 20 Korg VP
$ 45 Peavey Solo
$ 15 Kitchen chair
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$580 Total
All in all, a very modest investment in what may have already become a lifelong obsession and passion.
Feel free to post pix and stories of your early steelin.
Clete |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 24 May 2010 7:09 am
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It was 1973 when I paid my boss at Arlington Giant Music $279 for the ShoBud Maverick that was sitting in the store. Weldon Myrick had just tuned it up and showed me how to do diatonic scales on strings 3 and 5 and I was on my way. I took it home along with a handful of fingerpicks and a pair of Ernie Ball tone bars, borrowed a folding chair from the hall closet and made a practice amp from an old radio with a little oval car speaker sitting on the floor, minimal baffle and no cabinet at all.
Also from Giant Music I brought home The Byrds' "Sweetheart of the Rodeo," Graham Parsons' "GP," Linda Ronstadt's "Silk Purse" and "Birds," Flying Burrito Brothers "Live," John Sebastian's self-titled solo album and a few other country-ish records. I already had CSNY's "Deja Vu" and "Workingman's Dead," along with a cheap portable stereo phonograph. Set it all up in the bedroom I shared with my brother and went to work
Total cost WELL under $500 but with no VP yet, that would come later. Humble enough for ya?? |
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Larry Bressington
From:
Nebraska
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Posted 24 May 2010 11:14 am
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Weldone clete, thats a great way to start! 
_________________
A.K.A Chappy. |
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Clete Ritta
From:
San Antonio, Texas
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Posted 25 May 2010 9:38 am
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| Dave Grafe wrote: |
| It was 1973...Total cost WELL under $500 but with no VP yet, that would come later. Humble enough for ya?? |
Dave,
Great story, and very inspirational music!
How much is $279 in 1973 worth today anyways? 
So you've been steelin for 37 years!
I was a late starter at 47.
if you don't mind, how old were you then?
I was 10 years old in '73, and played "tennis raquet" guitar to Get Your Ya-Ya's Out, mimicking Keif Riffhard (don't ask). 
Wasn't till around 1976 that I got my first electric guitar. It was a sunburst Carlo Robelli strat (with tremelo). I had a Danelectro Cadet® 5 watt amp.
I wore the grooves out of Jimi Hendrix's Smash Hits (especially "Red House"), till I could play it note for note a few years later.
Clete |
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Bobby Boggs
From:
Upstate SC.
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Posted 25 May 2010 7:16 pm
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How much is $279 in 1973 worth today anyways?
The Inflation Calculator
What cost $279 in 1973 would cost $1332.29 in 2009. |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 26 May 2010 7:30 am
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When you put it that way, Bobby, it looks like a mighty expensive proposition for an entry-level pedal steel with no knee levers! Then again, a used '63 Precision Bass cost me $200 in 1976, a significantly better deal in modern perspective.
I was 19 when I got my first pedal guitar, Clete, although I had been playing non-pedal stuff for some time before that. Now in my mid-fifties I am just beginning to feel like I have a clue or two about how to play this thing, I'm still finding new and "obvious" chords weekly on the E9, never mind all the latent magic of the back neck.... |
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