Why did you want to play pedal steel guitar?

[Andy Vance]

David,

My father was a musician and was a good lead and steel guitar player but that wasn't what drew me to learn. I have always been drawn to the sound of country music, even through my younger days when I should have been listening to some hair band or new rap star. Hearing a steel guitar brings out an emotion in me that I can't explain. A good lead guitar, fiddle, piano etc excite me but they don't bring out the emotion a steel guitar does. That emotion is what has drawn me to learn to play the PSG. Fwiw, I'm a decent 6-string player and have played since I was young but I never took up the steel as it was seriously complicated to me and I could get a sound out of the 6-string that didn't drive cats to howling in the alley, I couldn't say that about my feeble attempts at steel when I was in my teens. Within the last year I have started playing the Sho-Bud S-10 my father sent to me when he upgraded to his D-10. I am now about to receive a new to me steel that I should get any day now and I can't wait.

I am NOT yet a steel guitar player IMO but I hope to be one some day. If I ever get a fraction of the sounds that some folks on this forum get out of a steel, including yourself, I will be one very happy man.

Cheers to ya!

[Jr. Watts]

I always liked the sound of pedal steel but never gave any thought to trying to play one until 2010. I was disabled due to to many back problems and had to much time on my hands. I found David Hartley's version of Poor Boy Blues on utube and was hooked. I found Mickey Adams on utube also and that hooked me even more. I then found the forun and all the good people here. Thanks to all of you, playing the pedal steel has become one of the important goals in my life. I am not interested in trying to make money playing it, but someday I hope to be good enough to play in church.

[Bob Simons]

After 45 or 50 years as a guitar player, I needed a place to sit down!

[Carl Mesrobian]

I started playing steel because my mother wanted me to play an Accordian.

I have determined that accordian is hazardous to your health

I wanted to play with EVERY band in every town...When you try and sit in, and you say "i play guitar"...you might as well sit down and drink ...LOL...
But if your answer is "I PLAY STEEL"....Well now....."we needs a steel picker" ...And id say....aaaaight!......
That was back when the steel was king....and in my book it always will be...

I was in college in New Mexico, and listened to Poco and NRPS, Jerry Garcia, Buck Owens - just took me 40 years to wake up to it - always felt that "naw, those pedal steel thingies are for people in New Mexico or somewhere like that" After 45 or more years on guitar, started feeling like Mickey! After 1 year I've actually played out about 6 times- better than jazz guitar gigs AND... I love it the more I get into it! And I love to play with every band 'cause I like playing ... period!

[Allen Kentfield]

It's the closest thing to heaven this side of the pearly gates, that's why.

[Dan Keith]

In 1974, I was learning to play guitar, and since Neil Young was my inspiration, not too many bands were interested.
I could sing, but they would never let me solo on the six string.
Then my brother came home with an album from a band called Pure Prairie League.
John David Call was spinning licks that were magic, and I had to follow that sound.
Just found those original tunes on youtube, they still have the magic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuPL6d7L ... 55&index=7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J9pjUlr ... 55&index=6

[Tony Tims]

I fell in love with the distinct sound it made. It seemed to stand out above all other instruments I heard on the radio or records. I knew several musicians growing up, but had never met one who played PSG.

In about 1998, I saw a young man playing PSG at a high school talent show. I became curious listening and watching him play, so then I decided it was something I wanted to pursue. He put me in touch with his teacher, but the initial start up cost of the equipment prohibited me from starting.

Fast forward to October 2010. I was quickly approaching 40 years old and was thinking about things I had and had not accomplished up to that point in my life. Two things I had regretted the most were not pursing my dream of playing the PSG and finishing college.

Not knowing what to buy or even how a PSG functioned, I bought a guitar off of craigslist and started looking for an instructor. I was able to find the gentleman, who remembered me from 12 years earlier, and took my first lesson with him on 11/11/10. I have studied with him for the last 2 years. I also went back to college and graduated with my bachelor's degree in May 2012.

Making the decision to pursue my dream of playing PSG, buying that first guitar, and taking lessons has been some of the most rewarding things I've ever done for myself!

[Jim Curtain]

Divorce, unemployment, and a forced move back to AZ gave me the opportunity to purchase a Carter-Starter, and it took off! Out of bad, good always seems to follow!

[John Wall]

I just loved the sound of the steel guitar. No matter if it was the haunting sound on a slow ballad or if it was a chicken picken fast number; I just loved the sound. I was a 6 string player already and it just seemed like the next step to me.

[Niels Andrews]

I can trace mine directly to Traumatic Brain Injury suffered in an accident.n Really!

[Ray Minich]

1963, Tom Brumley's version of Bud's Bounce on the Buck Owens record of that year.

I played that tune so much the record became transparent.

Then, of course, having to withstand the brain tickling regularly coming from Buddy, Jimmy Day, et-al on country radio.

There was gonna be no satisfaction until I could try to do that too. Even if I sucked at it, I needed to try or die.

[Mike Ester]

I was just wondering, ?

What were your reasons for wanting to learn to play a PSG?

I think you know mine...

David, I reckon you will find my story here:

http://music.mikeester.com/home/my-background

[Fred Glave]

I was born loving music, and when I heard Buddy play "Rainbows all over your Blues" on John Sebastians recording I was 15 years old and it knocked me out. I played 6 string all my life, but the idea of steel guitar just intimidated me with both the perceived complexity and cost. I stopped playing music in bands for about 20 years when I got a hunch to check out pedal steels on Ebay. I bought one about 9 years ago. Now I'm playing music more than I think I ever did before in life.

[Dale Rottacker]

It was the only instrument that gave me goosebumbs every time I heard it on the radio...and then one day I was in the car with my Dad and Cal Smith came on the radio with "The Lord Knows I'm Drinking", or "Hello Mrs. Johnson" if you prefer, with John Hughey on Steel...that was the one that tipped the scales from guitar to steel...I told Dad, that's what I want to play...so one day he surprised me with a Fender 400, and a book with a bazillion tunings and all those cables???...it never sounded right though, maybe tuning it to a 'guitar' tuning wasn't such a good idea...I was clueless and knew of no one who even had an idea of what this thing was or how to play it...I ended up getting a Maverick, a real wood one, and then a Pro 111 or two before the Mullen I now have from Mickey...

[Roual Ranes]

The girls, money and FAME.

[Niels Andrews]

0 for 3 ? Not Good!

[Tab Tabscott]

As a child after being abandoned by my family at a roadside park in Texas, the next motorhome that came along took me and drove to Austin, where they locked me in a basement closet, chained by the neck to a water heater for months at a time.

The only furniture was an empty 5 gallon drywall mud bucket and a steel guitar. Out of boredom I spent months trying to get a good drum sound on that drywall bucket. I finally switched to the steel, sitting on the overturned drywall bucket.

After two years locked in the closet, subsisting on cold macaroni and cheese, wearing nothing but rags and a smile, the family released me from my prison and I began playing in the family band...

Here, 40 years later I still subsist on cold macaroni and cheese, I wear nothing but rags, and I still play that same steel guitar. Sure, that family is now in prison for child abuse, but I don't fault them for that. The gift of music to a child far outstrips their heinous crime.

[Larry Lenhart]

I was teaching guitar at a local studio, for the same man who had been my guitar teacher. He was a great steel player and that was his first instrument really. So I was aware of the steel and pedal steel...this was 1965. But one day he had a young man in his studio and was teaching him "steeling the blues" that knocked me out..I loved that song and that sound...I bought that very same 4 neck fender string master and was really hooked over the pedal steel shortly after that...and hooked I have been ever since !

[Butch Mullen]

Tab, I'm not sure I believe that.

[steve takacs]

A number of factors played a part. As Dana said:

"Hearing "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" with Jay Dee and Lloyd, Jerry and especially Buddy Cage of NRPS,I loved the Burritos with their many different steelers, Sneaky Pete, Al Perkins, Loved Gram Parsons with Neil Flanz & The Fallen Angels Band, Rust Young of Poco ......
Buck Owens with Tom Brumley and Jay Dee Maness, and also the Big "E" on "Someday Soon" by Judy Collins."

Jerry Garcia's playing on "Teach Your Children" also drew me to the instrument.

I was mesmerized how, within a chord, some of the tones would be slithering around while others stayed put. It was magic, pure and simple which no other one instrument could duplicate.

Final factor was when I moved to Norway in 1976 and befriended a Norwegian dairy farmer, Kjell Gudmestad, from Narebo. He had purchased an Emmons D-10 from the Sho-Bud shop on Denmark Street in London. Kjell generously gave of his time to get me started on this instrument. stevet

[Mike Neer]

I grew up not knowing what a pedal steel guitar was, but I knew the sound.

Around 2000 or so, I decided I wanted to give pedal steel a try. My biggest inspiration for wanting to play was hearing Susan Alcorn and also David Phillips, whom I'd been listening to on one of my favorite recordings, Tom Waits' Bone Machine, and Eric Heywood with Richard Buckner.

I failed at playing E9 pedal steel and decided to stick with non-pedal. Maybe someday I will pick up a C6 neck only and try again--I have no need for E9.

[Mike Neer]

As a child after being abandoned by my family at a roadside park in Texas, the next motorhome that came along took me and drove to Austin, where they locked me in a basement closet, chained by the neck to a water heater for months at a time.

The only furniture was an empty 5 gallon drywall mud bucket and a steel guitar. Out of boredom I spent months trying to get a good drum sound on that drywall bucket. I finally switched to the steel, sitting on the overturned drywall bucket.

After two years locked in the closet, subsisting on cold macaroni and cheese, wearing nothing but rags and a smile, the family released me from my prison and I began playing in the family band...

Here, 40 years later I still subsist on cold macaroni and cheese, I wear nothing but rags, and I still play that same steel guitar. Sure, that family is now in prison for child abuse, but I don't fault them for that. The gift of music to a child far outstrips their heinous crime.

Tab, I love a happy ending.

[Delvin Morgan]

My parents listened to WSM on an old battery powered RCA Victor radio, when it came in. My older brother had a cardboard Gene Autry guitar, I would take a butter knife across the strings and make "that sound", that was 1955, I finally got a real steel guitar in 2005. Always loved steel guitar music.

[Josh Yenne]

I became obsessed with the sound.... and I knew it was a good business move.. and for me it WAS.

[Tab Tabscott]

I was lucky enough to grow up near Scotty's in St. Louis. I went in there nearly every day, messing with the steels and dobros. I took paper route money and bought a several cheap homemade steels for a few years.
Then one day, for graduating high school, my mother had secretly ordered me a black D-10 Push Pull. I'll never forget the day I walked in Scotty's and Pat Heller motioned me to the back room. He said "Is this the kind of steel guitar you want?".
I said yep, just like that...he said "Well pack it up and get it the hell out of here. This one is yours!".

Two years later I was in a band that was opening for John Hartford at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel. Scotty was sitting at a front row table. I distinctly remember him shouting "Raising the Dickens?" when I launched into said tune...