I should have played the fiddle

[Bart Maloney]

I'm another that wishes I could play that fiddle thang!

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"Keep on Keepin' on"
www.bartmaloney.iwarp.com
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bart Maloney on 03 November 2004 at 01:35 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Tommy Allison]

Jeff, I know what you mean. Every time I haul that D-10 steel, 200 watt amp, 4 space rack case, and pack-a-seat with side car into an establishment, set up and tune up, if I have time, I swear that if reincarnation really exists I'm coming back as a mandolin player in a blue grass band. I say mandolin because I'll be danged if I can understand how anybody cab play a fiddle in the first place. No picks, no frets, not even lines to help guess where the notes are. then about halfway thruogh the first slow song it all comes back to me. Nothing on this planet sounds like a pedal steel guitar.

[Henry Matthews]

(The audience loves a fiddle-player)

I've never been able to understand why I can sit at a steel guitar playing complicated tunes and notes for hours and nobody notices and then get up and play Faded Love on the fiddle and half the crowd comes up and says, boy, you can shownuf play that fiddle, lets hear some mo".

[Roger Edgington]

I guess our fiddle player,Richard Helsely, is doing it all wrong. He has 5 strings to tune,carries a Peavy 1000 in a travel case,and has to retune every time the temp or humidity changes. Actually, Richard is very talented and takes his playing serious. He also reads and simetimes hires out to play violin with Price. Richard says "I don't think he even knows I play fiddle". Richards' wife Karen also plays violin and played twin fiddle with us before having a kid. Most bands here have steel and fiddle.

[Smiley Roberts]

Like Paddy,I should have played the harmonica. I,once,asked a 'monica player how much he had tied up in his instrument. Well,he opened his briefcase,(the ONLY piece of "equipment" that he was carrying)& proudly stated,"Oh,maybe $450 to $500 worth. That doesn't include the "green bullet" mike ($50+/-) that I use either." I thought,"HMMM",and I thought,"HMMM" again.

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[Henry Matthews]

I found this in the archives and tought it was really funny and true and thought it was worth reposting. Hope you don't mind Jeff

I play with a fiddler in my Irish band and often draw comparisons between the pedal steel and a fiddle. I'm in a bad mood today so please consider that as you read this post. Regards .. Jeff

A fiddle has 4 notes to tune, a pedal steel has anywhere from 10 to 24 strings, plus all the pedals and knee levers, meaning there are anywhere from 20 to 60 notes that have to be in tune.

A fiddle is plugged in and you're ready to go. A pedal steel has to be set up, and broken down.

A fiddler can be set up anywhere and played anywhere. A pedal steel player needs 10 square feet of space, which most of the time is twice the amount made available by the other band members.

A fiddle weighs 5 pounds, a pedal steel around 50, give or take. The fiddle is an acoustic instrument and can be plugged right into the PA with a crappy amp as a stage monitor. A pedal steel player needs "specially voiced" amplifiers than weigh 40-60 pounds.

Little can go wrong with a fiddle. You need to have the skills of a car mechanic to work on a pedal steel.

Fiddle players never worry about strings. Pedal steel players often break strings in the middle of a song.

Fiddlers jump around and have a blast. Pedal steel players sit stationary and even if they have fun, it's awful hard to tell.

The audience loves a fiddle-player and go crazy listening to Orange Blossom Special. The majority of an audience doesn't know what a pedal steel guitar is, and dozes off during Steel Guitar Rag.

Of course, the fiddler picks up chicks in-between sets. Of course, the pedal steel-player tunes up between sets.

During the 15 minute set-up period for a showcase, a fiddler plugs in and tunes up in 45 second, then relaxes, warms up, jokes with the sound guy, has a big grin on his face, etc. During the same 15 minutes, the pedal steel player has to find a space to play in, set up, tune up all those notes, make sure the lights aren't killing him, make sure the bass amp with the 4 15" speakers isn't 2 inches from his head, usually has a frown on his face, and has 5 strings left to tune as the count starts for the first song.

A fiddler has no problem with an outdoor gig. A pedal steel player has to make sure the ground is level, that there is cover in the case of rain, that his pak-a-seat isn't sinking in the mud, etc. etc.

A fiddle is called a violin at times. A pedal steel guitar is called a steel guitar at times ... as well as a Hawaiian guitar, a slide guitar, a steel pedal guitar, a pedal guitar, an organ, a piano, "that thing", etc. etc.

Bleh.
<FONT><p>[This message was edited by Jeff Lampert on 28 October 2004 at 12:47 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Henry Matthews]

I think I did that wrong but got reposted or bumped anyway

[Fred Martin]

Well you cant have it all! Steel players get to set on a big cushy seat all night, have a nice place to set their drink. Get a lot of room on the bandstand "cause they need it". Don't have to ever look up which keeps the girls away and keeps you out of trouble. And even if your not supposed to you can choke a bad note with the volume pedal. And all that exercise setting up is good for you !

[Daniel Policarpo]

I'm not good enough o play out yet, but I'll be glad when I can sit on my duff all night and make all that beautiful noise.

[Dave Simonis]

I have been asking myself after gigs lately why I started playing steel out again...all the reasons you mentioned. On occasion someone asks to hear the Steel Guitar Rag...but there hasn't been a night in almost nearly 30 years where I didn't have to play OBS or The Devil Went Down to Georgia. At least people don't ask for Mountain Music like they once did.

Fiddle playing has its requirements...

[George Duncan Sypert]

What I really love in addition to all the things that Jeff brought up is that when you are trying to fine tune all of those strings and pulls the lead player, front man, bass player, drummer are all doing their riffs, chords, low end notes and drummer piddling so you never really get the chance to hear if you are as close to in tune as you are ever going to get. All of which are in a different key, rhythm pattern, etc.

[John De Maille]

What I really love in addition to all the things that Jeff brought up is that when you are trying to fine tune all of those strings and pulls the lead player, front man, bass player, drummer are all doing their riffs, chords, low end notes and drummer piddling so you never really get the chance to hear if you are as close to in tune as you are ever going to get. All of which are in a different key, rhythm pattern, etc.

Been there, done that. I really hate it when that happens. Even though I tune with a tuner, I like to hear my steel before I start playing. With the cacophony of sounds going on, it's pretty damn hard and annoying when that happens. It just happened to me at a recent gig. While I was trying to sweeten my steel up, the (get this) fiddle player was walking all over the stage playing tunes and tying to impress, only God knows who. I'm a new sit in, so, I don't want to make a fuss, but, give me a break Jack Benny!

[Gene Jones]

Having played a mandolin before I ever heard of a steel-guitar, I thought that the transition to a fiddle would be easy. How wrong I was! The right hand on a bow is not even close to the right hand on a mandolin.

However, Johnny Gimble and his peers demonstrated how fiddle players doubling on 4-string mandolins could play harmony riffs that would be endlessly copied by western swing musicians.

[Fred Glave]

Cheer up. Very few people in the audience even know where the music is coming from. Of course being able to dance around on stage while playing your instrument will always appeal to the drinking public.