How Did You Get Your Very First Steel?

John De Maille · Post by **John De Maille** » 13 Jun 2003 12:51 pm

It was 1975, and I bought my S-10 Maverick with 3p-1kl, from an add in the newspaper classified. I knew nothing about it, but, after playing 6 string guitar for 12yrs, I figured I had a leg up. I didn't realize I was standing in quicksand. The whole steel thing has engulfed my life, so far. And, Ilove it. Two years later, I bought a brand new S-11 Rusler with 5p-4kl. Have played it up till now. I just received my new S-12 ZumSteel with 7p-5kl. I don't know where this love affair will go, I'm just enjoying the ride.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 13 Jun 2003 1:21 pm

1978, bought a S-10 P/P 6 and 1, had no idea of how to tune it or what the pedals did. I also noticed how everything underneith was loose, so I tightened it all up....it never worked the same after that...

Jackie Anderson · Post by **Jackie Anderson** » 13 Jun 2003 1:23 pm

I built it. I couldn't afford the Sho-Buds or Fenders that I was drooling over in the music store in the early 1970s, but I had the run of a machine shop and a woodworking shop, and a handful of parts from a derelict pawnshop Stringmaster (which now would probably be worth more than my PSG, if I removed them and sold them on eBay). I came up with something like a Marlen changer design, sete it up like the top 8 strings of BE's E9 and hey! it worked! Many years later, I finally acquired some of those very Fender and Sho-Bud models, but I still love my little homemade S-8 3+4.

Reggie Duncan · Post by **Reggie Duncan** » 13 Jun 2003 1:53 pm

I was playing with the "Gloryland Quartet" at the age of 15. I borrowed Dad's ShoBud Pro 1, until he needed it, too! My group bought me an Emmons economy S10, 3/1. Same guitar I tried out with the Hinsons on! Wish I still had it!

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 13 Jun 2003 6:59 pm

My interest in country music got started a decade or so ago, and I came to see the pedal steel guitar as a wonderful and very expressive instrument. My interest in actually learning to play one came after I wrote and tracked (MIDI) a country ballad which was just crying for pedal steel. I tried using a synthesizer to imitate the steel, but it just didn't have the soul. So after visiting a local music store and meeting Dave Ristrim there and getting advice from him and later from the Forum (which Dave introduced me to), I set out to buy one of these marvelous contraptions. In July, 1999, I got my first real chance to play a pedal steel at the home of Dave Frye. He volunteered to loan me a 1970s model ShoBud D10 for a couple months (generous!), which helped to cement my addiction to the guitar and helped me to learn a little about what it means to play one of these amazing instruments. I continued my online and offline conversations with a number of very helpful steel players, including Al Marcus. One day Al sent me an email that an MSA U12 was available on eBay, and I decided to buy it (Aug 1999). The guitar has 7 pedals, four knee levers, one wrist lever, and humbucking SuperSustain pickup. The guitar has had just two prior owners, the first being Tom Bradshaw (it was his personal guitar for a number of years). Tom had restored the guitar for the second owner in 1993.

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<font size=-1>Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?</font>

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 13 Jun 2003 7:41 pm

1975- Kalamazoo, MI, I went crazy when I heard E's version of "Wichita Lineman" on the Suite Steel LP. A friend told me of a guy just down the street from me who had a Maverick for sale. I got the guitar, went to a music store and found Winnie's book and met a drummer who was putting together a Country band which I promptly joined on condition I would learn to play! Turned out the fellow I bought the steel from was also in the band (Last Call) and I stole what I could from him and started shedding. For all the disparagement those little mavericks receive, it sure served me well for a year or so. I don't miss it though... That guy from down the street was Tom Stolaski who lurks here on the forum and I'm proud to say we're friends to this day. I'd never be able to thank the steel world for all the adventures and fine folks I've met.

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C'mon by and visit!- www.markvanallen.com
My Bands: Sugarland Kate and the Retreads Kecia Garland Band Shane Bridges Band Dell Conner Blues Band

Wayne Cox · Post by **Wayne Cox** » 13 Jun 2003 10:16 pm

This is a true story. Around 1964 I saw a guy playing one on TV. Remember,the camera men never showed anything but the steel players hands,back in those days. I said to myself,"That has to be an easy instrument to play,think I'll get one!". We lived in the country,so I got out the old Sears&Roebuck catalog. Sure enough,there was a full-page add that said,"Play the sounds of the Islands." I was still a kid,so I worked,hauling hay,all summer long to save up enough money to buy one. No one told me it required an amplifier. That first steel was a six-string "Silvertone." I have sold it twice but it keeps coming back to me. I guess you could say,"I Steel own it!"
~~W.C.~~

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 14 Jun 2003 9:06 am

Layaway in a San Francisco pawn shop. I was pretty poor at the time, and it took me about a month to come up with the $45 for a red Rickenbacker Electro lap steel, $5 or $10 at a time. I think it was 1972.

I played my first steel gig with that guitar, too. I remember being featured on "Sleepwalk".

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<font size="1"><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax</font>

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 14 Jun 2003 10:36 am

My Maternal Grandmother gave me this gem in 1957. Used to play along with the Arthur Godfrey show on our round tube TV

Tom Vollmer · Post by **Tom Vollmer** » 14 Jun 2003 8:12 pm

Pat,I was confined at home for a month because of an operation.Outof boredom I learned some chords on an old guitar that was in our attic.My dad was an exellent accordian player and I started to practice with him.He played many ethnic songs,Ger,Ital,Pole,Slov,etc. and would make me play every chord.Today Ican interpert most of what I listen to because of this traning.One day my dad came home from work and said a friend had a hawiian guitar that his daughter had stopped taking lessons on.He said he would buy it and the amp and I could pay him back a couple of dollars a month. The price for the guitar and amp was $80.It was a Gibson EH 150,6 string lap steel.Itled to a MultiChord which Big John Bechtel still kids me about,then a Fender 1000,then an Emmons pp,then anotherEmmons pp,then another Emmons pp,and I,ve lost track.There are many interesting stories of how players get started.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 15 Jun 2003 1:59 pm

I loved the sound of a steel guitar when I was a kid and I remember going to a country music show in 1989 and sitting in front of the steel guitar. I was so amazed by the sound. By late 1997 and 1998, I decided I wanted to play steel, so I went to hear a steel guitarist play at a theme park. He told me to rent a steel, because I didn't know if I could handle one because of cerebral palsy. I experimented with a Sierra S-10, using picks and pedals and then I found Steel Guitar Nashville and got my Emmons there. Brett Day, Emmons S-10, Morrell lapsteel

Ricky Littleton · Post by **Ricky Littleton** » 15 Jun 2003 3:50 pm

1980. Borrowed $200 to buy a blonde maple Maverick from a used instrument store in Huntsville, Alabama. Tried to get lessons for a local teacher there but he refused to take me as a steel student since I had no prior guitar training. I called him a "#$%&*$(" on the phone and learned it myself!

Ricky

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Emmons LeGrande - 8x4
Session 400 Ltd
Dan-Echo, E-Bow, Ibanez Distortion, Boss Comp./Sustain, Ibanez Auto-Wah

Bruce Derr · Post by **Bruce Derr** » 16 Jun 2003 9:25 am

I bought my first steel as a teenager in 1973, a blonde Sho~Bud S10 6140, from Manny's on 48th street in NYC. My foot was a little sore - I couldn't park close by, so I had walked for blocks with $650 in my shoe because I was afraid I'd get mugged. The walk back was a lot worse, though... That thing was h e a v y for someone used to carrying only a Telecaster.

Right afterward, I saw a real live steel player for the first time...Curly Chalker! It was at one of the first PSGA get-togethers. I was astonished by his playing!

Curly recommended E9th as the best beginner tuning (this from the C6th king!). At that time I had very little info about steel tunings and had been spinning my wheels on my own crazy ideas. Curly's advice got me on track. I spent a lot of time mucking around with the undercarriage of that Bud in the first few weeks I owned it.

Terry Edwards · Post by **Terry Edwards** » 16 Jun 2003 11:24 am

My wife surprised me with a Sho-Bud Maverick for my birthday a few years ago because it was such an interesting, beautiful, antique looking instrument. She really didn't know what it sounded like or that I might become obsessive and compulsive and spend our grocery and retirement money supporting my new found habit.

I wonder, if she had it to do over again...

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Terry Edwards
Fessy D-10; Nash 1000
Martin D-21; Flatiron F-5

Buck Dilly · Post by **Buck Dilly** » 17 Jun 2003 3:39 pm

Jay Ganz mentioned an old S-8 Push Pull. He sold it to me in 1970something. It was my first.

Daniel Vorp · Post by **Daniel Vorp** » 18 Jun 2003 7:42 am

I clearly remember getting my first pedal steel. At the time I was a guitar player who knew nothing about playing pedal steel. I had been saving the money made playing in a local country band in order to buy a PSG and learn how to play. I had $800.00 burning a hole in my pocket when I saw a beautiful 1965 GTO for sale. This 18 year old had to make a decision. I drove 10 hours to the Emmons factory in Burlington North Carolina, met Ron Lashley senior for the first time, bought a used Sho-Bud off the floor, and drove back, all in a 24 hour period. Since then playing the PSG has provided me with a great deal of "musical therapy", a deep sense of accomplishment and personal satisfaction, not to mention money. No doubt one of the best decisions I ever made.

Michael Frede · Post by **Michael Frede** » 18 Jun 2003 9:47 am

Rickenbacker student model 6 lap,
Carter Starter "scratch & dent".
Still have the Rick,Carter sold to a perspiring soul to learn,and aquired S-10 and D-10 Sierras.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 18 Jun 2003 10:49 am

i used to hang around a house in san jose in '68, '69. peter grant lived there, pat simmons (pre-doobie brothers) lived there. next door 'moondog' comix artist george metzger was found inking in his art. peter played steel (as well as banjo, guitar, harp and everything else) and had one of jerry garcia's old steels (they were friends...peter even played on one of the first dead albums). he sold me a no name single ten steel with four pedals..i put a knee lever or two on it. he gave me a brief outline of what the pedals do and that's what has shaped my playing and set-up to this day.i bought it for $75 and probably would never have been able to get into it otherwise. i thank him to this day, 'cause even though i'm broke, chicks dig me!

Tom Stolaski · Post by **Tom Stolaski** » 19 Jun 2003 1:51 pm

1974 - Nashville Tn. While visiting Nashville with my parents to see the Grand Ol Opry, we stayed at a campgound nearby. I had been hounding my Dad to help me get a Maverick down at Sho-Bud. Lonnie Jones was playing at the campground and would let people get up and sit in. I told my parents that I was thinking about playing my banjo and singing with Lonnie Jones that night. My Dad thought I was joking, so he said if I got up there and did not make a fool of myself, he would help me buy that Maverick. I got up there and played and sang my ass off. Soon I met Mark Van Allen and the rest is history.....

Chris Scruggs · Post by **Chris Scruggs** » 20 Jun 2003 10:58 am

I was playing guitar in a honky tonk band on lower broadway. There where two lead players, but no fiddle or steel.

The singer asked if I wanted to play steel in the band. He then said he had an National double eight.

All the clay tuning buttons on the outside neck had crumbled off, but the inside neck was OK.

He took me to his house and just gave it to me. I took it home and practiced all night to a Carl Smith record. I had learned how to tune it to C6 from an old guy I knew from Lower Broadway. The next day I went and played a four hour gig.

I gave it back to him when I got my first Fender Dual 8. I bought the Fender at Tootsies from a guy playing a 2 to 6 gig.

Chris Scruggs · Post by **Chris Scruggs** » 20 Jun 2003 11:13 am

I was playing guitar in a honky tonk band on lower broadway. There where two lead players, but no fiddle or steel.

The singer asked if I wanted to play steel in the band. He then said he had an National double eight.

All the clay tuning buttons on the outside neck had crumbled off, but the inside neck was OK.

He took me to his house and just gave it to me. I took it home and practiced all night to a Carl Smith record. I had learned how to tune it to C6 from an old guy I knew from Lower Broadway. The next day I went and played a four hour gig.

I gave it back to him when I got my first Fender Dual 8. I bought the Fender at Tootsies from a guy playing a 2 to 6 gig.

Chris Scruggs · Post by **Chris Scruggs** » 20 Jun 2003 11:15 am

I was playing guitar in a honky tonk band on lower broadway. There where two lead players, but no fiddle or steel.

The singer asked if I wanted to play steel in the band. He then said he had an National double eight.

All the clay tuning buttons on the outside neck had crumbled off, but the inside neck was OK.

He took me to his house and just gave it to me. I took it home and practiced all night to a Carl Smith record. I had learned how to tune it to C6 from an old guy I knew from Lower Broadway. The next day I went and played a four hour gig.

I gave it back to him when I got my first Fender Dual 8. I bought the Fender at Tootsies from a guy playing a 2 to 6 gig.

John Borchard · Post by **John Borchard** » 20 Jun 2003 1:15 pm

In the late '60s I was playing guitar and using an old DeArmand volume pedal for steel-like swells when a friend at the local music store called to say he had something I might be interested in. When I got there, he had an old Fender 1000 in pieces in a box. Someone had painted it black with a BRUSH (it was originally blonde) and then SPRAY painted Day-Glo orange diagonal stripes on it (including the fretboard)! I think I paid $75 for the whole mess, refinished it, put it back together, and even added two knee levers to it eventually. It was a long, laborious process but well worth it in the end, as I learned how it worked from the ground up. As for playing -- it was about a year before I could play it out without making audiences deathly ill.

As a post script, I saw this very same guitar at the Columbus, OH Guitar Show in January of this year! The back neck was stripped of pickup and tuners and it was in pretty bad shape, but the bags with extra cables in the case still had my handwriting on them from 1969! Spooky....

John Borchard

Mike Lewis · Post by **Mike Lewis** » 20 Jun 2003 3:44 pm

In 1985 I was playing guitar in a Country band in Charlottesville, Virginia. After spending a lot of time trying to play steel licks on my Tele, the band leader suggested I go visit Billy Cooper and get me a steel. When I went to see Billy, he sat me down at an Emmons S-10 Push-Pull and showed me how to play a 1-4-5 progression without moving the bar... and that was it! I walked out that day with that little S-10.

Great thread! Thanks,

Mike

Vernon Hester · Post by **Vernon Hester** » 20 Jun 2003 4:57 pm

Made my first one, was to poor to buy one. The sucker looked like a boat paddle,painted black with ivory painted frets. Melted auto pistons for the pickup case, hand wound the pickup.Then made a nice D -6 out of curly maple, played that one until I bought my D-8 Rickenbacker at $10 a month .Then to Sho-Buds,MSA.
Vern