Don Helm's Fender Steel

Chris Cummings · Post by **Chris Cummings** » 17 Jun 2016 10:02 am

Don often told the story about exchanging his Fender D 8 ( Dual Pro ? for a Gibson Console Grande D8 during a Hank gig when a fan offered the trade . Prior to the trade Don's Fender was his main steel even recording at least one Hank session with that guitar. I wonder who has that Fender now ? Also I've never seen a picture of Don playing the Fender has anyone ?

Chris Scruggs · Post by **Chris Scruggs** » 17 Jun 2016 2:17 pm

Chris Scruggs · Post by **Chris Scruggs** » 17 Jun 2016 2:18 pm

Don used it on his first two Hank Williams sessions and two Ernest Tubb sessions in 1950. It was an early Dual Professional with no legs, "boxcar" pickups and Roman numeral fretboards.

Butch Mullen · Post by **Butch Mullen** » 17 Jun 2016 2:42 pm

What is the guy on the right playing???

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 17 Jun 2016 3:05 pm

A jug. Probably doing the bass part.

Chris Cummings · Post by **Chris Cummings** » 17 Jun 2016 3:23 pm

Thanks for the info and the pic Chris ! There's a massive difference between an early Dual Pro and a Console Grande- scale, string spacing , pickups etc. but whichever steel he was using it always sounded like Don

K Maul · Post by **K Maul** » 18 Jun 2016 7:54 am

Does anyone know the specific tunes he played the Fender on? General consensus is that Fenders and Gibsons are vastly different. I have listened and cannot detect a huge difference in his tone in the tunes he recorded. That could be because I don't have the dog ears that lots of people seem to have. Or could it be...something else?

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 18 Jun 2016 8:49 am

K Maul wrote:Does anyone know the specific tunes he played the Fender on? General consensus is that Fenders and Gibsons are vastly different. I have listened and cannot detect a huge difference in his tone in the tunes he recorded. That could be because I don't have the dog ears that lots of people seem to have. Or could it be...something else?

As far as I can tell, Don first recorded with Hank in October of 1949, but those were radio shows.

The standard MGM studio recordings with Don began in January 1950 and yielded:

Long gone lonesome blues
Why don't you love me
My son calls another man daddy
Too many parties and too many pals
Beyond The Sunset
Everything's OK
Why should we try any more
The funeral

In June 1950, Don was also on "They'll never take her love from me".

I have no idea what guitar he used on any of those songs, but those are the first 2 Helms sessions I know of, excluding radio shows.

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 18 Jun 2016 7:57 pm

The guy on the right in the pic is Cedric Rainwater.

Chris Cummings · Post by **Chris Cummings** » 19 Jun 2016 4:31 pm

Doing a little bit of research Don said that the swop from his Fender to his Gibson Console Grande happened whilst doing a week with Hank in Baltimore . Going through a Hank timeline shows his Baltimore shows were in December 1949 pre dating his first MGM recording sessions by a few weeks . He had prior to the swop recorded some radio shows with Hank . I 'm sure there are lots of Don and Hank fans out there who can offer some insight .

Terry Huval · Post by **Terry Huval** » 19 Jun 2016 6:52 pm

The musician on the right is actually Hillous Butrum who played upright bass with Hank and later on was replaced by Howard Watts (stage name Cedric Rainwater).

Don told me he played that Fender steel on his first recording session with Hank, which included "Why Don't You Love Me". The song became a hit. It was that one song that caught the attention of some guy at a Baltimore show who wanted to swap his Gibson for Don's Fender plus Don would pay him $200. Don said the Gibson was such a beautiful guitar, he took the deal.

I, too, have listened closely to Hank's recordings and I can't tell the difference in tone between Don's steel sound in that song, as compared to the songs Don played using the Gibson. I suspect the scale of the 2 guitars were close to the same and Don used the same gauges of strings. Plus, Don's touch was so consistent.

K Maul · Post by **K Maul** » 19 Jun 2016 7:43 pm

And question will always remain...did that guy in Baltimore sound any better with the Fender. Did he find the sound he was after in that guitar?

Ken Pippus · Post by **Ken Pippus** » 19 Jun 2016 7:49 pm

One would have to guess he didn't sound good enough with the new Fender to get a gig with Hank Williams.

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 20 Jun 2016 12:23 pm

Thanks Terry. The guy on the right is indeed Hillious Buttrum. He played rhythm guitar with Hank Snow for many years. A friend of mine who played with Bill Carlisle used to call him Hillarious Butrum.