Did Jerry Byrd play PSG too ??

[Bill Ford]

Mark, Point well taken, The subject being JB, I assumed (there's that word again) everyone would know it was about Byrd.

BF

[Mark Eaton]

Mark, Point well taken, The subject being JB, I assumed (there's that word again) everyone would know it was about Byrd.

BF

Bill, I hear you and understand you - but we all know the definition of assume.

I have posted similar comments in other threads and I should probably start a topic in Forum Feedback about it because I have noticed over the years when I have posted a link without giving some background another 10 or 12 posts will be entered and no one makes a comment even though the link I provided was germane to the thread. So they are continuing to scroll down on the page and pass it by. And even if it's a good bet that in this case it was a link including Jerry Byrd - there's just too much stuff vying for people's attention anymore. You're reading the forum and a text appears on your phone or you hear the little "ding" and a email comes in.

Just a sign of the times. Consider it a "public service" announcement.

[Frank Freniere]

... if you don't give folks a little background regarding the link you're sharing, in this age of information overload you will probably get about 10% of the readers of a thread to actually take the time to click on it.

+1

[Jay Yuskaitis]

Nice interesting topic. I believe the only pedal Jerry Byrd ever used was a volume pedal. This guy was to me, an impossibility to duplicate his touch or tone. There are and have been many straight Steel players that may be on the same plateau with their own "touch and tone". As you may have figured, I've tried a bit for some of this. I will never be one of them. Thanks for reading.
Jay Y.

[Jacques Gabelout]

I doubt Jerry ever played a pedal guitar in any professional context. I would guess that he sat behind one informally once or twice out of curiosity. What he did was so perfect that pedals would have been superfluous.

Jerry Byrd, the great master ...
Since the sixties, Nickie has been and remains a very great admirer of her feeling!

jacques Gabelout

[David Mason]

This MIGHT classify as repeat-o-matic, necroposting “After YOU, my DEAR” but as long as we're talking deceit & treachery, Billy Robinson can play a lot of the pedal noises I suspect Admiral Byrd was referring to and here, Mr. R explains how:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSGkL_c5nT4
The reason I say he EXPLAINS how instead of “Shows YOU how to do it” is because knowing HOW is not being ABLE.
A) Bar Slants;
B) A back-graded D on top of a C6th;
C) behind the string pulls.
The first 20 seconds or so here shows the snaky slants well on this Toober too. Just WATCH the video 100 times; you still won't be DOING it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2nXkL8V9P8

[Tracy Sheehan]

I may have told this before. Many years ago when I was working in Springfield, Mo. I used to eat at a café on the town square that had a jukebox. Some one played a record which I have long forgot what it was. The singer had a steel player and I had never heard any thing like it. All I could tell was it was a non pedal steel and on the steel ride he started in the high range and went almost down to the nut with a bar slant.It literally almost took my breath away. My first thought was how did he do that and stay so in tune on all the strings? I can't recall how I found out who the steel player was as that was long before computers. Of course it Was JB. I tried and tried to find the record with out success. Tracy

[John Billings]

I was hiding from my family in Waikiki, and went to the Beachcomber lounge. Jerry was playing, and we spent every break talking. I had just gotten my '73 ShoBud a week before, and knew nothing, as I'd just quit a Zappa band. What an education those talks were! My old addled brain is probably mistaken, but I seem to remember some pedals. But I was listening, not looking. He explained his tuning to me, and it fried my grey matter!

[Jacques Gabelout]

Great tribute to our Swiss friend Georges Chatagny who introduced us to the great Jerry Byrd.
Nickie recorded some songs of his albums on our
tape and adapted them to his Multiharp ..."

MessageSujet: Re: Bienvenue a Nickie & Jacques Mer 1 Avr - 9:15
je transmet un courrier reçu de la part de Georges Chatigny
comme il n'a pas internet, pour ceux qui veulent renter en contact avec lui, je vous demande de passer par Jacques & Nickie
merci :
"Jacques et Annick GABELOUT, qui sont de bons amis, m'ont fait connaître votre désir ainsi que celui de JL. THIRY de m'atteindre. Cependant, je n'ai pas de "NET" et ne peux entrer en contact avec vous que par courrier postal.

J'ai donc 81 ans et je suis retraité "facteur postal". Musicalement, j'ai exécuté mon dernier concert-bal le 31 décembre - 1er janvier 1998. J'y jouais donc de la guitare basse électrique et de la guitare hawaiienne et un peu de chant. Les principaux évènements de ma vie artistique ont été mes trois voyages à Hawaii, soit:
- une semaine en mai 1982,
- le mois de mai 1989 qui fût aussi avec le club américain dont je faisais partie, la fête du 100ème anniversaire de l'invention de la guitare hawaiienne.
- le voyage de mai 1993, toujours intégré au club américain.
Au cours de toutes ces rencontres, j'ai eu l'immense privilège de rencontrer tous les grands guitaristes du monde.
Je serais heureux de pouvoir apporter toutes les informations que vous pourriez désirer, dans la mesure de mes moyens ou même faire un petit article comme complément à votre journal "Steel Guitar France", ceci s'il y avait la demande.
A tous, Aloha Nui hoa de Suisse
Georges Chatagny
http://steelguitarfrance.com

Notre très cher ami est décédé il y a quelques années, après avoir été médaillé Hall of Fame à Chanos en France.
Nickie et Jacques

[Chris Templeton]

Jerry's term for pedal steel players was "pedal pushers".
I believe I have the story right: When pedals were the rage in Nashville, he couldn't find work and took work at a drugstore.
He decided to move to Hawaii and play and teach Hawaiian music.
Jerry never played pedals, and anything you hear are bar twists.
Billy Robinson is superb. I love his aggressive style.
When I worked for Bobby Seymore, Billy would come around, but he had, and maybe still does have, a graphics business and never played. Maybe he's shy.

[Fred Jack]

In saw J.B. on you tube today, playing on the Bobby Lord TV show playing a Fender w/pedals backing Connie Smith. Harold Bradley, Joe Zinc..., bass, and others. Jerry played a nice "pedal" turn around and intro on Once A Day.

[Doug Beaumier]

Fred, that’s not a pedal steel Jerry is playing in that video. It’s a Fender single-8 non pedal steel, custom made by Fender for Jerry. It does look a little like a pedal steel on top but there are no pedals on it. It appears on the cover of his “Satin Strings of Steel”album.

[Bill Ford]

Check this out. JB didn't need pedals for a sound never completely duplicated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i779xHC4MMI

[Fred Jack]

I concede! I only listened last nite. This morning I watched. It surely sounds like pedals but I see it is not.

[Rick Jackson]

Bud Isaacs told me after "Slowly" came out, JB would't talk to him for a year or so due to the loss of work it caused him....

[Doug Beaumier]

Forum member Ray Montee posted this on the forum back in 2006:

Jerry told me shortly prior to his passing that in his opinion,

(1) Far too many steel guitar players, using pedals, sound exactly alike;

(2) In all too many cases, the pedals were playing the player and not otherwise;

(3)Too many steel players were relying on the pedals to make noise rather than using the pedals as a tool to make what they were playing more dynamic;

(4)Too many steel players were relying on gimmicks to make their sounds, as opposed to spending the hours required to develop their own touch and expression.