Steel Guitar Fads

[Lee Baucum]

Diamond horseshoe pinky rings.

Careful now. Careful.

That kind of talk can get you in trouble.

[GaryL]

Skinny cords: About this one, I had a long talk with a well-known head tech man from a major amp manufacturer. His opinion that the "thin chord mania" was BS, period.
Tilting the guitar back: Emmons supposedly played a borrowed guitar that was too tall, so he tilted the guitar back towards him by lowering the back legs. (Must have been one tall steel!) Since Emmons did it, nearly everyone tried it. Seems like I couldn't enter a club where the steel wasn't tilted back.
Too much delay and chorus: Enough said!
Stereo amp systems: Nice for steel jams, but almost totally lost on the average listening audience.

Great thread!
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[Bill C. Buntin]

Ebow as much as I like it done with taste, was kind of a fad maybe
I’ve never used one. But I think they are cool.

Goodrich match bro. I had one and used it but gave it up as I didn’t think it sounded all that great to me.

Neon strip lights under the steel (I’m guilty) I tried it.

Personalized equipment signage. I never did it but saw many with multiple versions.

Other icons, logos, badges or other symbols and the like stuck on front apron. Sometimes is kinda cool. But not for me really. Once I had a friend wanted me to put a Fraternity logo on my guitar. I declined even though I supported them.

I guess those things were fads maybe

Bill

[Thomas Sabatini]

If all these “fads” could be thrown together in a single night of playing, you would have a very interesting gig indeed.

This is how I see it. More sounds are better than fewer, but musicality and taste is what's important.

[Fred Treece]

I said you’d have an interesting gig. Maybe even interesting enough to get your butt thrown out of the band.

I happen to think that for 90% of the time, the only effect a pedal steel needs is a good player sitting at it. But certain types of playing can evolve around an altered tone, and that can turn what may have seemed like a fad into a tradition. The organ effect is a good example.

[Joey Ace]

Nobody mentioned MIDI Steel yet?

[Fred Treece]

For something to qualify as a fad, it has to last for more than 5 minutes.

[Rich Upright]

I agree with the phaser/chorus thing. My favorite singer is Emmylou, but it gets painful to hear her guitar player with that phaser going on every single solo, while the steel gets buried.

[Dustin Rigsby]

Status symbol guitars and equipment. The idea that someone is less of a player if they don’t play brand x guitar, brand y amp, or brand z effects. Don’t know if it’s a fad but it is quite irritating. The blade will not make you the next Big E.....

[Dave Mudgett]

Status symbol guitars and equipment. The idea that someone is less of a player if they don’t play brand x guitar, brand y amp, or brand z effects. Don’t know if it’s a fad but it is quite irritating. The blade will not make you the next Big E.....

Yeah, I think "having or doing the latest and greatest this and that" is the precise definition of a fad here and in many other contexts as well. It changes yearly, sometimes even monthly. For a while, such and such is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and then it becomes passé. Guitars, amps, pedals, cables, stylistic things, you name it.

All the better, as far as I'm concerned, because it becomes possible to scoop up bargains once the luster is off last month's "Flavor of the Month". And some of these fads are the real deal, and wind up becoming classics.

[Rene Brosseau]

lunchbox amps...around 2009 I think Tried 1...sounded like crap! http://www.barryrudolph.com/newtoys/toy ... chbox.html

[Dustin Rigsby]

I wish vintage deluxe reverbs would stop being a fad .... I’m priced out of the market

[b0b]

I used to think that "that sound" was a fad, but it still seems to be popular. Seems that everyone's trying to get it.

[Dustin Rigsby]

I used to think that "that sound" was a fad, but it still seems to be popular. Seems that everyone's trying to get it.

[Donny Hinson]

How about the velvet Crown Royal bags that players used to hang off the keyheads?

[Dave Hopping]

How about the velvet Crown Royal bags that players used to hang off the keyheads?

Got one,stored away someplace. Haven't seen it in awhile!

[Dustin Rigsby]

How about the velvet Crown Royal bags that players used to hang off the keyheads?

I thought those were to hold “smoking supplies”

[Lee Baucum]

How about the velvet Crown Royal bags that players used to hang off the keyheads?

I've still got an old one in my old ACE seat. I carry all kinds of small gadgets in it.

I never hung it from my guitar, though.

[Dave Mudgett]

How about the velvet Crown Royal bags that players used to hang off the keyheads?

I don't hang anything off my keyhead. But I have always used, and still use Crown Royal bags to store various things in my gig bag, including my Sarno Freeloader. Keeps things from getting scratched up. And hey - I drink the stuff.

[Joe Goldmark]

This sittin' down thing... I'm sure we'll be go back to standing and playing like a man pretty soon.

Joe

[b0b]

This sittin' down thing... I'm sure we'll be go back to standing and playing like a man pretty soon.

Joe

I laughed out loud.

[Paul Strojan]

The idea that pedal steel guitar is a hick instrument and needs to be "re-thought."

[Bill Ford]

Status symbol guitars and equipment. The idea that someone is less of a player if they don’t play brand x guitar, brand y amp, or brand z effects. Don’t know if it’s a fad but it is quite irritating. The blade will not make you the next Big E.....

Paid off for me, I scooped a 3 month old MSA D12 for $350.00 because dude was on a quest for the next best thing, needed to move it.

[Curt Trisko]

The idea that pedal steel guitar is a hick instrument and needs to be "re-thought."

I agree. My experience is that it is a nerd instrument.

[Tim Harr]

Listing every single piece of gear you own (ad nauseum) in the SGF profile signature