When did you start playing steel?

[b0b]

The age of players is one thing, their experience is another. I thought it might be fun to poll members on when they actually put the bar to the strings.

I might have played a bit in the 1960s, but I don't remember that decade very well. I voted 1970s cause that's when I remember getting into it.

[Ian Rae]

A lot of people don't remember the 60s very well!
I also had trouble determining a start point.
I owned a partly-working instrument for years before I knuckled down. I could have said 1990 but 2013 is when I got serious and joined this forum, for which I'm ever thankful.

[Jack Stoner]

I started on lap steel in late 40's trying to copy Little Roy Wiggins. Started on pedals Oct 69.

[Ken Byng]

I remember very clearly when I first played steel guitar. It was when I bought my first Santo & Johnny record (Teardrop). 1963 to be precise, and I was 14 years old. My father had a small music combo, and his guitarist also played lap steel. He had a spare lap steel for sale so I bought it. It wasn't long before I could play Sleepwalk on an E13 tuning. Unlike a lot of guys of my age in the UK, I remember the 60's very well, maybe because I steered clear of smoking substances.

[Richard Sinkler]

Late 1970 for me. 16 years old and a Junior in high school. I was a drummer that couldn't practice st home with the band. I took a cheap acoustic and a knife or something for a slide and played "dobro" at practice. A short time later, my brother bought me a triple 8 National from a local music store for $75. It's been dowhill ever since. 😋

[Jon Light]

I clicked '80s when I bought my first PSG but it did not occur to me that I could have clicked 70's for the pencil under the strings of my import flat top dobro explorations after hearing the 'Will The Circle' album in 1972. For real, it counts.

[Dan Kelly]

Ever since I was a toddler, and listening to Country Music on my father's car radio, I knew, deep down, I had to play the PSG. However, I got side tracked in the acoustic world for a few decades. In 2014, I saw David Hartley on YouTube. After realizing, so late in life, that I was born to play PSG I jumped in with both feet.

<b>Wait a minute... 1930's?????</b>

[Joe Krumel]

Appx. mid 80's for me. Always had an ear for steel bends and twang despite my Rock drumming days from the 60's.....

[Lee Baucum]

Early 1970s, thanks to Buddy Cage.

[Larry Ball]

I started playing six string as a teenie bopper in the 50’s,,,listening to the fabulous “Ventures” . Rock and Roll then later years Country. That’s when I heard and also played many times on stage throughout the years with steel players. I always loved the sound of a steel, however for some reason never bought one. Then in my Golden Years I woke up one morning and decided to buy one. So I bought a new “Mullen” SD10 and I was hooked. I have never touched a six string since (and I have 15 of them). I practice ever day and was gigging twice a week until things shut down because of COVID. I am still hooked on this fantastic instrument head to toe.

[Roger Rettig]

Early-'70s, thanks to JayDee, Rusty, Buddy Cage and the Big E.

As for 'remembering the '60s', I'd been a pro since '59. I saw at first hand how much trouble substance-abuse could get you (this was back when it was mainly the preserve of the jazz-world - it took hold in pop maybe '62, '63) so I found it easy to steer clear of all that.

[Bob Womack]

I bought a Magnatone lap steel I found in the window of a pawn shop in 1974. It was horrible. I had a sleeve of 1974 S pennies. Like a dolt, I sealed them into a long Coricidin bottle with candle wax and it became my first bar.

Bob

[Pete Finney]

Bought my first steel, a Sho-Bud Maverick, in July of '73 a month after high-school graduation; I'd been a pedal-steel obsessed guitar player since about 1970 and finally took the plunge.

Two months later, on my 18th birthday and after a summer of playing constantly at home I sat in with the band at the local tavern in my small Maryland town and they hired me to join the band, playing every Friday and Saturday night. Within a year or so I was playing 5 nights a week at a much bigger place in the city (Washington D.C,) and I stayed with that gig for 3 years. I got very lucky early on having good situations to learn to play with older, seasoned musicians (back when there were a lot of gigs!).

[Jack Hanson]

I remember the '60s and '70s quite well; just don't ask me about last week...

One cold winter afternoon in the late '70s I waltzed into Suneson Music Center on East Lake Street in Mpls with the intent of purchasing a set of strings for my Ovation Glen Campbell. Walked out with a brand-spankin' new black plastic-cladded Red Baron in a matching plastic case, a Sho-Bud tone bar, the Winnie Winston book, and signed up for lessons with the great Cal Hand.



Thousands upon thousands of dollars later, the rest is history. Roger Suneson (RIP) could have sold ice to Eskimos.

[Jerry Jones]

When I was living in Mississippi in 1974, I was mostly into 6-string guitars. But having heard the song "Red Neck Friend" by Jackson Browne, I became fascinated with the sound of David Lindley's lap steel. Being the guy who always likes to make things, I set out to build my own lap.

I saw an ad in Guitar Player Magazine for Pedal Steel Guitar Products (Tom Bradshaw) and, thinking this might be a great source for lap steel parts, I ordered Tom’s catalog. I didn't order any guitar parts from Tom but I did see the notice included with the catalog about the upcoming Scotty's Steel Guitar Convention.

I had never even seen a steel guitar at that point but that convention did sound interesting. So I flew to St. Louis in Sept 1974 and needless to say a whole new world opened up to me. That weekend I saw the best of the best from a world I had mostly been unaware of. Changed my life....thank you, Tom.

Ordered an MSA semi-classic from Scotty when I returned home.

[Fred Treece]

I’ve been a Fender Stringmaster owner since 1978, and actually played a gig on it (terribly badly awfully) around that time. But to say I’ve been a player since then would be an insult to both the instrument and all the great players of the world. Started on pedal steel for real about 5 years ago.

[Paddy Long]

1978 for me :-} ... I was already a working guitarist, so I at least knew what I was looking for hehe...

[Mike Neer]

2001 to be exact. I was a lap steel owner but I couldn’t play it.

[b0b]

I had expected to see the wave of baby boomers in the 1970s, but the rise of new players in the 2010s surprised me. Very interesting.

[Ken Pippus]

A number of us 2010’ers are boomers whose left arm gave out on fretted instruments.

[Gary Newcomb]

Good thread! I’m an oo’s bloomer though I had steel in the late 90’s but didn’t really play it.

[Paul King]

April 1979 for me.

[Floyd Lowery]

I started taking lessons around 1947 on a $10.00 round hole guitar with the strings raised. A few months later I was able to get an electric 6 string lap guitar, then a Gibson 6 string. After about a year I was playing on WVOK in Birmingham and bought a double neck Fender new. Stopped playing around 1955. Bought an 11 string MSA around 1969 and tried to learn how to put it together and tune it.

[Larry Carlson]

A number of us 2010’ers are boomers whose left arm gave out on fretted instruments.

That's exactly what happened to me.
I played acoustic guitar (finger picking) since about 1955.
Around 2015 or so I started losing my left hand strength and couldn't fret anymore.
I was aware of lap steel but never saw or played one.
I ordered the cheapest one I could find just to see if I liked it, a Rogue.
That was 8 guitars ago.

[Henry Matthews]

I started playing on my birthday in 1984. I was 40 years old. I wanted a steel because I heard Weldon on radio kick off Then and Only Then and wife bought it for me for my birthday. The sound so intrigued me that I thought, I’ve got to have one of those. I was already a guitar and fiddle player so knew chord structure which made it a little easier. In a month I was playing on stage and sounded like, well, really bad I’m sure. First guitar was a single neck BMI with 3 & 1.