'Fretboarding' - an apocryphal story?

[Roger Rettig]

I'm intrigued.

Did it actually ever happen? While there's a funny side (just), it seems awfully unprofessional and could have had serious consequences.

(My understanding is that a new player on the Opry stage might find a dummy fretboard laid over the one on his steel causing him to play the intro a half-tone flat or (worse) sharp.

I can't imagine what that might have done to an already-nervous newcomer.

Please tell me it didn't really happen.

[Dave Hopping]

I recall seeing a gag vid of Ricky Skaggs and his band doing the intro to "Highway 40 Blues" with (I think) the steel player a half-tone off. I couldn't find it on YouTube but if someone here can, please post it.

It's hilariously cringeworthy.

[Roger Rettig]

I don't recall who led me to believe that 'fretboarding' was a 'thing', but it kinda sounds like a Bobbe Seymour or Smiley Roberts tale.

Subtext: 'Not necessarily something you should take to the bank'.

[Marco Schouten]

Sounds like something Shot Jackson would do.

[Per Berner]

Weldon Myrick is the name that comes up in my head, long time staff player at the Opry and known for a great sense of humor. I think I've read it somewhere a long, long tima ago, but I may be completely mistaken...

[Jerry Overstreet]

At one of Jeff Newman's classes in Nashville, they related several such shenanigans did occur on the Opry stage. You'd have to be pretty secure to not be incensed by such actions. It's my understanding that things like this were just part of being in the "ole boys club" and a validation of acceptance in it.

Another story I heard was when fingertip sho~buds were in use, someone would walk by and rake their fingers across the tuners and put them all out of tune.

[Bobby D. Jones]

I have heard the same story many years ago, And Shot Jackson was the one doing the bad deed. He had made some Sho-Bud fret boars that was off. He would slip one on a guitar And he would stand back stage and laugh when things went bad on a kickoff.

[Steve Hinson]

...Weldon...

I saw him do this to somebody...can't remember who...

WM also had a"backwards"volume pedal...

He was known as a practical joker...

He tried to collect a $25"plug-in fee"from me the first time I played out there...

I sure miss Weldon and his playing, and"the hang"...

SH

[Roger Rettig]

[Fred Treece]

I recall seeing a gag vid of Ricky Skaggs and his band doing the intro to "Highway 40 Blues" with (I think) the steel player a half-tone off. I couldn't find it on YouTube but if someone here can, please post it.

It's hilariously cringeworthy.

There was a series of parody videos on YouTube called Shredded, or something like that. The producer took actual live footage of great bands playing their classic songs and replaced the audio with the most godawful vocal and instrumental tracking you could possibly imagine. One of them was Highway 40, featuring Ricky Skaggs and Brad Paisley. I had read somewhere that Brad thought it was hysterical but Ricky was not amused.

You can still find them on YT, but I won’t post a link here, out of respect for the artists and the songs. (But I thought they were hilarious too )

[J D Sauser]

We're talking way back when Country was Country and they had a battalion of steel guitars set up on one side of the stage at all times, as every performer would bring it their own steel guitarist.

As I remember reading the story, and also hearing from others talking about it. I am pretty sure it involved Buddy Emmons and possibly Shot Jackson.
What they did was, they slipped a different scale length fretboard under an unsuspecting player's guitar's strings just before he was on, and I BELIEVE it was Buddy Emmons playing.

I know of one guy running into Gene O'Neal at a concert in Florida (way back too... I believe Jerry Lee was to play there too but got wasted and so he didn't).
Anyways, the fellow steeler asked if Gene could show him something neat on the steel and Gene said "Sure!", sat at the guy's guitar on the edge of the stage and asked "you've got a thumb pick?" and the guy handed him his thumb pick and Gene pulled the pick into the top string and let it shoot into the audience, laughing. The guy did not find it funny, because it was his and his ONLY pick, to which Gene responded "what I wanted to show to you is, ALWAYS have a spare pick!".

I carry 2 at all times since I heard this story!

Gene by the way, I met in 93 in Nashville just shortly before he got ill and passed. To me he had been a very nice and generous person. So, this is not to bad mouth Gene O'Neal who also was a marvelous and revolutionary player.

... J-D.

[Roger Rettig]

Interesting thoughts.

It seems as though the whole atmosphere pervading the Opry has gradually changed from a happy-go-lucky club-like atmosphere of the 'old days' to the corporate entity it is today. I'm not suggesting that there's no sense of comradeship; musicians, by nature, are frequently gregarious and outgoing. Apart from a couple of backstage passes in the '90s, I have no experience of that world.

It seems that fretboarding - regardless of who the culprits may have been - did occur. In my case, it would have been overkill: I would have already been terrified without a bogus fretboard!

[J D Sauser]

I sent that to my friend who asked me to install new fretboards on his Franklin, with the comment "Dunne. Came out perfect!"

... J-D.

[Mitch Ellis]

I heard that somebody tried the fretboard gag on Buddy Emmons but within the first few notes he made a quick bar adjustment and played flawlessly the rest of the set. It's only what I heard but I sure wouldn't doubt it.

Mitch

[Jerry Overstreet]

...Weldon...

I saw him do this to somebody...can't remember who...

WM also had a"backwards"volume pedal...

He was known as a practical joker...

He tried to collect a $25"plug-in fee"from me the first time I played out there...

I sure miss Weldon and his playing, and"the hang"...

SH

Steve, I was just reading one of the old Steel Guitar World magazines. It is an interview that Robbie Bossert did with Larry (Wimpy) Sasser.

Larry stated he was playing the Opry with Melba Montgomery and after he tuned up and went backstage Hal or Weldon slipped a fretboard on top of the original that had the fret lines where they would be in the middle of where they should be.

And Weldon put the backwards pedal on his own guitar that was sitting next to Larry's, so that the volume action would be reversed.

So, what happened Larry kicked off Melba's song which was of course horribly out of tune. They would pull off the fake board when Larry wasn't watching and he, bewildered, would check his tuning which was of course right on and when he was backstage or not looking they would slip the fake fretboard back on.

Weldon knew that Larry would jump over to his guitar when he was having issues with his own. Weldon had the backwards volume pedal on his own guitar so that off would be full on and Larry came out blasting wide open when he switched guitars.

I can't imagine someone doing that to me...I'd have to give up and go home, but this and other similar stories are hilarious to read about and the pranksters all had a ball doing it and having the same tricks played on them.

How the Opry producers, directors etc. felt about it, I don't know.

[Frank Freniere]

I recall seeing a gag vid of Ricky Skaggs and his band doing the intro to "Highway 40 Blues" with (I think) the steel player a half-tone off. I couldn't find it on YouTube but if someone here can, please post it.

It's hilariously cringeworthy.

There was a series of parody videos on YouTube called Shredded, or something like that. The producer took actual live footage of great bands playing their classic songs and replaced the audio with the most godawful vocal and instrumental tracking you could possibly imagine. One of them was Highway 40, featuring Ricky Skaggs and Brad Paisley. I had read somewhere that Brad thought it was hysterical but Ricky was not amused.

You can still find them on YT, but I won’t post a link here, out of respect for the artists and the songs. (But I thought they were hilarious too )

The Steve Vai one is a killer.