why did you start playing steel?

Damir Besic · Post by **Damir Besic** » 19 Sep 2004 2:16 pm

question?hmmm,I guess my story is little strange.Since i was 13 years old I loved country music and one of my first albums was Merle`s "The Way I am" ,at the time I didn`t have no idea what the steel guitar was, I just worned out the tape because I loved the music so much and listened the tape all nite long.I started playing steel because I wanted to join the local famous band that couldn`t find a steel player.If they were looking for a bass player ,I would probably be playing bass guitar today.I didn`t care about the instrument,I just wanted to play country music.Somewhere along the way I had fall in love with 5 string and steel.That explains why I lost my interes in music lately.There is no music I would be interested in playing it anymore.Did you start playing steel because of music or start listen the country music because of steel guitar?

Db

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Mark Metdker · Post by **Mark Metdker** » 19 Sep 2004 2:57 pm

Because no other instrument sounds like the PSG. When I was a kid listening to The Beatles, The Ventures....etc, the steel guitar on my Dad's Buck Owens, Merle Haggard George Jones and Carl Smith albums got my attention just as much as the rock stuff.

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BMI S-10
Peavey Session 500

"Do Right, and Fear No Man"
Ronald Reagan

Rick McDuffie · Post by **Rick McDuffie** » 19 Sep 2004 3:42 pm

I got up in the middle of the night, tripped, fell and hit my head on the dresser. The next morning I couldn't get steel off my mind.

Rick

David Higginbotham · Post by **David Higginbotham** » 19 Sep 2004 4:31 pm

I was playing drums since 14 and always loved the sound of a steel guitar. I tried guitar and bass, but you know what? "Those people expect you to stand up for a 4 hour gig!" I knew then I wanted to play steel. There is my reason. Too lazy to stand up!
Dave

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'74 MSA D-10 8&4, Webb 614-E & Extension, Session 400, Tubefex, Carvin DCM 600, 2-BW 1203's

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 19 Sep 2004 5:54 pm

You mean there was a choice??

Terry Wood · Post by **Terry Wood** » 19 Sep 2004 6:36 pm

Lloyd Green's recordings of "I Can See Clearly Now," "Sleepwalk, and "Here Comes The Sun." All from his Shades of Steel L.P. 1973. I bought the L.P. from the first Wal-Mart store in my home area. I think I paid $3.87 for the L.P. plus the tax. It changed my life for certain.

GOD bless!

Woody

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 19 Sep 2004 7:57 pm

I just didn't know any better.

Actually, I heard Don Helms, Jerry Byrd, Buddy Emmons, Lloyd Green, Herbie Remington and Curly Chalker, in just about that order too...and they sealed it. [This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 19 September 2004 at 08:59 PM.]

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 19 Sep 2004 10:41 pm

I think I paid $3.87 for the L.P. plus the tax

And money very well spent!

I sort of inhertied a dobro in 1969 and have played it ever since. Some where in there I got lapsteels too. I experimented with tunings and some Hawiian styles. But I mostly did dobro bluegrass and blues stuff.

I did grow up in a country music environment, amoung other styles, ie a recording studio in the household, with a strong country component.

Recently I was hearing the PSG sound more and more in my head for my original jazz music and for my country gigs.
I got my Supro over here, did a track and quickly realized : MORE STRINGS NOW!!! Yikes!

I found my Sho-Bud and have been setting it up for the long run, in the harmonic fashion I find most logical. It is pretty close now.

I always liked country except the 60-70's ballade with sappy strings era,
when country sounded like bad Lawrence Welk
who's jest been left by his old lady.

I got a Ray Price collection last week and loved the early hits, and then suddenly it changed.. woah nellie, full smaltz injection!!

And I STILL can't stand that period.. just unlistenable, for me anyway.
And yet I love his new TIME cd.

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 19 Sep 2004 11:22 pm

For me, country music had absolutely nothing to do with me wanting to get a pedal steel guitar. I play six string electric most of the time, but as I've gotten older I was in search of a sound that I couldn't get from a regular electric guitar - kind of like a cross between a synthesizer set for string, flute or horn sounds and distorted electric guitar. The PSG has that sound, with some amp distortion and a bit of chorus and delay. I find that PSG also works really well for slide playing.

Winnie Winston · Post by **Winnie Winston** » 20 Sep 2004 2:28 am

I played Bluegrass banjo asnd fell in with some folks who were playing stuff that was more "ballad-y" and slower. I started to fool with a mute on the banjo. Then I found lasp-steel, and then pedal steel.
Never much cared for country music up until then.
I got into pedal steel because I heard the musical potential of it in the stuff I was interested in playing.

JW

Phil Johnson · Post by **Phil Johnson** » 20 Sep 2004 2:33 am

I also played Bluegrass banjo and I was in a music store saw the Pedal Steel Guitar book written by Winnie Winston and Bill Keith. I took the book home and put the little floppy record on the record player and just fell in love with this wonderfull instrument. The I heard Buddy Emmons and it was all over.

Richard Nydegger · Post by **Richard Nydegger** » 20 Sep 2004 3:32 am

I,ve played guitar and banjo for several years and run a guitar repair shop and build electric and acoustic guitars. A few years ago my wife bought me a 6 string lap steel for christmas. I dinked around with it for a while (with little success) then stuck it in the closet. A year or so later I wacked off the end of my left index finger on a table saw. Since I couldn't play fretted instruments I got the steel back out. I've gone from the little 6 string to a reso that I built to a Fender T8 Stringmaster to most recently a new Carter D10. The finger has healed and I can played fretted again, but rarely do.

Glyn Bone · Post by **Glyn Bone** » 20 Sep 2004 3:55 am

Likie Richard I too began "playing" steel because of an injury...I had been playing Strats and Teles for years...got an Arlen Roth book/record and began working on those big string bends to sound like a PSG....ended up up with my left hand and arm cramping very badly..so much so that I couldn`t even pick the guitar up and take a chord anymore...asked myself what I was trying to achieve...built a 6 string lap out of old guitar parts..from there went to a Fender 800 and then to an Emmons SD10....I can play rhythm giutar again now but no more string bending for me.

Glyndwr

Roual Ranes · Post by **Roual Ranes** » 20 Sep 2004 4:23 am

Well, first there was Freddy Marvin, Joaquin Murphy, Roy Wiggins and some Hawaiian people I never knew the name of. Then Maurice Anderson became a friend of the family and I had a chance to try and play Bass behind a young fellow that weighed less than his Fender 1000 and Amp. His name was Albert Talley. If I ever get those sounds I will let you know. A piece of advice to those that are fairly new to the steel. NEVER QUIT! I quit because I seemed to be at an impass. 15 years later I got the bug again and you would be suprised how much you can lose in that time.

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 20 Sep 2004 6:01 am

I was forced to pick it up cuz our illustrious leader here on the Forum was the steel player in my band, he broke his chains and left, and I missed not having those GREAT sounds. (And having him around.)
I just HAD to take it up.

Ron Scott · Post by **Ron Scott** » 20 Sep 2004 6:22 am

I had always listen to the Grand ole Opry on the Radio and would hear steelguitar with Hank Snow and other singers like Eddie Arnold and it got my attention.I got a Triple Neck Fender and started from there and later on would hear Buck Owen's with Tom Brumley on Together again and that got me into the Pedal Steelguitar and the rest is history.RS

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Franklin Guitars

Tommy Roten · Post by **Tommy Roten** » 20 Sep 2004 8:19 am

I was forced to by a local band. That was five years ago, still playing with them...

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MSA D-10, Goodrich, ProfexII, Mosvalve, Eminence 12"
www.tommy-steel.com
pertrot@frisurf.no

Paul King · Post by **Paul King** » 20 Sep 2004 9:08 am

I was not quiet in my teen years when I first started getting the steel fever. I remember the radio playing country music and watching some of the old shows on television. Then I came across a show out of Dallas where Dewey Groom and his band would play weekly. The steel player was Jr. knight and I watched his every move. Gary Hogue was also on that show and his playing was top notch. Those two men were really my first inspiration to the steel guitar even though I did not know anything about the instrument itself. That was in the mid to late 70's. In 1979 I bought my first steel and have never looked back. My first trip to St. Louis was 1981 and that is where I saw Buddy Emmons for the first time. Watching and listening to him just made the desire stronger to be a steel player.

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 20 Sep 2004 9:42 am

I'm gonna answer for my "GOOD BUDDY" Bill Mayville, in Las Vegas.

He lived in the Rohnert Park, CA area by me in the late 70's - early 80's. We played in different bands but picked a lot together when we had the chance.

Well, Bill is one fine guitar picker and one day shortly after Bobby Lee turned me on to a Sho-Bud and taught me a few things I was in my garage practicing and Bill came by.
He had me show him how chords were made by stomping on the pedals and then he said, "Jack, if you you can do that, I know I can."

Well Bill was right, he immediately ordered a brand new Emmons LaGrande D-10, practiced a bunch and bringing the music theory that he
learned on the six string to the steel, he is now "One fine steel picker".
My hat's off to ya, for a youngster, Bill you done good (He's a week younger than I) and It's about time that everybody here knows about ya!!

[This message was edited by Jack Francis on 20 September 2004 at 10:43 AM.][This message was edited by Jack Francis on 20 September 2004 at 10:44 AM.]

Rick Johnson · Post by **Rick Johnson** » 20 Sep 2004 10:19 am

I got interested listening to
some early Eagles, Emma Lou Harris
and Marshall Tucker Ricky Nelson etc.
That was in 1976,

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Rick Johnson

Bill Myrick · Post by **Bill Myrick** » 20 Sep 2004 10:42 am

There were many times--in the wee hours on the way home--I've asked myself that question -- I give up, WHY ????

Klaus Caprani · Post by **Klaus Caprani** » 20 Sep 2004 10:59 am

Hello everybody!

Well! I'll start to introduce myself, as this is my very first post on this exclusive forum.
I've been playing the bass as my main instrument for almost 30 years now, and as I'm approaching 44 I finally got this lovely MCI RangeXpander (s-10) after wishing to get, and learn to play, pedal-steel for 25 years or so.
Pedal-steels are immensely hard to get, and as a logical consequense quite overprized her in Denmark. I didn't dare to try to get one shipped from the States without being able to feel and touch first, out of fear to spend a fortune on a useless pile of junk.

I always loved steel, as two of my guitarteachers from my childhood that inspired me the most had pedal-steels and were somehow pioneers of steel here in Denmark. One mainly played countrymusic and is still doing a lot of gigs, but the other was more into some kind of psychedelic rock, which absolutely blew me away. (He's a soundengineer at a large venue here in Copenhagen now. The last time I talked to him he had taken a break from pedal-steelin'. He and somebody else apparantly tried to modify his Emmons S-10 to an S-14 without much luck, so he was waiting to get the time to rebuild it to it's original specifications).

I somewhat always had this sound within me, and it's in a way typical that the most music I chose for practicing until now wasn't country, but rock without steel in it in the first place.
Don't misunderstand. I LOVE country steel and I'm very much in awe of people able to play this instrument no matter what style, as I myself find it immensely difficult.

As a paradox I might add, that most of those licks that I always wanted to play but didn't feel that I was good enough to do on lapsteel just jumps out of this magical instrument all by themselves with much greater ease than I would ever have imagined. I may just always have had a pedal-steeler somewhere inside.

By now I had this fantastic instrument for 5 months. I'm sure that all of you will know the feeling you had when practicing and experiencing the first serious results.

Thanks for indulging my long post!

Best wishes...........

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Klaus Caprani

MCI RangeXpander S-10

Terry Edwards · Post by **Terry Edwards** » 20 Sep 2004 1:47 pm

1. I wanted to explore a new music hobby that inflicts maximum damage to my checkbook.

2. I wanted to spend countless hours practicing just be able to play some chords that sound in tune after only two years.

3. I wanted to learn an instrument that has been stereotyped as "country" only and sounds hawaiian.

4. I wanted to explore a new instrument that is impossible to learn without spending a lot of money on teaching materials.

5. I wanted to learn an instrument that has an infinite number of bad notes between the frets and are easy to hit.

6. I wanted to learn an instrument that takes a lifetime to get good enough to play at convention jam sessions.

7. I wanted to play an instrument that requires an SUV and a dolly to transport the guitar and associated amp.

8. I wanted to play an instrument that takes an hour to set up and tune it before a gig.

9. I wanted to play an instrument that has it's own special seat unlike any other instrument.

10. and the no. 1 reason I took up pedal steel...... I just love it. Can't explain it. Just plain love it!

t

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 20 Sep 2004 5:20 pm

Heard "Little" Roy Wiggins on the early E. Arnold records. I was hooked in 1944. Jody.

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 20 Sep 2004 6:21 pm

To become rich and famous.

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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?