What got YOU into the steel?

Franklin Jones · Post by **Franklin Jones** » 7 Aug 2006 2:47 pm

ROY WIGGINS GOT ME STARTED.
Franklin jones, Virginia

Bill Moore · Post by **Bill Moore** » 7 Aug 2006 3:11 pm

Around 1983, I happened to be reading the clssified section of the Detroit News, where I saw an ad for a Sho-Bud Maverick. At the time, I was messing around, trying to play guitar, and listening to a lot of blues and country music. I had heard the steel on recordings, but never thought much about it, until then. It struck me that the music I liked had a lot of slide guitar and steel guitar. I bought the Maverick, from a guy in Dearborn Heights, MI. He didn't even know how to tune it, and was giving up. On the way home I bought a copy of Winnie Winston's book and I'm still learning!

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Bill Moore...
my steel guitar web page

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 7 Aug 2006 4:10 pm

Personally,the big money and the hot babes are what got me into pedal steel guitar... bob

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 7 Aug 2006 4:40 pm

Interesting. [This message was edited by Mike Shefrin on 07 August 2006 at 06:45 PM.]

Franklin Jones · Post by **Franklin Jones** » 7 Aug 2006 5:54 pm

Little Roy Wiggans did it to me.
Franklin Jones Richmond, Va

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 7 Aug 2006 6:03 pm

I always leaned that way, since I saw a pedal steel player in a bar when I was 10 or 11...then Dylan's Nashville Skyline, CSN&Y, Ben Keith, Rusty Young....but it was Al Perkins with Manassas that pushed me over the edge. What a sound! He ain't bad on the dobro, either!

Mel Taylor · Post by **Mel Taylor** » 7 Aug 2006 6:05 pm

I don't remember what got me interested the 1st time as a young boy about 12 or 13 years old back in the early 1950's but I do know what got me started back again after about a 45 year layoff from music and that was while surfing the internet about 8 month's ago I found the HSGA website and when I heard Gerald Ross, Basil Henriques, L.T. Zinn, Kay Das and Bobby Ingano (just to name a few) play I fell back in love all over again with the steel guitar and I knew I had to get me another lap steel and start trying to learn to play again. I've been trying to play now for about 6 month's and I am enjoying every minute of it. I know I won't ever be a pro but I don't care I'm having fun.

Jim Walker · Post by **Jim Walker** » 7 Aug 2006 6:17 pm

In 1998 I went to see Vince gill in Concert. Halfway through the show, Vince stopped And introduced John Hughey as the man that made "Look At Us" a hit song. John imediatly kicked the song and the entire crowd rose to their feet and applauded loudly. For the first time I really listened to the steel and the way John played, it seemed to soothe my soul.

8 years have passed and several thousand dollars have passed. THANKS JOHN!

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Clark Custom D10 8&5
Fender Steel King
B-bender Telecaster
Line 6 Flextone II Plus
www.jimwalkeronline.com
My Space

Wayne D. Clark · Post by **Wayne D. Clark** » 7 Aug 2006 7:38 pm

Mom said "your cousin is starting Hawian guitar lessons" She loved Hawian music. We had an old no name flat top my sister gave up. I said I'll make a deal with you Mom, In a year you buy me a Steel and you got a deal. She said son you buy the amp and we have a deal. A year later she got me a 6 string National, I purchased a second hand box amp. that was in 1945, the reast in history.

MSA D10 8/2

Wayne D. Clark · Post by **Wayne D. Clark** » 7 Aug 2006 7:41 pm

Mom said "your cousin is starting Hawian guitar lessons" She loved Hawian music. We had an old no name flat top my sister gave up. I said I'll make a deal with you Mom, In a year you buy me a Steel and you got a deal. She said son you buy the amp and we have a deal. A year later she got me a 6 string National, I purchased a second hand box amp. that was in 1945, the reast in history.

MSA D10 8/2

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 7 Aug 2006 8:21 pm

Hi Mike. Thanks for the pic. I feel honored that I was able to meet Little Roy years ago and enjoy his friendship and pickin' for many years. Jody.

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 7 Aug 2006 8:26 pm

That's pretty cool. Little Roy was before my time but I know he was a grandmaster.
He passed on in 1999 sad to say.[This message was edited by Mike Shefrin on 07 August 2006 at 09:30 PM.]

John Coffman · Post by **John Coffman** » 8 Aug 2006 3:23 am

LLoyd Green on the great hits of Mel Street. Wynn Stewart,Freddie Hart, Bob Wills,Big Jim Murphy. With a great love for good country and western music.

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 8 Aug 2006 4:51 am

Jerry Byrd..late 1940s...Then there was Budd Issacs, Day, Emmons, Hal, Hughey, etc, etc.

I met Hal Rugg several years ago at Saluda SC, he always greeted you like he remembered you from last time, a gentelman second to none, a steel player second to none.

Bil Ford
CLR S12, MSA S12,NV 400,etc,etc

Klaus Caprani · Post by **Klaus Caprani** » 8 Aug 2006 6:09 am

Both my guitar teachers back in the day were into pedal-steel (and still are).
I always knew that I someday wanted to sound like that, but didn't get to it until roughly three years ago.

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Klaus Caprani

MCI RangeXpander S-10 3x4
www.klauscaprani.com

Thomas Ludwig · Post by **Thomas Ludwig** » 8 Aug 2006 8:10 am

I started guitar and bass in the early 70ties.
After I heard "Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen" with "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette" on the radio I was infected.
At the same time I got a Chuck Berry LP with "Deep Feeling" on it. Not typical Berry but wonderful.
30 Years later I started playing the non pedal steel.

)

Thomas
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Stefan Sonntag Single Neck 8 Sting "Blue Hawaiian", Unkown German Beauty S8,
AER Bingo, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Peavy Solo, Vox DA5

Michael Douchette · Post by **Michael Douchette** » 8 Aug 2006 8:15 am

Ok, I'll bite... my Dad was a DJ back in the '50's and '60's, playing "hillbilly" music (as he first came to know it; it became C&W later). I used to listen to him as a young'un, because he was never at home, always at work. I never heard anything on the radio except him, I tuned everything else out... then, one day, he played "Pop a Top"... and I noticed there was something on the radio besides Dad's voice. When he got home, I told him I wanted to be able to do that sound on that record...

... which effectively led me down this road of perdition I'm currently on.

"Why are we in this handbasket? Where are we going??"

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Mikey D...

Danny Kirby · Post by **Danny Kirby** » 8 Aug 2006 8:30 am

For me, it was listening to Hank Williams records when I was a kid. I would hear Don Helms playing but didn't know what that instrument was. Eventually someone told me it was a steel guitar. I thought, I have to get one. I bought a Sho-Bud Maverick and without an amp learned how to play some of Don Helm's sounds. Eventually my father in-law Ed Wicker from Wink, Texas showed me enough about pedal steel to get started. Hank was great, but I just don't think it would have been the same without Don Helms. He was to Hank Williams as John Hughey was to Conway Twitty. I still listen to the live recording of Cold Cold Heart and it's amazing that he got that sound with a straight steel! Anyway, that was my beginning. It's been a blast ever since!

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ZumSteel D-10 8x7
Evans SE200 and SES200

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 8 Aug 2006 8:33 am

I can't imagine who's going to read all this, but....

Without realising it, the first seeds were sown by Jimmy Day on the Everly Brothers' first Warner Bros sessions in 1960. His obligato on 'Lucille', 'Nashville Blues' and 'What Kind Of Girl Are You?' raised a huge question mark in my mind as I struggled to replicate those licks on my Gretsch Jet Firebird!

It was years later when I learned that it was a pedal steel.

The next epiphany? Buck Owens and Jay Dee at the London Palladium - "Here's Jay Dee Maness and the steel guitar!" Maness faithfully reproduced Tom's great ride in 'Together Again', and that contrary motion fascinated me!

The final push? Fittingly this came from the best - I heard Ray Charles singing 'Wichita Lineman' on the radio, and the soaring silvery sound of Buddy's p/p brought tears to my eyes.

Although all this occurred in my native England, and steel guitars were incredibly rare, I had my first ZB the very next day.

The journey continues....

Roger Rettig

john widgren · Post by **john widgren** » 8 Aug 2006 9:14 am

Someday soon...the original.

Shaun Marshall · Post by **Shaun Marshall** » 8 Aug 2006 9:38 am

1 hour before a root canal I went into the local music to find a book to read to take my mind off the inevitable drill and came across the Winnie Winston/Bill Keith book. The photo on the cover drew me in and then I read the book. The next day there was sho-bud maverick for sale $200. Then Tom Bradshaw helped me out big time and 3 monthes later I shook Jimmy Day's hand. Now I have 3 steels.

Jay Ganz · Post by **Jay Ganz** » 8 Aug 2006 9:41 am

Leo LeBlanc on John Prine's 1st album.

Larry Lorows · Post by **Larry Lorows** » 8 Aug 2006 10:07 am

I always loved Ray Price back in the 60's, but never purchased a steel until the mid 70's. Sure glad I did. I was getting awfully bored on six string and needed something new. There's no way, I'll ever learn enough on the steel to get bored. I learn something new every day on the steel, trouble is, I can't remember it. ha ha Larry

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U12 Williams keyless 400
Evans SE 150, Nashville 112, Line 6 pod xt

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 8 Aug 2006 10:20 am

[This message was edited by Mike Shefrin on 08 August 2006 at 03:48 PM.]

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 8 Aug 2006 12:42 pm

Thanks one and all for your replies!
[This message was edited by Mike Shefrin on 08 August 2006 at 02:13 PM.]