How long have you been playing Steel?

Dom Franco · Post by **Dom Franco** » 2 Mar 2006 7:59 am

I just found this old picture of me from 1961. I have been playing Hawaiian Guitar for nearly 45 years. Lord have mercy, I could have been really good if I'd practiced a little more all those years!
http://www.freewebs.com/steelman777/lapsteelguitars.htm

Dom Franco

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 2 Mar 2006 8:10 am

I'm a late starter on lap steel, when this pic was shot I had only been playing for a couple of months. Kept the focus on the lap steel for another year and a half, before going back to guitar full time. Picked up lap steel again in the spring of '03, and now there's no looking back.....

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Dom Franco · Post by **Dom Franco** » 2 Mar 2006 8:15 am

Steinar;
Great picture. By the way, How do you load up pictures into your posts without a website link?

Thanks; Dom[This message was edited by Dom Franco on 02 March 2006 at 08:16 AM.]

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 2 Mar 2006 8:28 am

If the photo isn't already up on a server, then you can't. In the case of your photo on the website, you just right-click on the photo, choose "properties" and copy the URL.
The you write

and voila:

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 2 Mar 2006 8:45 am

I started on the Hawaiian steel in 1998.

I started on "Spanish" guitar in 1968.

I also played bottleneck for many years.

Here's a pix from 1982.

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 02 March 2006 at 09:04 AM.]

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 2 Mar 2006 8:59 am

I got my first steel guitar (a National New Yorker) just over six months ago, so I think I'm one of the ultimate newbies here. At 31 years of age, I guess I'm in the junior section of the forum age-wise too!

I started with bass guitar at 16, switched to (mainly acoustic) guitar around 19-20, but songwriting and singing have been my main "thing". And now, lap steel - I have never enjoyed playing an instrument as much as the Hawaiian steel guitar! It's great, and you folks here on the forum have taught me most things I know - thanks so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge![This message was edited by Fred Kinbom on 02 March 2006 at 09:01 AM.][This message was edited by Fred Kinbom on 02 March 2006 at 09:05 AM.]

Rick Collins · Post by **Rick Collins** » 2 Mar 2006 9:01 am

...started about 8:30 this morning, PST.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? ...just kidding.

Todd Weger · Post by **Todd Weger** » 2 Mar 2006 9:08 am

Hey Gerald -- man, that must be one fast vibrato you got going there in that pic!

I started playing lapsteel in the summer of 2000, but didn't really seriously mess with it until about a year later. It's been in the last few years I began getting interested in more of the Hawaiian style. I'm not nearly as dutiful and consistent of a student as a lot of folks here, though I should be, since music's all I do! I'm actually a bassist (elec and URB), but I've always loved the way steel sounded since I was a kid listening to the radio my dad would have playing (country) with Buck, Hank, Merle, Johnny, etc. There was always something about that sound, and I just had to find out more. Wish I had started 25 years ago, but ah well... no time like the present, eh?

This is a pic of me playing this past Saturday at a big all-day Open Mic/Chili Fest at a local place. Great food, outdoors (but covered), and fun folks. The guy playing harp/guitar writes and sings great old-school country style blues stuff. I was playing in A6, but just used the F# string when it fit in with a blues lick I was doing. I'm playing through the little black 5-watt Crate on the floor.

TJW

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Todd James Weger --
1956 Fender Stringmaster T-8 (C6, A6, B11); 1960 Fender Stringmaster D-8 (C6, B11/A6); Regal resonator (C6); 1938 Epiphone Electar (A6); assorted ukuleles; upright bass

Mark Treepaz · Post by **Mark Treepaz** » 2 Mar 2006 10:20 am

I’m not new to performance – been playing trumpet, flugelhorn and doubling on bass guitar for about 34 years now. A lot of recordings and studio sessions along the way. However, when it comes to lap-steel, I’m an amateur all the way! I never had even played six-string guitar.

I’ve been playing (6 string)lap steel now for only approximately a year. I’m self-taught via the use of instructional DVDs and watching and listening to everything I can get my hands on! Here in Western New York State I’ve so far been unsuccessful in finding any private instruction with regard to steel playing. There aren’t that many steel players up here to begin with. In addition to playing trumpet and some bass guitar, one of the local groups that I work with up here has me playing about a dozen tunes on lap-steel. Not too bad I guess (which probably means "rotten" to the trained ear!), but I still a have a looooong way to go to get near where I’d like to be.

Roman Sonnleitner · Post by **Roman Sonnleitner** » 3 Mar 2006 1:15 am

Well, I guess the ultimate newbie title is mine - started this January...

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 3 Mar 2006 2:27 am

I've been trying to play since 1953.

This is a guitar I made just to satisfy my longing for what I saw in the fender '57 catalogue and considered at the time to be the "Holy Grail" ..
Notice the 'Fender' sticker cut out from the catalogue.. (Don't ask about the pick-ups, suffice to say, 'They were slightly telephonic)

And Just recently I acquired the very guitar I copied.

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 3 Mar 2006 6:27 am

For 56 years, and still don't know "squat."

Harry

[This message was edited by Harry Dietrich on 03 March 2006 at 06:29 AM.]

billchav · Post by **billchav** » 3 Mar 2006 7:09 am

Since 1946, and as Harry said I still don't know nothing, but have great memories of the great players I have met and listened to over the years. www.billchaviers.com

Derrick Mau · Post by **Derrick Mau** » 3 Mar 2006 8:11 am

Hey Baz,
Nice lookin' Vox amp you got there.
How does that amp sound for steel guitar?
Can you give a litle history about that amp?

Matt Lange · Post by **Matt Lange** » 3 Mar 2006 9:28 am

I started playing last spring, and i'm totally hooked. I've been playing on an upgraded Artisan EA-1:

i'm recording a demo with my band this weekend that should include some steel, so hopefully i'll put some tracks up on the web soon for you all to hear.

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my music: www.myspace.com/mattlangemusic

Don Kona Woods · Post by **Don Kona Woods** » 3 Mar 2006 9:29 am

I have had an interesting journey in Hawaiian guitar. When I was about 12 years old in the 7th Grade, living in Sacramento, California, my father brought home an acoustic Oahu Hawaiian guitar and enrolled me in the Oahu Conservatory of Music. It lasted several months then he decided to move to southern California. He got another teacher for me who taught A major tuning (low bass). He was not a steel guitar teacher, but he knew music theory and teaching guitar. That lasted several months and my father decided to move to Texas. There were no teachers. So my interest came to a screeching halt, until:

In 1985, I met Bud Tutmarc in Seattle, a well known steel guitar artist, and he talked about the steel guitar club in Winchester, Indiana and invited me. I went a couple of years and decided to learn to play the Hawaiian steel guitar.

By then I was 52 years of age. I bought a steel guitar from Billy Cooper in Orange, Virginia. I soon learned that I had no good ear for music, and depended on tablature to learn. Do you believe in miracles?

I set as a goal that I would give it my best shot to learn to play Hawaiian steel. Can you imagine what I put people through trying to learn? People have been gracious and supportive in the Steel guitar clubs.

Well, I am still at it. I can say one thing that I have vastly improved. How do I know that? Well, my wife rather than running out of the house, now she comes to listen.

Aloha,
Don

Thomas Ludwig · Post by **Thomas Ludwig** » 3 Mar 2006 11:35 am

I startet in January 2004 (Hi Roman !)
January is the right month in southern Germany and Austria because of the long winter evenings

Thomas
http://people.freenet.de/swing/SonntagsSteeler.jpg

Dan Peterson · Post by **Dan Peterson** » 3 Mar 2006 3:39 pm

I'm like Kona Don, started early and vanished for awhile, early 50's. The Oahu Conservatory (or travelin' teachers) as I called it then. Even though I've been 'sorta-kinda-playing-steel'..for over 50 years, I'm just now beginning to learn and appreciate it in my 70th year. Here's 'the rest of the story'...on a web site I created for my own enjoyment. (fills in almost all the gaps).
http://hometown.aol.com/danguitarsgourds/index.html

I have been a SGF member since last fall and have become re-inspired by the many awesome talents and sharing of same by of our wonderful members! Mahalo and Aloha ..

dan

Don Kona Woods · Post by **Don Kona Woods** » 3 Mar 2006 7:15 pm

Dan,

I went to your web site and enjoyed it.

In your picture posting, do you have one, two or three Lyric Magnatones?

They look in excellent shape.

Tell me about them.

Aloha,
Don

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 3 Mar 2006 10:27 pm

I believe it was late Summer or early Fall of (1948) at age 11-yrs. It's been my life ever since!

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“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
’05 D–10 Derby
’65 Re-Issue Fender Twin–Reverb Custom™ 15”
Current Equipment

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 4 Mar 2006 7:37 am

I'm not sure I should post this reply to Derrick's question here.. but still here goes...
This is in relationship to what Derrick Mau asked about this picture..

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Hey Baz,
Nice lookin' Vox amp you got there.
How does that amp sound for steel guitar?
Can you give a litle history about that amp?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The Vox AC-15 was VERY sweet with the Hawaiian Guitar although the guitar I put through it could have been better..

The Guitar in the background is the rarest item in that picture see http://vintagehofner.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/earlybands/band28.html
Present value $10,00-$15,000

As for the Vox 'AC-15'
it's a 1958 TV Vox AC 15 Combo See.. http://www.ampaholics.org.uk/vox_ac_15s_from_1961.htm

Currently selling at around $7500 - $10,000
Note the logo on the RIGHT hand side... only the very first 8-10 were that way.. after seeing the latest Fender amps in November 1958, Jennings (That's Jennings of JMI NOT the 'Possum' one) decided to put the logo on the left to avoid confusion at a distance at concerts ..(That's how the story goes anyway)

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Steel players do it without fretting

Dan Peterson · Post by **Dan Peterson** » 4 Mar 2006 8:18 am

Thanks Don, In answer to your question about Magnatone Lyric D-8, I only have one. It's a pristine one that has great sustain, got it about a year ago. It was dirty but showing very little wear or use. I cleaned, polished and restrung it. Came with case and legs, but I have it in my 'music room' (a spare bedroom, ha!) on a desk that works well for me to play it. It's currently tuned to C6th (lead neck) and B11th on the other. I was inspired by Roy Thompson's recent postings of B11 tabs & songs and am in the learning process working with some of his (and other) tabs, but a long way from playing anything worth hearing yet. I have been tempted to sell it, but determined to grow out of my old '6-string' lap habits someday.. :::sigh:::

I stroll in to the room and strum it once or twice a week, and hopefully will do it justice one day! Time will tell ..thanks for asking.. Dan

Adam Camster · Post by **Adam Camster** » 4 Mar 2006 8:43 am

Hi guys.I'm new here. Am I too late to join in? I started playing steel about 3 years ago, after I got tendonitis playing too much "regular" guitar. Don't think I'll ever go back.. steel is much more fun!

(Basil.. I tried to email you, but dont know if my email is working)

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www.adamcamster.com

Don Kona Woods · Post by **Don Kona Woods** » 4 Mar 2006 3:00 pm

Hey Dan,

I bought a D-8 Lyric Magnatone myself exactly one year ago in Seattle.

The body was in mint condition with old strings. I played it where I bought it and it did not sound right because of the old strings, but I thought it had potential. The guy let me buy it on the condition that I could return it if not satisfied.

I changed the strings and bingo. Good sustain and really great sound. Good for Hawaiian stuff that I am into. I love my Magnatone.

Aloha,
Don

Willis Vanderberg · Post by **Willis Vanderberg** » 5 Mar 2006 4:54 am

Well it looks like I beat out Big John by a few months. I bought a BR-9 Gibson outfit with birthday money for a down payment in April of 48.I still have the BR-9,EH-100 Gibson, 10 string Alkire E Harp, double eight Rick bakelite and six pedal steels'
If I remember correctly the Br-9 was purchased from Feree's Music in Battle Creek Michigan for $99.00.
That was for the guitar and amp.

Bud