The Steel Guitar Forum

Mindbending! A whole lotta work must have gone into these babies and I'm sure it was a total labor of love! I want one, I want one, (repeat 100 times and pray to the sun!). I am just a beginner to lap steel, but I've been following about your almost 2 decades of devotion to your art on this thread and I bow to you; (especially considering my own wood-working skills) and wow, all those Bigsby components I've been reading about for so long! Take any trades? Hey, I'll do some saving and get back to you.
Hey Todd, do you know if Jerry Garcia played an old pedal Clinesmith on his solo #1 LP? His pedal steel on that gem always got me to dreaming. Like the song "The Wheel", although not technically fantastic, the steel sounds so good; the sound still haunts me.
Rob

Hmm, I don't think Todd has been making them THAT long! Pretty young guy I think.

Jerry Garcia had to have been smoking some pretty heavy duty stuff to have been playing a Clinesmith.

this does bring up an interesting point, though. had jerry gotten the steel guitar focus that he had for guitar, think of the custom steels that would have been created.

Rob,

Questions about Jerry Garcia playing pedal steel have been answered many times before on the pedal steel section of the Steel Guitar Forum. If a search doesn't turn up the answers you seek and you want to create a new topic about that, feel free to do so over on the Pedal Steel section (or Steel Players). Please don't change the topic we're discussing.

Carry on.

For those thinking I was making d disparaging remark about Todd of his guitars, I was not. I have a Clinesmith and love it. I was referring to the fact that Jerry Garcia died before Todd was making his steels.

Chris, I'd love to see a photo of your Clinesmith, if possible.

It had been on the Forum. Do a search or go to the Clinesmith site. It is a travel guitar that was originally like half of Joaquin Murphey's d8 Bigsby lap steel. It no longer gas the Epiphone style horseshoe pickup as Bigsby first used but has a later style Bigsby pickup.
It is seven strings rather than eight.

I thought the Clinesmith was in storage, but I found it.

Here it is. By the way, under the CLinesmith are three different volume/tone pedals-- a Rocco, a Bigsby and a Wright. I will post these pedals in one of the Wright threads as I forgot where folks were discussing vol/tone pedals:

Great looking guitar, Chris L. A Clinesmith lap steel is definately on my wish list. Here's a photo of my D-8/6 console with 5 pedals. I play it through a 59 Fender Bassman with a Wet reverb. It's got the tone and character I've been looking for.

Was a great read while awaiting the two I have ordered from Todd.
One, a Murphy style 22.5" lap steel will be ready soon and the console is still about year away, but what a nice guitar to be dreaming about.
Giving serious thought to changing that order from a D-8 to a T8.
I really need to spruce up my playing to deserve these fine instruments.

This was so good that after 4 years of being inactive it deserves a TTT.

Thanks for bringing this back into topic. After all these years it makes great reading, especially as it includes some of the greats who are no longer with us. A lot seems to have changed in ten years.

Hi Alan,
Glad you agreed it is a great thread.
I've just been told by Todd that he is now got the JM lap steel about finished and just waiting for the case to arrive.
Also decided this is kind of a once in a life deal so changed my order from a D-8 to a T-8...
Some tings are worth a long wait, and this will be that!
Andy

I was listening to some Hank Thompson today and heard a track that I *think* is a good example of the sound of wood vs aluminum necks on a Bigsby. I guess these are technically pedal steels, but this thread in this section made sense to me. Just for fun.

The track is the well-known "The New Green Light", the 1954 version. According to Praguefrank's Hank Thompson session personnel breakdown, this recording features Bob White and Pee Wee Whitewing on steel guitars.
http://countrydiscoghraphy2.blogspot.co ... art-1.html

The reason that I think this is a good example is, the end of the steel solo in the middle of the song features a call back to the last phrase of the melody, as played in the intro. It is about as close as you can get to having the same conditions to make the comparison. Compare the intro with the end of the steel solo (cue it up to 1:19):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWJa1lpoSBg

To me, the tone between the intro and solo are is ever so slightly different. If I was to guess, I would say it is Pee Wee on the intro, with metal necks and Bob White on the solo with wood necks. I would also say that they both sound equally great! The difference is pretty subtle, but I am fairly certain that I can hear it. Am I crazy, does anyone else hear the same thing? Just in case anyone else is interested! If this helps anyone decide what to order from Todd, then all the better (and that would be even more on topic ).