Why did you want to play pedal steel guitar?

[Billy Carr]

Second generation steel picker. Early influences, Jerry Byrd, Little Roy Wiggins, Don Helms, Buddy Emmons, Lloyd Green and the one that really set a 14 year old kid on fire in 71', John Hughey! Of course, today, in 2011, I've been really watching Paul Franklin lately, as well as, Mike Johnson. Dave Hartley also has my interest, in the way he approaches different songs. Very good study project.

[Larry Bressington]

It's an Extention of my.....Corvette!!

[Henry Matthews]

When I heard Weldon kick off then and only then, I said, I've got to learn to do that. To me, still one of the best steel guitar ride and kicks I've ever heard. Still can't do it though but maybe once out of 20 times, LOL.

[Dave O'Brien]

He was sitting; I was standing (playing bass)

[John De Maille]

It's an Extention of my.....Corvette!!

Geez, I wish I'd thought of that. I have an 07' C6, but, my steels came first
Larry,
What year is yours?

[David Hartley]

Just a bump for the thread to encourage any more replies.

David H.

[Alan Berdoulay]

HARVEST........Ben "Long Grain" Keith.

[Erik Alderink]

Because I didn't know anyone else would could, or would learn it.

[john buffington]

Buddy Emmons, Buddy Charleton, Sonny Curtis, Weldon Myrick

JB

[John Peay]

Great thread here, very interesting...

I grew up within an hour of Nashville in the 60's and 70's (I'm 51 now). Fell in love with country music about age 10 while in the car with my Dad and heard Charley Pride's "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" on the radio. I can still take you right to the place where we were when I heard it...just loved the classic country stuff: Buck, George, Merle, Johnny (all of 'em), Conway, Vern, Gene etc. And of course, I always got a bit of a chill during the steel parts on those songs...

Have played some 6-string off and on for years, country and bluegrass; then about 2 Christmas's ago my wife gave me a lap steel out of the blue! Well, of course she knew I loved country music, and I was always saying "One day I'm gonna get a lap steel".

Messed with C6 lap for a few months, then she gave me a pedal steel for my 50th birthday! Sheesh, great wife, especially considering we're a bit "musically incompatible"!

Been playing E9th about a year and a half now, absolutely love it....while I do wish I'd started playing at 20 instead of 50, I do have the time to do it now, and these things don't cost $10k like I had imagined! This forum, youtube, etc are just great resources for learning these days as well.

[Jim Curtain]

Watching Hee Haw when I was a kid, then Jerry Garcia & Lloyd Maines.

[Jim Snowman Mitchell]

Played bass 30+ years but was always fascinated by the sound it made.

[Brendan Mitchell]

Well I played harmonica for years and one day I looked in the mirror and thought I looked a bit puny .Right then and there I made a promise to myself to take up an instrument that was going to build some muscles !
I got a Fender Twin and a D10 ZB and the rest is history .

[Bud Angelotti]

I'm the opposite of Brandon. I already was a daredevil, before I started on the steel, 30 some years ago. I liked the sensitive nature of the steel guitar sound, mixed in with the rough and tumble of country western music. I took it up to get in touch with my sensitive side. It's taken me a long time to get to this level of obscurity.

[Brendan Mitchell]

Nice one Bud

[Corey Chapman]

I was an acoustic guitar strumming 11 year old, playing with my Dad's gospel music group that was covering many of the country gospel tunes of the time (early 80's). My Dad asked me if I would like to learn to play steel so that he could have steel in the group. I said, "Sure, buy me one." He did (a Maverick that we traded about two weeks later for a Pro I), and the rest is musical obscurity

Twenty-eight years and many miles, adventures, and experiences later, sitting behind those 10 or 20 strings is still one of the most comfortable, enjoyable places on earth.

[Joe Naylor]

Started playin the lap steel when I was 6 because my hand would not fit around a guitar. Steel guitar Contests is what shows were called back then - I love the show formate much better.

Back then I was told I had to wait till I was 12 to play the guitar (so started on that at 12)

Started the pedal steel after 50 and when carrying one think maybe harmonica would have been a better choice.

Have always watched the steel player all my life. My first steel guitar as an adult I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

But I learned that putting wheels works well.

Joe Naylor
www.steelseat.com

[Tor Arve Baroy]

Started playing pedal steel because of Bob Dylan.
Loved the sounds Bucky Baxter, David Mansfield and Larry Campbell played for him!
Have since played both more trad. Country and Rock`n`roll on my third pedalsteel.
Love it!!

[Jan Viljoen]

I also saw a Hee Haw show in 1975 (and Adam in Bonanza)


and I swore that one day I would conquer this beautiful contraption on pipes.
So, it was a challenge and the sound that motivate me.

(And of course all the reasons everybody else mentioned here)



Enjoy!

[Jerry Foster]

Hi all, I had played lead guitar in bands most of my life & we were needing a steel Guitar in the band but all the steel players around were busy,,, so I decided to learn how to play Steel . so I went and bought a S-10 MSA classic with 3 Floors & 4 Knee levers & the rest is history. I now play a Pro-Lite Justice with 4 Floors & 6 knee levers . thanks for asking,your picking friend, Jerry F.

[John Scanlon]

A few years ago, I was asked to join an upstart band as the pedal steel player ... before I even owned one. The drummer of the band was trying to put together a group merging country and 80s rock, and wanted a pedal steel player. He had a line on a used C.Starter for quite cheap, so I bit and jumped in. The band didn't pan out, but I kept at the steel anyway. I have used it a little with my main band, and I've sat in with several other bands around town playing it. My problem is that without a regular outlet for it (outside of my house), I'm six months on, six months off. Currently in an "on" period of regular practice. Now I just need to keep practicing and finding a permanent gig with it.

[Roual Ranes]

What Dave O'Brien said.
I told myself that I could do that.........like Waylon said.......WRONG.

[Larry Allen]

I had been playing guitar, bass and low brass for a living for 36 years when in 1996 I cut off my left middle finger taking a blade off my tractor. After that Stu Shulman taught me to play Dobro and then steel..By then they were closing up the honky-tonks in Alaska so I set mine up as an Ext E9 and started relearning all the jazz and rockin stuff I knew. I wish I would have started when I was a kid! Thanks to the forum for endless amounts of help!!Larry

[Joe Gall]

Interesting reading everyone's replies.

For me, well, my parents have been playing country music since before I was born and they both still play to this very day. Growing up in a home with both parents playing in a country band was a cool thing for me as a kid. My Dad worked for GM at the Tonawanda Engine Foundry for years when I was a kid. That entire time he and my Mom had a country band. They would play 2, 3 4 nights a week from the time I can remember (I was born in 1968) up until the mid 80's when I was in HS.

Well, they had a few different steel guitar players over those years, two of which my Dad had talked into getting one and learning to play instead of lead guitar (6 string). One of them is a forum member although I never see him post much here but they live up in a suburb of Buffalo, NY. To this day they host a Saturday night open jam at their house every other Saturday now for the last 28 years. There are two different forum members that go there quite often to jam.

Anyway, as a kid I was always amazed, intrigued and blown away with the PSG. In 1977 my Dad quit his job at GM and my parents up and moved to Nashville, TN for a change of pace. Once there I was now about 10 and I had been talking about learning to play PSG non stop so my Dad had heard about a guy in the area who built them. My Dad was working for Peterbuilt and someone gave him this guy's name and number. His name was "Woody". A bald headed guy who looked just like Mr. Clean (LOL).

Anyway, "Woody" managed a huge apartment complex somewhere outside of Nashville area and we went to look at what he had available etc. Well, Woody had a plain jane, simple single neck 3/2 that he was building. We asked about the costs etc. and we agreed on a price and he said he needed a few more weeks to finish it up as he built them right there in the maintenance shop for the apartment complex.

Well I was totally bummed as I thought I was going home with my PSG. A couple of weeks later Woody called and off we went to pick up my brand new PSG. I had been saving my money for a couple of years up to this point and couldn't wait for my PSG!

Once we got it home Dad got out his guitar and started strumming and singing and off I went. NOT! I was completely convinced that I was going to be able to just sit down and play this thing with no problem at 10 years old! Believe it or not, I still have the bar and picks to the very day! LOL

Well after a few months of "playing" with this PSG it eventually found it's way into a closet and sat there for the next 3 years until we moved back to Buffalo after my Dad losing his job at Peterbuilt due to the high interest rates (now 1981).

Once back in Buffalo we ran into one of my Dad's old PSG players who wanted to get back into playing and he told him about my single neck and it was sold. I have no idea who "Woody" is, if he is still building PSG etc. but I have often wondered if anyone here would know who he may have been as he did build some very nice machines from what I remember!

Well, in 1987 I wanted to try it again. Looked in the local paper and I found an "old Sho-Bud" double neck. This was in Lockport, NY. Went and bought it for $200 as the guy was moving that very day to Nashville, TN of all places! LOL This guy was a VERY WELL accomplished PSG player however, I can not remember his name. The Sho-Bud he sold me had it's original case and it had a TON of airline and Greyhound stickers all over it, so much so there were no places left that didn't have a sticker on it!

Anyway, I bought it took it home and had the same experience as the first. The exception being that this time I was actually able to make some headway with it and play along with the jammers that came over to my parents house. I ended up moving to Richmond, VA and worked retail and had no time at all to practice so I put the Sho-Bud up for sale. This was in the early 90's. Come to find out this was a VERY EARLY, in fact, one of the earliest Sho-Buds anyone had seen and I ended up selling it to someone right there in Richmond, VA for $2k a couple of weeks before Christmas. Our kids had a great unexpected Christmas and I had a sick feeling that I had just sold the one thing I always wanted for the now second time!

Then a couple of years ago I found out about my vision problem and my first thought instantly when the eye Dr. told me what was going on and that I was going to loose my driver's license, my career etc. that this was THE TIME to buy another PSG.

Well, after losing my career, cars, house and pretty much everything else my wife one day said let's take what money we have and buy you a PSG. Now that seemed like the greatest idea ever due to my mind set and depression etc. but also seemed liked the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. Take every penny we had left and do something so "stupid like buy a PSG" when we have lost everything???

That's exactly what we did only because my wonderful wife and 13 y/o son at that time insisted that I needed something to concentrate on. How unselfish of them and how luck am I? This turned out to be the greatest thing that could possibly have happened and was the beginning of a complete turn around for us. I was getting up early, staying up late just so I could spend as much time as possible on my PSG. Aside from my family, the my passion for this thing (PSG) has saved my sanity and quite possibly my life.

After playing that particular PSG which was a Carter Starter and getting discouraged a bit due to the simple fact that I had outgrown the starter in six months after 6-12 hours per day for those first six months straight.

So I then found the MSA Classic D-10 that I have now which was posted here on this site. This guitar was owned by an eye doctor in Tampa who had issues with his vision much like myself. The Daughter and Wife of the gentleman who owned this guitar was so incredibly kind and touched by the common link I had with their loved one who had passed that it felt meant to be so to speak. So I now have a beautiful MSA Classic that plays and sounds awesome I just have to get back on track with my practicing & learning now that we have moved into our own home again.

As much as I would love to take lessons I don't think it's practical because I don't drive and we can not afford the expense etc. However, I am so grateful to folks like Mikey Adams who post incredibly helpful lessons/tips etc. I try to watch and learn from as many of them as I can and again, I am so grateful that folks are willing to put them out there as I am sure I am not the only person who finds them self on a tight budget etc.

I am hoping after the first of the year things turn around a bit for us as I would like to get a much lighter weight single neck as I have the chance to play with other musicians a couple times per week but there is no traveling with this ole MSA, she is a great guitar but just too heavy.

Well, there is my PSG story. I only hope that someday I can add another chapter to it that allows me to call myself a PSG "player" not a hacker...

[Joerg Hennig]

Buddy Cage!

New Riders of the Purple Sage

Exactly the same for me!