The Steel Guitar Forum

I started playing in about 1947 when I was 14 with the Honolulu Conservatory of Music in Oakland, CA. Still love it.

I started with a Fender Stringmaster double-eight in 1976 at the age of 21. My first pedal steel came a year later, a Fender 400.

I started on 6 string lap in 1964 (at age 24). I had already been playing guitar for 8 years.
Didn't like the lap steel much - actually I was hopeless on it. Still can't bar slant.
Bought a Maverick in 1978 and could finally find the chords I wanted. Hooked ever since.

1995 or 96, I was 49 or 50. Started on a borrowed Fender student model--the Winston book came with it. Eventually the guy I borrowed it from moved away and I never saw him again. His was the only psg I had ever actually seen up to that point, and it must have been the only one within a 50 mile radius.
God had given me some degree of musical ability and I'd always loved the sound of steel guitars, so one day, after some kind of "inner-child-experience" I decided I must learn to play this mysterious thing, what ever it was. Enter-the guy with the Fender. Somebody up there was with me

In '91, age 37. Thanks to Scotty's book, which had some tunes in it that I didn't like, but were great for learning.

Hi,

I started pedal steel at age 14 (1974)... A year or two prior I messed a bit with several different lap steels.

Robert

1981 aged 28. A blonde sho bud 3x1.
Got me the winnie book and straight into red river valley

1976 at age 22 with a MSA Sidekick.

Pedal Steel in 1973. I was 19.

The year was 1972 and I was 23.

I was 15 in 1946 and began my steel career by installing a steel-nut on a decrepit $5.00 standard guitar.

67 years later, I should be playing better, but, I'm not.

I picked up 6 string at 17 in 1973, mandolin at 18, in 1974 and lap steel in 1986 when I was 30. I feel an affinity with all string instruments. I dearly love the steel but if you told me I'd spend the rest of my life on a desert island with just one instrument I'd take an acoustic Spanish guitar.

Andy Volk wrote:...if you told me I'd spend the rest of my life on a desert island with just one instrument I'd take an acoustic Spanish guitar.

I'd need to know whether this desert island has electricity or not...

1960, I was 8 years old, and started taking lessons on a 6-string black Epiphone lap steel that my Dad had always wanted to learn to play. Got my double-8 Fender about 2 years later and went through several teachers. Unfortunatly, none of them played pedal guitar nor did they teach me anything but to play from sheet music. I quit playing at 16 cuz I just couldn't get "that sound."

Fast forward to about 1976 when I heard John Call's steel on a jukebox. Bought a Maverick and Sho-Bud's first book, and started playing in bands in a few months. My second band was playing some Texas swing, so enter my Pro II. After several years of having some fun in several bands, I quit again in 1986 to start college. (I was semi-disabled and needed some type of training so I could get back to work. Being a starving artist actually turned out to be a type of physical therapy for me, and I was ready to try to make it again in the real world.) So my Bud's been sitting in the closet for 26 years til last year, and I'm now trying to get reaquainted with her. It's tough cuz I have little energy after working all day. But, I'm going back to the basics and trying to learn theory (finally) so runs and progressions won't be so elusive this time around. Looking forward to semi-retirement next year so I'll have more time for pedal pushin'! I really want to learn to play this beast!

I was 17 the year was 1973. I should be so much better than I am. I still have no idea what I am doing. But I am having fun!!!!

August 20th, 1986. I was 15 and my first pedal steel was a 1976 Shobud LDG.

19 yrs young in 1974...still a Beginner and still not comfortable being called a Musician. I prefer Musical Equipment Owner.

1973. I was 21, & I'm still learning 40 years later.

When I was 8 I started trying to play a 6 string lap steel tuned to open E but never pursued it. At 16 I started playing 6 string electric guitar and after years of badgering from a friend to take up PSG I started trying to learn at the ripe old age of 50. Instantly I found out too late that it is more addicting than gambling, booze, or tobacco. Since there are no recovery programs for PSG addicts 17 years later I'm hard core and still learning and having the time of my life. Needless to say the 6 string electric has had to settle for a distant "Second Fiddle".

Got my steel in February 2012 just before my 63rd birthday. I'm having a ball learning on it about an hour to an hour and a half a day, and when I start actually playing it I'll update this post. I estimate somewhere about age 90!

I was 4 years old when I started playing a guitar; 1959. I never looked back; or even around for that matter. I was 20 years old when I started playing Pedal Steel Guitar; 1975. I was in the Marines back then; playing out on the weekends whenever I could. I use to practice in the barracks to this Buck Owens "Live at Carnegie Hall" LP. LoL! I started with a Sho-Bud. Later on, after being discharged from the Marines, I moved on to an Emmons. After playing several other's, I eventually ended-up playing a Mullen. I just bought my last Mullen pedal steel recently from Mike Mantey at the Mullen Factory. I sent him a picture of me and he added it to the Mullen family of players. I started on pedal steel back in 1975. If I could get a 20 Year Pin from America's Honky Tonk Bar Association, I'd be proudly wearing it! LoL!

Started age 19, in 1988 with a red Teisco 6-string lap steel and muddled along with that until 1997, at 28, when I bought my first pedal steel - an MSA Classic 10-string 3+4. Still bashing along, now with a D-10 Carter. In between, I've owned 2 Carter-Starters and a Sho-Bud Professional D-10.

I had just turned 50 when I actually for the first time saw a PSG IRL. I bought my first steel and started to play some 6 months later, still at 50 (in 2011). Since then my pocketbook has had some serious dents...

At the same time my mind, eyes and ears opened up to traditional Country Music (some 40-50 years late!). So now I´m trying to listen to, read about, and play all the lovely songs made in the 60´s and 70´s. Talk about being too soon old - too late smart...

/Sven

VFW, Cordell, Oklahoma, 1948, while still in high-school.

1960, 10 yrs old