I wear a stretchie velcro belt brace like the guys wear at airports...it keeps the pain down to a day instead of several, after a gig. Chiropractors have them as do tool sections in hardware stores. I switched to a recumbent bike, as in my avatar, since my back won't let me ride an upright anymore. Thanks to the help from the forum members, I put together a GK amp/ Sica combo that really has halved my load!!
Since I fall into the category of bad backs, I thought I'd jump in on this thread, also ...
Some years ago, around mid 2001, I fell off the roof of my house and messed up the lower five vertebrae in my back, cracked my pelvis in half and suffered severe radial and ulnar nerve damage in my right arm.
Since then I've had endoscopic discectomy done on my back and it really stopped the back pain issues for the most part (as long as I don't get rambunctious and try to lift things beyond my weight restrictions) ... what I mainly deal with now is the weak pelvis and the nerve damage in my arm.
The weak pelvis makes it difficult for me to lift or carry anything over 30 pounds and if I twist the wrong way at any time, whoosh, I'm down on the ground in an embarrassing fall. Since my back was "fixed" by the operations, the pelvis has grown weaker and getting around is sometimes difficult. Around the house (and anywhere I can) I'm barefoot nearly all the time (a suggested "prescription" from the doctors and it really helps) ... for footwear I wear flat-bottomed sandals or flops. Any kind of shoe is, for me, a trip hazard waiting to happen and I actually get bad back pains if I wear a pair of shoes too long. I still wear shoes to play gigs, mainly because I can't find a sandal that stays tight enough on my foot to allow good pedal work.
Toting my equipment around is now extremely difficult to say the least ... I always have to have help with it.
For me, though, the worst part of my injury at present is the nerve damage in my right arm which really affects my picking hand terribly. The sensation 24/7 is the same feeling as when you freshly hit your funny bone. Pain, severe tingling and a certain amount of numbness. I'm still trying to rehab my hand and it's like learning to play steel all over again. I'm up to the point where medium tempo and ballads are not an issue, but anything requiring fast picking is still out of the picture for me.
1986 Mullen D-10 with 8 & 7 (Dual Bill Lawrence 705 pickups each neck)
Two Peavey Nashville 400 Amps (with a Session 500 in reserve) - Yamaha SPX-90 II
Peavey ProFex II - Yamaha R-1000 Digital Reverb - Ross Time Machine Digital Delay - BBE Sonic Maximizer 422A
ProCo RAT R2DU Dual Distortion - Korg DT-1 Pro Tuner (Rack Mounted) - Furman PL-8 Power Bay
Goodrich Match-Bro by Buddy Emmons - BJS Steel Bar (Dunlop Finger Picks / Golden Gate Thumb Picks)
Years ago Harold Fogle, who played steel guitar for Stonewall Jackson, sneezed and threw his back out and ended up in a wheel chair. He told me he wished he'd maintained posture throughout his playing career, instead of slumping at the steel, as the doctors told that probably had something to do with it.
I have had chronic low back pain for years..
For me, as long as I work out a couple times a week and include reverse situps on the roman incline bench, I am mostly pain free.
I try very hard not to miss going to the gym.
If you don't already have a back injury, I totally recommend exercise to eliminate back pain. I used to have severe back pain; I would drive my car for about 150 miles each day, come home and eat dinner, then promptly fall asleep in the Lazy-Boy. When I woke up, my back hurt so bad, my wife had to help me out of the chair. After a few months of this, my wife made me go to a chiropractor. (She used the ultimate motivation on me!) When I saw the doc, he x-rayed my back to make sure there was nothing cracked or broken; amd then he proceeded to line everything back up. When he was done, he told me to go to the gym and do machine crunches and ab isolator exercises. Then, to balance my back, I did back extension exercises with and without lumbar support. After doing this religiously for about two years, I have no more back pain. It can be done!
We should specify whether we are talking about back problems from playing pedal steel or back problems from carrying and loading equipment.
I used to get back and shoulder and neck pain when I started playing pedal steel in the seventies, because I was so bad at it that I would tense up in fear of bad notes. But all that pain gradually went away as I got better at playing the instrument, and now I am completely relaxed when I play and can play for hours without any pain at all. I think the foot and knee and arm movements are good exercise, actually.
But carrying equipment? Very easy to get injured! That last instant when you are leaning forward to load something in a vehicle -- that's the most dangerous moment for me. Even 50 pounds can hurt you if you aren't holding it right...
I give music lessons on several different instruments in Cambridge, NY (between Bennington, VT and Albany, NY). But my true love is pedal steel. I've been obsessed with steel since 1972; don't know anything I'd rather talk about... www.barryhyman.com
Set up and Tear down outta be " Wear out and Run down!.After hauling Fender twins, B-3's, P.A.'s etc. since the late 50's I can really feel that 4th set sitting at the Pedal steel,..hoping the singer doesn't agree to overtime with the bar mgr!..I've also gone back to my Pro 1..nice and light and I raised it with a lift kit so I can sit up straighter....got the right prescription in my glasses so I can see all the strings. Funny how the other band guys are all talking about their glasses, arthritis, nite driving, S.S. checks instead of the chicks in the audience!!....Still beats a day
job!!...Bad Back and all.....Larry
They make a collapsible wheelie cart, i don't think steel guitar is all to blame for bad backs. Most humans have it and don't play/lift steel guitars. Exersize, lifestyle, food, age, sleeping position all play a part in our back problem. Yes i do have a bad back, but to hell if i'm going to give up humping my bud from the trunk of the car to the wheelie cart,i'm not dis-abled yet and if i cant lift 50lbs 2 ft then i can't mow the lawn and everything else, don't let the 'steel' stop you.
my back at times prevents me from putting as much time in on the steel as I'd like to. Not so with the six string where you can sit in any comfy position and play till the cows come home. One thing i'd highly recommend for those with back issues is to hang in some kind of inversion i.e. inversion table for five -ten minutes a day. Discs are the one thing that do not receive any blood circulation but they can rehydrate and when in traction via suspended inversion will decompress and regain there correct positioning between the vertebrae.
one of the best therapies out there. Relatively cheap too.
