The Steel Guitar Forum

In 75 when I was doing the Sho-Bud seminars, I did one at Red's store in No. Hollywood, I don't remember what
Red was playing, but it wasn't a ZB, I remember I was playing a LDG, forum member, Steven Finley was there & I'm quite sure he would know what Red was playing those days, Jeff Baxter was sitting on the floor playing Bass. au

Could it also be possible that he played several brands at the same time?

I bought my first pedal steel from Red in 1975, and I saw him play several times before that with Make Nesmith at McCabes in Santa Monica. For those gigs, he played an 8 string Fender 400. It was a left handed steel that he had converted to play right handed. When I asked him why, he said "This steel has the best tome of any steel I've ever played". I'm pretty sure he used it on Mike's records. It was pretty weird looking.- Jack

It was mid 70s, Palomino Club in North Hollywood, Red's was the house band, Jerry Cole on Vocals and lead...Red was playing a Sierra = Orange like if I remember rightly. I was there with an octave dividing device using logic chips.

I think that Red liked to compliment his hair with his guitar colors.

I worked at Red's Royal Amp Service "Where you get it royally!" 1979 till 1981, and at that time he was playing a Dekley, but he also had an old Fender around. (The Fender was painted some outlandish blue-orange scheme and had lots of stickers on it IIRC)

He had his Eb6 tuning on one neck (front, I think) and his Eb diatonic tuning on the other neck.

Incidentally, he told me a story about a session at which he was using the Dekley and having trouble getting a part right. He called his cartage company and had them bring his old Fender to the studio and he got the part immediately. FWIW

Thanks Joachim for the info about Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers. I've had that album, Bongos Over Balham, for years as a home-made copy on CD and always wondered who the steel player was (another great steel part is on the song "Truck Drivin' Girl"). It always sounded like an accomplished steel player to me rather than a guitar player playing some steel on the side. So that was the great Red Rhodes.

Al Udeen,you are right I do remember what steel Red
played that day it was a sierra d-10 with eb6th
on top neck,and diatonic tuning on bottom neck,it was
rosewood mica,with gold anodized,finish.
Al,I remember you and red playing flawlessly.
Buy the way Al werent you driving a maroon chevy
montecarlo back then?

Steven: What an awesome memory you have regarding the
MonteCarlo, The local Gretsch Rep that drove me to all
of the seminars in LA had a MonteCarlo, but my memory says it was light blue! I also did 2 weeks of seminars,
including one at Blackie Taylors store in Garden Grove,
Such Great memories from that time period! au

Joerg there's an article about the band in vol.25 of this music magazine:
http://www.shindig-magazine.com/back-issues.html

I want to hazard an evidence-free guess. The ZB in the clip with Bert Jansch was there already or otherwise was a loaner brought into the studio for the session in Sussex, UK.

Your guess is wrong. Red Rhodes was listed in the ZB catalog as a ZB endorsee/player/owner.

Kevin is right. Red brought that ZB to the UK and used it here. It ended up with Eric Snowball, the UK importer of ZB guitars in the 1970's.

I remember seeing it close up in Eric's store, and the guitar still had Red's diatonic set up on it.