The Steel Guitar Forum

Ron did the girl at Wal Mart sell you a pair of those $50.00 britches?

I guess that's why I always were a 2nd pair of underwear. Just don't want to forget something importand during my Senior Moments.

Not too long ago I left for a two-week tour, had to load some extra stuff that threw me off my "packing sequence" and got almost to the first venue when I remembered leaving my pak seat in the middle of the studio floor.
No bar, picks, strings, effects, volume pedal...
I borrowed a dobro bar and a thumbpick, took 'till the second show to get a morley wah-volume that barely worked from a kind fan. By the third show I had faked a whole different style. The wierdest thing to me was how many compliments I got on my sound. To me it was awful, and painful.
I always check for my seat, these days!

Soon after I switched from a combo to an amp head and separate speaker, I once loaded my speaker in my van, and that somehow cleared the "amp" off my sloppy mental checkoff list. So I arrived at the gig with no amp head. Had to drive back across town to get it.

Just last night, the drummer, who has been preoccupied with family medical problems, arrived at our gig with no snare and symbols. He drove out to the suburbs to get them and missed most of the first set. Our blues band sounded pretty lame without drums.

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<font size="1">Student of the Steel: Zum uni, Fender tube amps, squareneck and roundneck resos, tenor sax, keyboards

Working for a band in the early 90's basically running the tour, I got seriously annoyed at things being left behind in clubs. I developed a checklist to be marked off as items were placed in the trailer, so we would not leave without any gear. The VERY FIRST NIGHT, we went through the checklist, marked off each individual item and packed it carefully for the long 4 state drive ahead. Assured and a bit self satisfied, I packed everyone into the van and we left.

The next morning we went back and attached the trailer to the van.

yeah...

Most bands would sound better with fewer drums.

One Friday night we set up to play a gig and the drummer didn't show up. So we started playing the first set without him and a lady in crowd came up and asked where our drummer was. We told we didn't know. She then volunteered to play the tambourine for us until he showed up. It was better than nothing. She got up on stage and stood where the drums were supposed to be and played the tambourine for two sets until the drummer finally made it. It turned out that he thought the gig was on Saturday instead of Friday. I remember turning to the guitar player and telling him we sounded like a folk group and he suggested that maybe we should do "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley" or something like it. That was a long night!

Allen Peterson

I remember a gig with only myself and a singer/guitar player. At midnight he did the count down... "5,4,3,2,1 ... HAPPPY NEW YEAR!!!".

I leaned over and told him... "It's tomorrow night!"

True story



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Dave Wren
'96 Carter S12-E9/B6,7X7; Twin Session 500s; Hilton Pedal; Black Box
www.ameechapman.com

I spent saturday afternoon cleaning my MCI until it was bright and pretty.I had the legs set against one wall and the pedal rods against another wall.
I guess I got out of sequence or something because I arrived at the gig and put the MCI together and it went well until I could't find the pedal rods..the instrumment can be played with out the rods...but not quite the same.

Lost! I used to live in Searcy, AR. A friend called and wanted me to come and jam with him close to Little Rock. While loading my steel and amp, I put my volume pedal on top of the car. Somewhere between Searcy and Little Rock there's a Sho-Bud volume pedal. If you find it, keep it!

I get really nervous around superior players and tend to freeze up. The better they are, the more inhibeted I get.

So a few years ago I did a gig on guitar with the great Will Ray as the other guitarist, and he was so good, that I totally forgot how to play.

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My web site

We played an outdoor job in Princeton NJ one time. The drummer never showed up but he told us the next day that he heard the music and really enjoyed it. He lived a few blocks away. That was the same drummer that stepped in an open sewer one night then put his sewage covered shoes and socks on the air conditioner intake and played barefoot. The whole club had this distinct aroma about it that night but we didn't find out why until we packed out later.