The Steel Guitar Forum

Is PSG an "old guy's" instrument?

Of course not! And if you need verification, just ask either of the 12 year-olds in this country that play one!

I started playin' steel when I was eighteen. Now I'm thirty-one and I still love it! The steel guitar has changed how I thought about playing music because for years, I was telling myself "No, I can't handle playing a certain instrument because of cerebral palsy, but that all changed in 1999 when I started playing steel thirteen years ago. To me, playing steel is very rewarding. No matter what ages we are, we can still love this beautiful instrument called the steel guitar

I started at age 17 in 1971 and recently returned to it after nearly 30 years (filled with dobro, mando and banjo). Same old frustrations but boy, is it fun! So much new technology too... back then it was just a guitar, coil cord and amp. 58 and lovin' it!

I will tell you when I get Old. I am only 59 and started last year.

I think the reason its an old guys instrument is you will be old before you have the money to buy one

Finbarr there is probably a little truth to that. The other being it takes a lot of commitment to play the PSG well. You can be entertaining your self and singing songs with three chords on a spanish guitar and you don't need any accompaniment. I think a lot of players started in an environment where there were opportunities to play with other players.
I don't have that here.

Maybe we have to get old to start playing PSG to give us time for our hearing to get bad enough that we don't notice how far out of tune the steel is at times.

When you're young you don't want to mess with a fret-less expensive instrument with severe technique, tuning and mechanical cares.

Very few here on the forum will admit that they sound out of tune at times.

I'll confess there are some nights when I'm right on most of the time but then there are times I'm so far out the fiddle player notices.

Most of us old farts started playing when we were young, and just got old. If there's a preponderce of old players now it must mean that, proportionately, there are fewer youngsters taking up the instrument. Or maybe there are the same number, but they don't post on the Forum; they're probably too busy on Facebook. It's the older folks who have a more sedentary lifestyle and don't get out as much as they used to, so have more time to post on the Forum.

As Bob Dylan recently wrote (and by recent I mean 1965), "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

"Is PSG an "old guy's" instrument?"

Of course it is.

I think Howard P. makes a good point. There is a whole world of steel guitar players that have no interest in participating in groups like this one. I would venture a guess that they are the likely the majority.

Not steel guitar nuts like many of us, rather musicians working to make music in various styles and on various instruments. Many are multi-instrumentalists.

They're probably too busy working to talk about it. Just watch a little late night TV, the morning shows or the PBS music programs. There are young guys with steel guitars all over the place. Some of them are familiar, but many are faces that probably wouldn't be recognized by the population here.

The same holds true in the local scene around my area. For the 80 or so members in the Steel Guitar Club, there are probably twice that many that either don't know about a club or are not interested in it, so it's hard to determine demographics by the membership of certain groups.

Jerry Overstreet wrote:...There is a whole world of steel guitar players that have no interest in participating in groups like this one. I would venture a guess that they are the likely the majority...

You're right, they're just like we were. In twenty years time they'll be talking about the good old days, which to us is now.

La plus ça change, la plus c'est la même chose.

Jerry Overstreet
Just because they're old and/or spend time on the forum doesn’t mean that they are not playing and don’t know what’s going on outside the forum.

Believe me they know who’s playing PSG when and where and they don’t fail to notice the competition, the new guy who is just getting his foot in the door or the guy that moved in from out of town.

Times change and most of those old dance halls and Honky tonks are gone.
There are just not a whole lot of new guys popping up all over the place in big numbers. Not even small numbers.

For every new PSG player Bo's ever meet he's meet 10 guys he never heard of before who come up to the band stand sounded very knowledgeable but told him they quit playing long ago. Sadly it seems that‘s where the big numbers are..

Jim Bob Sedgwick wrote:It's not an old mans instrument. It's just that by the time you become competent, YOU'RE old!!

Best line in the entire thread! LOL

Stuart, perhaps I didn't do a good job of making my point which is that using the SGF membership and the more prevalent steel shows attendees and players to determine that mostly older guys are interested in steel would likely be flawed. That's only a small portion of the many.

Many players, particularly younger working musicians, just may not participate in these types of things a lot. That's all I'm saying.

It would be interesting to see a graph of steel guitar sales over the years. Maybe one of the manufacturers has done that at some time.

The idea that young guys don't play it is pretty goofy, just look around. No, not at the same people YOU'VE been watching for forty years.... Safer to say - young guys are practicing to get better at playing it, and old guys are on the forum talking about how soulful we are. Oh - about how long it takes to get good at it - maybe we should talk about it some more! That practicing - ick.

Once you get as soulful as me you should get some kind of badge or something, so it'll just ooze out the amp on it's own. Let's talk about it!

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=208507

It might be an older mans instrument yes, but here in Norway quite a few youngsters (+/- 20y) have gained interest the last couple of years.

I got my first PSG back in -93 at the age of 20. Did I start young? Yes probably. Not many of my friends understood me then, but today PSG is way more established. Of course lots of people uses PSG in various kinds of music and not just country.

Lane Gray wrote:Matthew, here ya go
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pedal-s ... 42219?mt=8

YouTube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t6JHYTFL2A

That's pretty impressive actually.

It is not an old man's instrument. BUT, this is an old man's website.

Bob Simons wrote:It is not an old man's instrument. BUT, this is an old man's website.

Naaah.Just more respectful.

Maybe b0b could get these folks to sponsor The Steel Guitar Forum.

What day is it?

Hi David,.......it just depends....if the PSG, is one that belongs to me...Yeppers.....IT'S AN OLD GUY'S INSTRUMENT!

Going by just my own students, the "new" guys I see out on the club scene, and conversations I have with players and bandleaders, there are a LOT of new, younger players. I can say a lot of my own students either haven't heard of the forum, or don't spend much time at all here. I'm pretty sure steel is doing just fine moving forward.