The Steel Guitar Forum

Lane Gray wrote:...in the words of one famous review (and I'm not in the mood to look up the original source), "Those who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."

Was the reviewer Yogi Berra?

I've seen it attributed to Lincoln, or Max Beerbohm, or Benjamin Disraeli.
The following is cribbed from the Straight Dope discussion forum, where the Teeming Millions seem to agree. And I'll trust the followers of Unca Cecil to get to the bottom of things.

QUOTATION: People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
ATTRIBUTION: Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), U.S. president. Quoted in Collections and Recollections, ch. 30, G.W.E. Russell (1898).

Referring to “an unreadably sentimental book.” According to Gross’ Lincoln’s Own Stories, Lincoln’s remark was to Robert Dale Owen, a spiritualist who had insisted on reading to Lincoln a long manuscript on spiritualism.

Ooops. Reading further, it may have been a paraphrase of Artemus Ward, which Russell may have fervently wished Lincoln had said.

After several hours of web searching, my paws were tired, but I finally found a definitive debunking in Ralph Keyes' book, The Quote Verifier (my emphasis and linkage below):

n late 1863 a spoofy newspaper advertisement for [Artemus] Ward included this testimonial: "I have never heard any of your lectures, but from what I can learn I should say that for people who like the kind of lectures you deliver, they are just the kind of lectures such people like. Yours respectfully, O. Abe."

Jim Evans here in Texarkana uses a little Boss Tone that plugs into steel and duplicates it almost exactly. Jim does it on C6th with the bottom 3 strings I believe. I have also heard it duplicated with a Rat.

I heard Joe Savage play it and he sure made it sound good.
I think I recorded it, but would have to go thru hundred's
of videos to find it. IT would be nice if Joe would come on
and mention how he did it. I can't remember if he played it
on E9th or C6th, but it sure was close to the original.

Jeff Newman told me that it was done on steel and the sound was a malfunction in the amp. I don't recall him saying it was the speaker, but could have been. After it was recorded, Jeff said when the produced listened to the playback, he liked it and others involved agreed, so they kept it.

So many rumors going around, we may never know the exact cause but I think it is safe to say it was not intended and that it most likely led to the discovery of the distortion effect.

Jeff also said that Ralph Mooney was playing through a compressor on a session and had accidently set the threshold so that all the notes were getting compressed and he was getting a chicken pickin sound. He thought there was something wrong with his amp. So maybe this was the beginning of the west coast sound or at least the chicken pickin sound. A discovery by accident, just like the fuzz tone.And as they say, the rest is history.

George Kimery wrote:Jeff Newman told me that it was done on steel and the sound was a malfunction in the amp.

Are you suggesting that Grady Martin exaggerated his role?

Earnest Bovine wrote:

George Kimery wrote:Jeff Newman told me that it was done on steel and the sound was a malfunction in the amp.

Are you suggesting that Grady Martin exaggerated his role?

I just don't believe this story.

Firstly, both Harold Bradley and Glen Snoddy (the engineer on the session and quoted in the article linked to in the 4th reply to this thread) maintain it was Grady martin playing through a faulty channel on the desk and Glen also says the sound was repeatable until the channel broke completely (this wouldn't have been the case unless the "phantom steel player" had left his amp behind.)

Secondly, my own ears tell me that the instrument is a 6 string bass - not a steel. In fact I can't even hear any steel on that track. You can definitely hear a 6 string bass all through it, although for most of the song he is playing muted notes (Tic Tac bass style) where the distortion would not be obvious until the solo and turnaround where he is playing longer notes.

Thirdly, this is all also supported by the discography listed here:
http://countrydiscography.blogspot.co.u ... art-i.html

which doesn't even list a steel player on the session.

12 July 1960 [14:30-17:30] Bradley Film & Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, TN – Marty Robbins (Marty Robbins [vcl], Grady Martin [gt], Jack Pruett [gt], Bob Moore [bass], Louis Dunn [drums], Floyd Cramer [piano]. Producer: Don Law)
175 CO 65201/OB 2245/ZSP 51221 DON'T WORRY 'BOUT ME 4-41922 3-41922 4-33070/CS 8435 KG 31361 C 32294 C2-38870 BCD-15655
176 CO 65206/OB 2246/ZSP 51222 A TIME AND PLACE FOR EVERYTHING 4-41809 3-41809/CS 8435 BCD-15655

So you can believe the story of someone who was actually there plus your own ears plus a discography or you could go with "what someone heard from someone else"

If anyone hasn't heard it, click here and then tell me it doesn't sound like a 6 string bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCbIAmy ... freload=10

Earnest, I was only repeating what Jeff told me when I was attending his school in the early 80's. Since Jeff was not in the session, he was just repeating what somebody had told him. If it is first hand information from Grady himself, then I say Grady was the man.

Just went back and listened to the original recording one more time. Makes you wonder. . . how did Grady do a slide up to the first note of the break and take just shy of 2 seconds to complete the slide? How do you do a 2-second slide on a 6-string bass, even if you are Grady Martin? Perhaps Mr. Martin played slide guitar and we just didn't realize it.

Another thing to consider: studio playbacks are done at high volume levels. I don't know any engineers who would want high-powered square waves going through their playback monitors. Still sounds like a blown guitar amp speaker to my ears. Here's a photo of the actual waveform.

We report you decide.



Great song, great topic.

Merry Christmas All

Craig

It was either a baritone guitar or a regular guitar. Don't think it was bass and know it wasn't steel. I don't know what happened but just know it was an accident in the recording but I've been wrong before.

Henry,
Just looked at your Oaklawn Opry page. It looks very inviting. Wish I could come out and enjoy a show.
Keep up the good work.

Merry Christmas to you both.

Craig

Danelectro 6-string bass.

First note is C# (5th string, 4th fret) pulled slowly…..close to an E note.

I'd always understood it was a console fluke.

No baritones available in 1960.

Jerry Jones wrote:Danelectro 6-string bass.
First note is C# (5th string, 4th fret) pulled slowly…..close to an E note.

I've got to say, if there's someone who can recognise the sound of a 6-string bass it's Jerry

From what I've heard, the sound they got was a accident of some type. Why would a bass player be taking ride on song unless they were looking for that particular sound?

I just listened to it real close with headphones and it does sound like a low instrument like a bass. Still wonder why bass player was playing ride unless it was planned that way.

Henry,

While Danelectro originally created the 6-string bass as an answer to Leo's new 4-string electric bass, it ended up as a more useful tool for guitar players. There probably wasn't a nashville session guitar player of that era that didn't own or have access to a 6-string bass…… or for that matter, today too.

Seeing as there seems to be a few people here unfamiliar with the 6 string bass, here is a quick crash course.

As Jerry said, created by Danelectro in about 1956, it quickly became part of the arsenal of all the top session guitar players. A lot of the time it was used to double the part being played by the upright bass, giving it a more percussive sound. This was coined by Harold Bradley as Tic Tac bass. You hear it all over country music from the 50's and 60's and on lots of Elvis records (Little Sister for example). Here's an example from Patsy Cline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWCUh6t ... freload=10

Sometimes it would be used as a lead instrument - this must be one of the earliest and certainly one of the wildest examples.

Johnny Horton - Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-uQjtw ... freload=10

I first noticed it on some of George Jones' 60's cuts - drenched in reverb - and fell in love with it. Especially on these 2 cuts. Especially the first one which I just about wore out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sxj-nU ... freload=10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD-ozW0 ... freload=10

I became obsessed with this sound and when I eventually found out what it was I had to have one. Unable to find one anywhere - being in England and pre-internet shopping - I converted an old short scale bass guitar by fitting a new bridge, nut, guitar pickup and re-drilling the headstock for 6 strings. It didn't look too pretty but it had the sound. A couple of years later I found a shop selling one of Jerry's longhorns - the only option at the time other than an original Danelectro or Fender Bass VI - both well out of my price range and also as rare as hen's teeth this side of the pond. Since then, I've played quite a few of them - including original Fenders and Dannos but never found one I like better than my longhorn, so thanks a million, Jerry.

It was also widely used in other genres such as this classic:
Jack Nitzsche - The Lonely Surfer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o_5z6- ... freload=10

And a couple of English guys- using Fender's answer to the Danno - the Bass VI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAUOnTa ... freload=10

But the most famous usage of it that just about everyone has heard is played by Glen Campbell on Wichita Lineman, using Carol Kaye's Danno (although there is also a great clip of him playing on TV using a Bass VI)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj7I_GM ... freload=10

b0b wrote:This was all before I went to work at Mesa/Boogie and discovered how wonderfully musical distortion tones could be. Until then I just thought of distortion as a noisy sound effect.

That's it then - I need to get a job at Mesa/Boogie.

When I was a teenager and all the great rock bands were coming out I took
a pencil and destroyed the speaker in my dads amp by poking several holes
in it and this is pretty much what it sounded like.

I still have the amp (new speakers) a 66 fender vibrolux reverb.
Yea, fuzz-tone was the stuff of a young hellion's dreams

I think I can hear the Tic-Tac come in on the beginning of the first chorus. Fidelity at the link isn't too good. I did it on 6-string guitar with a Rat and an Octifier pedal. Worked well.

What you might do is use an octave pedal, with any fuzz box really, to get the lower octave and then mix to taste.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EUsDB42bAs

Cheapo route would be Danelectro's Black Licorice which has an octave switch with fuzz.



Or the French Toast Octave Distortion;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjrkhXFPMuU




Boss OC3, more money, more funny, with overdrive ability for the fuzzy or add fuzz box du jour.

The Boss I used was the same, but an earlier model. Don't think it has as many knobs, and I ain't digging' it out now. But it worked well.

John Billings wrote:The Boss I used was the same, but an earlier model. Don't think it has as many knobs, and I ain't digging' it out now. But it worked well.

Maybe it was the OC2 JB?

Dat's it! Worked quite well on single notes. Armageddon if you played more than one note!

John Billings wrote:Dat's it! Worked quite well on single notes. Armageddon if you played more than one note!

Yeah there are models that track more notes played together better like the OC3's polyphonic mode so you don't get that hesitation of one note clash.