I Love Steel Guitars, Amplifiers and Other Music Gear

[Matthew Dawson]

Erv, the Fender PS400 head had three separate 145 Watt outputs. You could power 12 JBL K-140 15" speakers with no problem. Something to consider.....

[Mark van Allen]

What an interesting thread, b0b. I hear a bit of desire for some legacy permanence, if there really is such a thing. Your comments about instruments really resonate with me- there's a magic imbued into an instrument that passes through many hands, pleasing and entertaining and elevating folks all along the way. Have you seen "The Red Violin"? Wonderful. I flirted with becoming a luthier some years back, and built several tens of mandolins and dulcimers. I came to feel I just didn't have the finely tuned talent, or sensibility, to make wood into… something magic.

Who knows whether our conversations here will survive 20 or 30 years hence. Hard to tell. But there's no doubt that instruments made today will still be in use at that time, and far beyond. That's my point.

It will remain to be seen whether mechanical steel guitars will last very long as "contributing" instruments. Aside from vintage enthusiasts, very few early pedal steels seem to have kept to the forefront of performance while the instrument has evolved, making me wonder how much of a mechanical design has real longevity. A generation or two, for sure. But the hundreds of years of a Strad? We'll see.

And yes, your contribution to the recent/current steel world is enormous through the construction and maintenance of this forum. What a wonderful resource… but again, the vagaries of modern life and the internet itself do make me wonder how long all this will "last" and in what form. We tend to see things as a linear progression, new to newer to newest, but who knows what giant leaps in technology and/or metaphysics or cryobiology will bring fundamental changes to how we view, save, or process information?

I do agree, physical instruments will survive and fascinate. I have a feeling acoustic instruments will have the most staying power, but who knows.

I'm another of those who utilized Print Shop for all kinds of stuff. I'll bet there are all kinds of cards, posters, sale flyers and so on at the bottom of drawers and file cabinets that people will be re-finding for years and years.

For however long it hangs, thanks for the forum. Really!

[Charlie McDonald]

who knows what metaphysics?

A good question.


Buddy Emmons envisioned changing the tone of his guitar with his mind.

I've imagined a tone changer setup that would respond to brain waves.

See Ask Buddy .

I read that a man opened a gate by having devices taped to his head that read brain waves
and sent them to a controller on the gate. When he thought about opening the gate, it opened.

Of course, he already controls tone with his mind, by his hands. Why not volume?
Why not free up another foot by more complex tasks with multiple servos to raise G#'s to A's and B's to C#'s?
Polyphony would a problem (but only if you think it is).

Opening a gate in your mind opens gates in the physical world. The metaphysical is the gateway to the physical--
but only in the metaphysical sense--why we have steel guitars; why we have hands.

Opening the mind to the possibility of music without an instrument is easy to do, easy to imagine an air Theremin
made from a biofeedback unit--look, no hands. Why not, altho most musicians and all steelers would ask 'Why?'

Without it, there would be no GAS.

Metaphysics--talking about physics.... People have envisioned changing the world with their minds.
It's what b0b does, talking about the physics of the steel guitar, changing the world one string at a time.

But this is REALLY funny; fishing for old posts just this morning, emptying the creel... I found this from 13 Jul 2005 8:51 am:

You can play a kind of music with my little MOE (Made On Earth) biofeedback unit. It's a warble, but it's a start. With the right circuitry, this could become a controller, like a Theramin, except it's the direct approach. I've always been sure this is the future of music (hey, it happens on Futurama), and it will not only be like nothing you've heard, but nothing anybody's heard.

I must've been channeling Buddy.

[Stuart Legg]

Charlie McDonald you the man.
I read your last two posts here. What the!!
I was sick and having trouble going to sleep and your posts left me confused, totally made me dizzy and left me with no thought of the original topic and I dropped right off to sleep with nothing on my mind.
Please don't change a thing just keep them coming!!!