The Steel Guitar Forum

Man, Dick McIntire was good! It's a shame his work is close to 100% out of print.

Roulette is another guy who uses his fingers on the guitar's controls for volume effects. The only guitar on which that technique ever worked for me was a Chandler lap steel where the knobs fit in just the right place.

using your pinky was rather common among all the hawaiien-players 40-50 years ago. Those licks were however mainly single-note-licks(and the better players used their thumb only if i remember well). try putting a volume knob on your steelguitar and i think it will become obvious why they started using a foot pedal.rob.

Rob, I detect you must be a pedal player. On most lap guitars, the volume control is situated at the right spot for the pinky to curl around, whereas on most pedal guitars, it is not situated on the upper surface...hence the need for a volume pedal.

George,
on a pedal steelguitar the volume-knob is situated under the rightfoot, because you can't use your pinky with all those chords you play on a pedalsteel, while maintaining a rather rigid righthand. Why make things complicated?? ,rob.

Pedabro players going for the acoust natural resonator sound don't have the option of a volume pedal.

Doug, Moon has always used a volume pedal but does get on and off of it as Booby says "both feet on pedals". He does have fast feet. He has told me numerous times that he sets his volume high and plays all the time." " Let the engineer / sound man leave in or take out what they want" Also said" a lot of stuff he put on Waylon recordings didn't make it to final mix".
regards, fred

Bobby....wooooopppps.Sorry bout my spelling...you might think I'm competing with Bobbe for "wwusrt spuhllor.
Another interesting bit of wisdom The Moon passed on to me was his and Roy N. first "delays or reverb".He took a 2x6,he always started with a 2x6 for everything he built",and a couple of heads from a tape recorder.Nailing one head in place with a nail and spacing the other head til he got the sound he wanted and then made tapes to proper length . Tapes needed changing as they would break during a job.
This was before echoplex and others on market. I don't know where they got the idea.Of course where did Moon get most of his ideas...he didn't have anyone to copy???
regards...fred

If you want to hear the next best thing to Dick McIntyre, then get Chuck Lettes newest CD "Cool Blue Steel" because he plays EVERY song with McIntyre's 1935 6-string Rickenbacker Frypan!!