The Steel Guitar Forum

January 1980 at The Crossing, a truck stop bar in Buckhorn,PA.

I played an S10 Fender and an old spinet piano with a big pickup in place of the sound board.

I didn't stop drinkin' till the beer bottles and shot glasses made it from one end of the top of the piano to the other. Wild and wooly times.

These days, I'm a preacher. And that was some kinda seminary.

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Webb--
Livin' out a dangerous faith and lovin' it
GFI Ultra D10 8+8,
ZB 11/10 8+3 #0008
Early 30s Dobro
Harmony Lap Steel
Epi Joe Pass
Taylor 410
Epi A5 Mando
Kurzweil PC1X



<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Webb Kline on 28 February 2005 at 05:54 AM.]</p></FONT>

My fist gig was around 1948 - another kid
name Raymond and my self had taken 6 month
of steel lessons and the school we attended found
out we played duets , (Santo & Johnny so to speak !)
Our teacher sent us to other classes to play - and our
pay was getting out of class to do this -

WE were Stars !!

So there was no place to go but down from there .

For Howard Tate; where in Montana did that gig take place?

My first was at the local Elk's Club. I was asked to play Friday and Saturday night. The singer, who through some musicians together to back him, decided he didn't want steel the second night. I wonder why?....

My first gig was in 1949 or 1950, can't quite remember exactly, in Brisbane, CA just south of South San Francisco. I was about 17 at the time and played a double neck 8 string Epiphone Zephyr with an Epiphone Zephyr amp. I think we made about $5.00 each. I loved, still do, Jerry Byrd.

Ah, the good ol' days!

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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com

Ken, it was the Elmar in Butte. Actually it closed because the guy lost his lease. I wound up working in his new club, the Acoma Lounge. I stayed in Butte until 1997 before moving to Lousiana. I miss the scenery, but not the cold.

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Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum S12U, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3
http://www.Charmedmusic.com

My very first gig was at a bar way out on West Colfax, in Lakewood, Colorado. Lane's Tavern. This was in 1951. I was 14 and had a nickle plated single neck Rick. We used to play on Sunday (for free) from noon until the house band came in at 4PM. Ahhh .. the good ole days.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Barbara Hennerman on 01 March 2005 at 02:08 AM.]</p></FONT>

you guys will probably get a chuckle outta this one
my first gig on steel was when i was a roadie for the Brooklyn Bridge back in 71
they used to play "whole lotta love" by Led Zep
they had me & my lil Gibson Br9 do the slide part right after "a whole lotta love" on the chorus
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by CrowBear Schmitt on 01 March 2005 at 02:59 AM.]</p></FONT>

The first gig I played was at a festival where the bandleader threw me on stage and said you got a big mouth in the pratise room......now lets see what ya got.
Great festival though with over 30.000 people.

Ron

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Nikaro SD10 4x6 ,Nikaro SD10 4x5,2 Peavey Ultratube 112

European Steel Guitar Forum

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Ronald ! on 01 March 2005 at 03:01 AM.]</p></FONT>

My first steel gig was with a GI band in Korea in 1962. I'd been sent to Seoul to be in a variety show thing where we'd do all kinds of music for a troupe type show. I played tenor banjo in a polka group, some rockabilly electric guitar, and in one of the groups called "The Western Spotlighters" we needed a steel. I'd played a bit of Dobro before and Special Services had a six string lap steel which was tuned to open E. I practiced on that thing for a little bit, learned "Steel Guitar Rag" and "Sleep walk" and as time went by we started getting some paid gigs away from the show troupe. I didn't play for a few years after that and eventually got a 6 string MultiKord around '64 or '65 and played that a little on the side for a novelty at my lead guitar gigs. It was replaced by a Fender 400 and later a 1000. Around 1971 or so I got a Blanton S-10 which Blackie Taylor and I converted to a S-11 and added a couple of knee levers and I doubled on that for a while until I traded it for a Volkswagen. I didn't own another steel until around '77 or so when I bought a ShoBud S-12 and doubled on it for about a year until our full time steel player quit and I took over on steel and have been doing either guitar or steel or sometimes both ever since. As I've gotten older and fatter I've leaned more toward the steel as no one bitches at you for playing sitting down....JH

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Livin' in the Past and Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

My first gig on steel was with a band in St. Louis called "Whitehorse", around 1972 or so. I had just started taking lessons from Scotty and had bought an old 6-pedal Gibson Electraharp. We used to play a lot at Chuck Berry's compound in Wentzville, MO, and our biggest gig was opening one time for Joe Walsh and Barnstorm at some big arena in St. Louis. Country-rock type stuff.

My first gig playing my steel came after only two and a half months of buying the guitar in Sept. of 2004. All I did was use the most simple chords and a few slides that I had learned for “Your Cheating Heart” and “Cold Cold Heart” and few other oldies. I sure didn’t have to worry about dry fingers and dropping the bar. The shaking in my hands gave for a nice sound as well.

A week ago Friday, five months after buying the guitar, I played my first full solos on stage, “San Antonio Rose and Steel Guitar Rag.” A few screw ups; however, both tunes worked out great and did tons to help my confidence.

As a side note, I have played with this band for a number of years as their harmonica player; blues harp, solo chromatics and chord harmonica.


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(I am not right all of the time but I sure like to think I am!)

1984 or so , I was 14 and it was for a community dance held on a tennis court outside. I played Crazy Arms using the arrangement of Bill Keith's from the steel guitar instruction booklet. I tanked it half way through the solo and I remember feeling a lot of stage fright. I don't know if anyone even noticed or cared. I had a single neck MSA starter(sidekick)with my name on the front...it looked cool to me but I don't remember impressing the chicks with it..oh well.

Toul Rosiere Air Base, NCO Club, in France in 1964. A GI band with David Drennon of Eureka Springs ,Arkansas, Perry Higginbotham of Lufkin, Texas (now) and Hal Phillips of Oneida Tenn.---A long time ago, and a lot of fun!!--Mike

With a group of 12 ukelele players and Hawaiian dancers out front. I used a six-string Rickenbacker lap steel (40's - the grey metal one) and a Polytone Mini-Brute II

Hey Jerry,

I found a couple of snapshots from the American Legion in Pine Grove, New Years Eve, 1974-5? They are rich, you on the Gretsch, me on the Multi-Kord and Sam playing bass, matching green cowboy shirts. That may not have been my first steel guitar gig, but it was close.

For the rest of the guys I'll say the show you made your steel debut on is a tough one for a first timer. You never know what's going to happen, but you are guaranteed to be thrown a curve or two. Or three.

chuck

I was playing lead guitar in '71 with a local hippie rock band when I bought my first steel, a Miller S-10 3+1 (worst steel ever made). Barely knew how to tune it, but used it that weekend at a bar gig. The audience went nuts!! They didn't know what that wierd thing was, but they loved the sound. That started the addiction and I've been hooked ever since.

By the way, it has been medically documented that there IS NO KNOWN CURE for pedal-steelitus!! The best you can do is listen to the Big E and swear off it for a day or two....but that's about it!

I started playing 6 string in one of the local bands "Rick and the Keens" out of Wichita Falls Texas in early 1982. Early on I got a Sho Bud Maverick and one gig we had in Waurika Oklahoma (Jr High School auditorium -- Music Show with local talent); I got to play 'Crazy Arms'. Rick never asked me to bring it to a gig again!!! A few years later I played steel full time in a band until one night our regular guitar player decided not to show, so I switched back to 6 string for the rest of my time with that group -- Newt Laird and the Cadillac Cowboys - Wichita Falls Texas, circa 1988.. Good memories!!

Mike Taylor

In 1969 after practicing every Friday night for a year and a half I mentioned to the garage band “maybe we ought to get a playing job somewhere.” The shocked look came as a surprise but the group finally gave me the ok to check it out. Somehow a job was lined up at the local Elks. Set up on the night we played seemed to last forever but finally we were ready to show them what we had. The club manager gave us a good introduction and the curtain opened to about three hundred people. We began with enthusiasm. As the steel lead approached following the guitar I pushed down on the AB pedals with my brand new extra pointed boot and somehow unknown to me this day my boot locked in between the two pedals taking on the look of street skates I had as a kid. Unable to get my foot loose and forgetting to take my foot off the volume pedal who ever was still in the wings took mercy and slammed the curtain shut. Someone yell, “somebody help that man.” I guess they thought I’d had a spell of sorts. Following an intermission the curtain reopened as I sat there barefooted to finish the set but the crowd lost it so the curtain went shut again. Never went back to that Elks Club until I had aged some fifteen years and my hair turned white. We did finish that night with one set but for the good of all, forfeited our pay.

In 1969 after practicing every Friday night for a year and a half I mentioned to the garage band “maybe we ought to get a playing job somewhere.” The shocked look came as a surprise but the group finally gave me the ok to check it out. Somehow a job was lined up at the local Elks. Set up on the night we played seemed to last forever but finally we were ready to show them what we had. The club manager gave us a good introduction and the curtain opened to about three hundred people. We began with enthusiasm. As the steel lead approached following the guitar I pushed down on the AB pedals with my brand new extra pointed boot and somehow unknown to me this day my boot locked in between the two pedals taking on the look of street skates I had as a kid. Unable to get my foot loose and forgetting to take my foot off the volume pedal who ever was still in the wings took mercy and slammed the curtain shut. Someone yell, “somebody help that man.” I guess they thought I’d had a spell of sorts. Following an intermission the curtain reopened as I sat there barefooted to finish the set but the crowd lost it so the curtain went shut again. Never went back to that Elks Club until I had aged some fifteen years and my hair turned white. We did finish that night with one set but for the good of all, forfeited our pay.

My first steel gig was in 2000 when I was 17. I borrowed a friend's 1940's double 8 National. All the clay tuner buttons on the outside neck had crumbled off, and one on the inside neck had, too. I just ignored the outside neck with no tuners, and had to tune that one string on the inside with plyers.

I went out and bought a 10 string set of C6 pedal steel strings, put on eight of them, and found myself playing a four hour bar gig the day after I took possession of the thing.

My first public steel performance was in May of 1968 with Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys on the Steve Allen Show, network TV. There was a close-up of my hands on my solo during "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," and my hands were shaking so badly my dad thought I'd contracted St. Vitus Dance. I told him it was probably the DT's.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Since I'm still pretty new at steel, I have yet to play at a paying job. but I do play in our church comtemporary Christian music band, so I broke out the ShoBud and have jumped in playing chords and some small fills. No better way to get to learnin' that just jump in and play. Course lessons would help too!

Daryl
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Daryl Stogner on 15 March 2005 at 09:26 AM.]</p></FONT>

In 1969 after practicing every Friday night for a year and a half I mentioned to the garage band “maybe we ought to get a playing job somewhere.” The shocked look came as a surprise but the group finally gave me the ok to check it out. Somehow a job was lined up at the local Elks. Set up on the night we played seemed to last forever but finally we were ready to show them what we had. The club manager gave us a good introduction and the curtain opened to about three hundred people. We began with enthusiasm. As the steel lead approached following the guitar I pushed down on the AB pedals with my brand new extra pointed boot and somehow unknown to me this day my boot locked in between the two pedals taking on the look of street skates I had as a kid. Unable to get my foot loose and forgetting to take my foot off the volume pedal who ever was still in the wings took mercy and slammed the curtain shut. Someone yell, “somebody help that man.” I guess they thought I’d had a spell of sorts. Following an intermission the curtain reopened as I sat there barefooted to finish the set but the crowd lost it so the curtain went shut again. Never went back to that Elks Club until I had aged some fifteen years and my hair turned white. We did finish that night with one set but for the good of all, forfeited our pay.

Guys, I apologize for this posting appearing three times. My server kept looking at an old page and as a result I never saw my reply. Good ole bOb has straighten me out but the posts still sit here. It’s not you seeing double or triple it’s the Oatsvall's messing up. Again, sorry.