The Steel Guitar Forum

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_<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jeff Au Hoy on 30 December 2002 at 01:22 AM.]</p></FONT>

I just turned 44 on Dec. 11 and I've been working at the steel about 18 months now! Played in front of a full sanctuary on Christmas Eve backing up a singer! 1st time to play in front of a crowd outside my home. Just Loved it and want to keep learning more about this great sounding and very intimidating instrument.
Jeff Sunstrom Emmons S10 3&4

Started lap steel in'99 at 27 and pedal steel last year at 30. Loving it!

I started in June of 2001 at age 33 luckily with 18 years of guitar playing to rely on. I traded a double neck fender 8-string for my roomate's Fender 400, then sold that to buy a great Fessenden S-10. My roommate now plays the nicest Sierra Universal in town and he's been at it for about 3 years now and he's 30. Austin has at least a half dozen steel players my age or younger that I can think of and the best teachers around!

Shaan

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The Pickin' Paniolo

I'm 28 now; started playing steel when I was 19 or 20. As someone stated earlier, I feel as though I'm just getting started. I'm finally starting to develop a half-decent right-hand technique...whew!

The first thing I bought when I graduated college and got a job was a car so I could get to work. The second thing was a new Emmons D-10. This was in 1968 and I was 21. I only played a Tele and Banjo up to that point, but studied the pedal steel on paper for 4 years before I actually had one. The first pedal steel I ever saw was in a case in the trunk of Billy Bowmans car and it was an Emmons, and then, I only got to see the undercarriage. I wish I could get that Emmons back. I sold it to a guy in Knoxville, TN with the last name of Poor, so if anybody knows him, I would like to know what ever happened to that guitar.

I'm 52 yrs old and just starting out although I've had my Maverick S-10 since '79.

Bob, I started about six months ago, I am 56 Yrs. & will be 57 on the 7th of this month. I have been have a ball learning.
John S. King

If the question is, how many young folks are taking up the steel guitar, the answer has to be--not many. That's verified by the posts on this thread.

There is no glamor in the psg. You can't be on MTV dancing around in your leathers, kicking a leg up or stand back to back with the bassman undulating up and down and making faces like your both getting off on this ritual dance. You can't jump off a riser and slide to the front of the stage just in time to grab a proffered female undergarment and twirl back and jump high in the air just in time for the crash ending. (whew)

And yet, neither can the guy behind the keyboards. Still, he is cool, but the psg is not.

Perception, visualization and pumping music is the lot of todays young music. Only the stalwart fans of country music can carry the flag. The truly raised country folks, the gray hairs and our occasionally found young folk who see beyond the smaltz of the glitter.

I started when I was 49 1/2 and now I'm 53.

Rick Barber

I started when I was 17, & I'm now 50.

I started 4 years ago at the age of 18 on my own "built from tele parts" lap steel. Since then I've tried a Maverick for 2 yrs, and just bought a D8 Stringmaster. (I'm selling the Mav)

I know the question is "How many young guys are starting to play steel". Four years ago I posted the topic "What is the average age of steelers on the forum" and got about 160 responses. The average age turned out to be 53 years old. I'm sure that with the conventions and steel guitar clubs that are in existence, promoting the music of the steel guitar will keep going on and hopefully with the help of the elders, that new guys will still want to learn this facinating instrument. It up to us to "keep on steelin".

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Ray Qualls