The Steel Guitar Forum

Can someone tell me who aced the Steel part on the big George Jones song,"He stopped Loving Her Today" and how was the backround "unision" sounding licks done ?the deep roll on the low strings ?
thanks
bj

That was the one and only Pete Drake, on "Goldie"... the deep rolls in the first verse were Phil Baugh on electric guitar, using the Peavey guitar that had pedals on it; it was not a steel.

Mikey D. Thanks for clearing that up for me.Do you know where I can get some more info on the Guitar that was used..
That record had Just the right musical flavor that perfectly enhanced Jones terrific sing ability.
I saw a TV Show with Yuppie types in the audience,black,white young and old.. Almost ALL were crying when Jones did that song.I had tears running down MY mugg.
The guy can really squeeze the emotion from a song.
Thanks again for the information.
bj

BJ, I didn't get to work with Phil much; we ran in different circles. Buddy worked with him extensively; if anyone could tell you about the rig, I would imagine it would be him. I believe it was an MSA made contraption that attached to a regular 6 string electric, but it may have been another manufacturer. It was a floor mounted pedal arrangement that would allow pitch moves on the guitar similar to a steel.

I'm sure somebody can chime in far better than I at this point...

Michael,Yes that contraption was an MSA,I think Phil may have used it on different guitars,But seems I remember seeing him using it on a Peavey T-60.I remember seeing an ad for it in one of the old steel guitar mags.

There's a video clip of Phil Baugh playing that guitar on YouTube. (Search for "Phil Baugh") He plays an instrumental version of The Shadow Of Your Smile with many very cool effects using the pedal device. The clip is from Austin City Limits, I believe from 1979. Unfortunately, the camera angles never really show the device, but you can just see the unique tailpiece, with cables coming out of it leading down to the floor. The same performance is on the "Nashville Super Pickers" album, which has been available on CD, though I don't know if it still is. The LP was on the Flying Fish label. It's an excellent album also featuring Baugh's "pedal guitar" work on Sweet Dreams, and tasty work (as always) by Buddy Emmons and Johnny Gimble.

I believe it is correct that the device was made by MSA, but never really made it into production. My understanding is that it had six pedals, one for each string, connected to the changer mechanism at the bridge by cables. Great idea.

Bud Carter also built a rig for Phil pre-dating the PV Rig.
Bud showed me a Gibson guitar that had the route for the set up. This was in the early or mid 1990's next door to the Norris Family Music Store outside of Dallas.

Here's a recent thread - on the old forum - that turns to a discussion of Phil Baugh's guitar pedal bending unit:

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/013920.html

It has a direct link to that Nashville Super Picker's youtube video of "The Shadow of Your Smile". The guitar in that vid looks more like a Music Man Sting Ray than a Peavey T-60, although I seem to recall seeing him using it with a T-60 . Phil was truly a great player. Those bass string figures on "He Stopped Loving Her Today" set off that tune perfectly. I have a hard time imagining the song without them.

I saw Phil and Maurice Anderson do a duo at Red Rhodes' shop around 1973 or so. Pretty unbelievable stuff from the both of them.
I don't know how the guitar rig was tuned, or rather, what the pedals setup was, but I do remember that his low E was lowered to a C with one of the pedals.

I saw Phil at the Hall of Fame lounge, must have been around 1983 and Paul Franklin was playing steel (my first time to hear him play live or even know about PF)

Phil was playing a PV T-60 and had a "Diesel Powered" sticker on it and had the string pull on it. This device was able to pull each string. An amazing night of music as Phil and Paul both were laying down some serious licks...I'll never forget that night.

I thought to myself..."why would a player as good as him (Phil) want to play a T-60"

Don't get me wrong, I think PV T-60's sound great...but here was a guy who could own any guitar on the planet. I think that says a lot for the PV T-60's.

Dave, you're right, the guitar in the video is a Music Man.

I Saw Phil Play With The Pedals At Jeff Newman's Once. SONNY.

Yes Baugh had the mechanics on a Peavey T60, BUT he also at one time had it on a Gibson L5S solid body. Quite a swing there!

I called him one day in Nashville and asked about getting a set up like he had. He said that he had plans to try to get it made again. He passed before that happened unfortunatly.

I have a Peavey T60 with a pedal attachment in my collection. I'm not sure this one was made by MSA though, if it was it was an early prototype. I heard somewhere that Dekley also made something similar, but I haven't been able to substantiate that. This unit works pretty good, but the bridge rollers are a little too small and the B and E strings don't last long. This unit attaches to the back of the guitar, I believe Phil's unit attached to the front of the guitar. The cables are kind of stiff and it makes the guitar out of balance and almost impossible to play standing up. But it is a neat and rare gadget. When the pulling unit is detached, the guitar looks like a standard T60 from the front. The unit is held on with two screws and is easy to attach and detach.

And speaking of Peavey T60's, I love them. I have one of every color Peavey produced and doubles of some colors. I also have T40 basses to match 4 of them.

I never knew a creature like that existed. Really neat.

<center>

Pedals 2-6 raised the note a whole tone, (1-E to F#, 2-B to C#, 3-G to A, 4-D to E and 5-A to B.)
Pedal 1 lowered the sixth string two and a half tones, (E to B.)</center>

That first lick of "He Stopped Loving Her Today" says it all..

Thanks Ernie. Very interesting indeed,

Here's an extensive demo of the unit with some good views and commentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbUR6wI5w8s

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Peavey was the only company willing to produce the guitar which is why the Peavey guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaVXmk5FcH0

Here's a great clip with what could be the same guitar, featuring Eric Johnson, Steve Hennig and Steve Palousek

Good grief! Picker's dream. Good to see the T60 in action again. Great job by Steve Hennig....and Steve Palousek on pedal steel..wow..Always good to hear EJ too...fine musicianship throughout. Thanks for that.

About the topic, if you play 12 string pedal steel, you can cover Phil's intro parts...and approximate some of it by lowering the bottom string on a 10.

here is baugh with the gibson L5S.


and a les paul.

Jerry I thought I read somewhere about getting those low note sounds on E9 by lowering the 10th string. Could you elaborate a bit more on that?

This post has got me working with this song serious. Our band does it pretty regular. With 12U tuning, The 8th through 11th strings have possibilities, Now to the wood shed and work on it.