The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey, on the old recordings I hear a lot of non-pedal players doing bar crashes and volume stutters. I have a old D-8 Stringmaster that has the "push button" switch to go from neck to neck. How did the guys do it back in the day....obviously not with the push buttons....it almost sounds like they might have had a toggle switch just like my D-10 Sho~Bud does for changing necks.

Thanks!
Mark A.

They did it with the push buttons, at least some did. Vance Terry's Bigsby still has the cut button on the end plate.

I use a momentary switch button on my Strat that does that,I got it from watching Eddie Van Halen,His switch button was from a "Centipede" video game.It's a great effect that costs about $2.00.Eddie probably got it from some old steel guitar recordings?

Anyone have any pictures of some?

Speedy bounced, and damped, the bar. He said it hurt his arm to do it.

Just a button mounted on what could be mistaken for a pot hole or a jack hole.

I think these momentary switches are called "Push to Break" switches by electronics folks. Picture a piece of spring loaded metal bridging a circuit. Press a button against that spring tension, and break the circuit by moving the bridge. Release the button and the spring tension reunites the circuit.

Big John Bechtel was selling Boo-Wah boxes awhile back. They had a stutter switch & a Boo-Wah button. You can get some mighty fine sounds with'em.

Casey

In a more contemporary vein, Ben Harper gets what seems to be a very controllable stutter effect using the pickup toggle switch on a guitar with two pickups with independent volume controls, turning the volume all the way down on one pickup. Obviously not an option on most older lap steels, but it shows you can do it with a toggle switch.

For an example, follow the link and scroll down to the video of "Temporary Remedy."

http://www.benharper.net/?page=media

Mark-
If you remember the Stratosphere Boogie Jeremy Wakefield clip he uses one. It's at
http://www.guitarplayertv.com/
->Concert Hall
->Smith and Wakefield

I think it's the black pushbutton under the top neck in this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jff7jHFma4

You could probably build a foot pedal to do this pretty easily if you didn't want to cut up your guitar

Here is my MultiHarp :-
The black buttons are tone reversal and the red ones are the "Cut" switch. (Momentary in both cases)

That Black button in the Green Bay clip is a Volume knob, the tone knobe is the knob closest to Jussie in this clip. The Guitar he used on the Speedy West Jimmy Bryant tribute was a different guitar than in this clip, he has a 49 and a 53 that has a Kill switch if I remember correctly, between the input jack and the volume knob, and it is red. I have seen JW play many times on either guitar and was at the Speedy West tribute at the Doll Hut and the Green Bay jam.

To expand on Chas Smith's comment, and based on some detailed information and advice from forumite Chris Scruggs, I achieve this effect by resting the heel of my bar hand on the strings and maintaining this damping contact, boosting the volume using a volume pedal, and smacking the bar GENTLY against the strings. Using the volume pedal for the crashes enables you to get the effect without chewing up the fretboard with the bar.

Here's a pic of the one on my Strat..It's the little black one near the nobs.It's a spring loaded momentary from radio shack about $2.50,It shorts out the guitar.It looks like the same switch that is on Basilh's steel to me?

xzzxz

I'm only curious why there is soooooo much interest in these 'cut-off' switches (electronic short-cuts) when the real thing that Speedy West and other accomplished steel players in the past were able to perform flawlessly......by doing it the RIGHT WAY with steel guitar player technique.

So many wonderful affects were achieved in the days of olde......when amps were 15 watt, 8 inch speakers, and the guitar pickups were simply wound to get the job done without much reference to space science. Few if any 8-string models were available or even thought to be necessary..... Shielded chords were not yet in fashion..... $1,000 guitar stands for $250 lap steels weren't even a vision when one had a lap on which to place his cherrished possession.

WHY do today's steel players always seek the SHORT-CUT to accomplishing professionalism on the steel guitar.....by plugging in some kind of an electronic gizmo instead of investing in 'practice'......? Why, today, tuning the g'tar has become another electronic marvel.......with less time devoted toward learning to tune the darn thing RIGHT!

I'm not very good.....never was and never will be but even with my modest playing skills....I was able to do the SPEEDY WEST bar/slam maneuver quite satisfactorily. What's wrong with you other players, anyway?

Ray you are completely right and this is one reason why that I switched to non-pedal after playing for only a year. it seems to me that the "stutter switch" effect and the "bar crash" effect are 2 different sounds. The stuter switch gives a distinct cut sound in the signal, as to where when you dampin the strings with your palm you stop the vibration of the strings.You could get this effect by useing the neck selecter switch on a multie neck steel. Two perfect video examples of these effects are Noel Boggs playing Alabama Bound(on youtube), crash bar, and JW Wakefield on Stratusphere Boogie(linked above)with the stutter switch. I think some of the confusion around these 2 different effects is that so few people do this anymore, so there is no way to relate this "effect" with a visiual interpratation. I get to see players like JW Wakefield, Lee Jefferies and Jimmy Roy quite often so I understand (but cant do very well), how this is done. And it is harder than it looks.
Ray judgeing by your sound clips you are deffenitly one of the top players today!!!
Great stuff!!!
http://www.hsga.org/new_design/RayMontee.htm

Noel Boggs Alabamy Bound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBA-PdrCAEc

Speedy West Flying high
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzt1iA2D_Kg

I wish i could post these as Videos!!!!!

Ray Montee wrote:I'm only curious why there is soooooo much interest in these 'cut-off' switches (electronic short-cuts) when the real thing that Speedy West and other accomplished steel players in the past were able to perform flawlessly......by doing it the RIGHT WAY with steel guitar player technique.

WHY do today's steel players always seek the SHORT-CUT to accomplishing professionalism on the steel guitar.....by plugging in some kind of an electronic gizmo instead of investing in 'practice'......?

Ray, some of what you say makes sense, but why blame "today's steel players" for the cut button which has clearly been in use for over 60 years? And when you say today's players "always seek the shortcut" you are insulting a lot of great players of today who have done their homework and striving to advance the steel guitar.

The correct pushbutton specification is a Normally-Closed, momentary action pushbutton. They are very common in industrial use as Stop pushbuttons. You can get them at Radio Shack. They are closed circuit until the button is pushed and open the circuit as long as the button is held down and they are the opposite action of a ommon door bell pushbutton.

Ray,I've never used one on my steel,I use it on my Strat for some cool sounding car effects while I'm playing slide thru a distoro device...What's wrong with me..Hmmm,I was dropped on my head at a very early age,about 4 months old,never got it right after that!

Ray,I've never used one on my steel,I use it on my Strat for some cool sounding car effects while I'm playing slide thru a distoro device...What's wrong with me..Hmmm,I was dropped on my head at a very early age,about 4 months old,never got it right after that!

Noel doesn't get as much credit as he deserves.

AMEN to that Chas, its one of the reasons I posted the link to that clip!!!!

I played with Vance Terry for many years, and once in a blue moon he would show up with a friend's lap steel.

He did not have a momentary switch available to him as his Bigsby was long gone by then, but got the effect with bar crashas. He told me that to get his arm to bounce properly he had to stiffen his arm muscles, so that it was like a controlled tremor.

He used the effect very sparingly, once every few jobs, but it was so dramatic and surprising it always sent a ripple through the room.


Mylos Sonka

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