The Steel Guitar Forum

There are some guitarists out there who have made great attempts at imitating the pedal steel. Clarence White and Pete Anderson are two players who come to mind who have obviously taken alot from the steel... Think of any others?

Arlen Roth was heavily influenced by Clarence and does a great job of getting psg sound sounds of a guitar. He has a book out called Masters of the Telecaster in which he goes into the styles of some of the great tele players. A lot of those guys took licks from the steel to the guitar. Roy Buchanan, Vince Gill, Danny Gatton, and Marty Stuart all come to mind.

My hero Gregg Galbraith plays more"steel"stuff on guitar than most steel players do on their steels...I'm just sayin',that's all...
'

Steve did the pedal for Mike Beck's "Oildale". If the bending was done by Mike I'd say he did a damn good job. Steve's pedal work was beyond fantastic.

Jim

Certainly steel guitar licks have influenced standard guitarists, but guys who play with string-benders and think they're playing like a steel guitarist have to be some of the most charmingly self-deluded musicians I've run across. It's just a string bending effect that other guys could probably do with their fingers. What's amusing to me is when a tele player with a bender gets in my face to "impress me" with "steel licks." I mean, steel players don't go up to a guitarist and try to impress with their version of Johnny B. Goode, do they?

I certainly hope not, for the sake of the reputations of steel players everywhere.

That being said, in my forty-plus years of being a professional musician, there was only one player of Spanish guitar I'd come across who, if you weren't looking at him, you'd think was playing pedal steel guitar.

His name? Danny Holder. He was amazing. I met him in 1970 in Los Angeles, and he'd just come from Nashville... blonde, hairsprayed pompadour et al. But by the time I left LA in 1972, he was totally hipstered-out: long hair, love beads, etc.

His setup was a Gibson Barney Kessel with 6 Keith-Scruggs tuners, a Bigsby vibrato, and a volume pedal. He didn't use the Keith tuners that I could see much. He very lightly tapped the Bigsby to get vibrato like a steel player uses a bar vibrato, and his volume pedal technique was appropriate. He played the correct voicings and phrasing, and was very Chalker influenced. One big thing about his sound was he used the PLASTIC fingerpicks everyone hated at the time.

When listening from outside the club, you'd SWEAR there was a monster steel player onstage. Then you'd go inside and there'd be a trio onstage with Danny playing the steel parts.

Red told me he'd moved to San Diego and he(Red) had lost track of him.

In the early '70's I used to play alot with a guitar player named Gene Hoover. He played a Jazzmaster with that floating tremolo bar, and he could do steel stuff so well it was scary. Not just the stock licks, either...he did swells and slow ballad stuff just spot on.

But ever since then, anybody else who tries to imitate a steel just makes me ill.

What Herb said. I've played with guitar benders several times. I love when they do a few b and g bends then look over at me as if to say "how about that?" I'm seldom impressed. Don't get me wrong, I like the effect and enjoy hearing good players that can pull it off. FI, in St. Louis, I watched Tim Wallis of the Timara bender co. do some fascinating picking and bending. I could listen all day.

Another example, the late great Phil Baugh with pedals on a T-60. Fabulous sound. Brilliant musician and picker. Jimmy Olander, Will Ray et al.

I don't think it sounds anything like pedal steel guitar though. I don't think that was either of these guys' intent.

It sounds like a guitar bending strings. The tone sounds nothing like a pedal steel.

There used to be a guy in upstate New Yawk named Steve Kerlinger who played a gold Les Paul with a Bigsby and a volume pedal,Besides Clarence he's the best I've ever heard.He played in a band called the Womblers they lived in New Paltz.Steve goes by another name now and is a forum member.

Yeah,it's the VOICINGS that make the difference...b-bender guitar playing is kind of a style unto itself and doesn't really sound like steel playing to me...but Gregg has the three-note stuff like Hal and Weldon down!I heard him with Skeeter Davis and George Hamilton IV when I was about 12 or 13 years old...I have heard a lot of guitar players since then...and I have yet to hear any of them sound as much like a steel as Mr.G...Jim,thanks for the kind words-Mike Beck does a great job and I always have a great time working with him...one of the funniest cats I know.

There was a guy that used to play with Mickey Gilley who once in a while would do some slower steel sounding stuff.. he played a Tele Thinline with a regular Bigsby to get a slow steel like vibrato. I used to watch MG when he was on TV just to catch this guy, but he was hardly ever featured. Anyone know his name? As for benders and/or steel guitar licks on guitar, I think it comes down to musicianship (as opposed to tech. ability). I like to hear player that are good and can play music, steel licks or not. As for steels sounding like regular guitar Sneaky Pete's version of Sleepy Lagoon has a verse you've gotta hear.

Addendum, just so folks don't think I'm a complete anal orifice.

When a string bender effect is great is when the guitarist is playing bending licks in harmony with a steel player also using pedal A. When Boomer Castleman, who invented the Bigsby Palm Pedal with steel player Tony Zitnik, played in a band with me in LA, we had a lot of harmony solos worked out that sounded pretty darn good.

The guys that know how to use the effect/technique, like Al Bruno, do it correctly and make great music with it. And they don't think they're doing anything that would make a steel player envious... they're just making music.

Yes, Gregg Galbraith is a monster regardless of the style he's playing. I met him in 1970 with Boomer, in fact, at a George Hamilton IV gig in San Berdoo CA.

The guitarist with Mickey Gilley was Rocky Stone, a wonderful player and person from New England who's unfortunately no longer with us.

Famous Amos................. Garrett gets that sound

Albert Lee!

Who was the banjo player who used a bender device? I think he used floor pedals to do the bends. I remember seeing the LP cover somewhere...

D'oh, nevermind... Buck Trent!

Jerry Donahue's 2 and 3 string bends - including a lot of gorgeous contrary motion - come the closest of anybody I've ever heard. I agree that chord voicings are a critical issue, not just a bunch of bends. I don't get the impression that he's particularly trying to imitate a steel - it's its own thing - but sometimes the effect comes off like that, to my ears. No string benders involved, either.

Of course, Phil Baugh comes to mind also. When I first heard the opening low-string bends on "He Stopped Loving Her Today", I thought for sure it was a pedal steel, but that was apparently Phil on his guitar with pedals. When I listen now, that makes sense - it really does sound like a guitar - and great.

Another guy who hasn't been mentioned yet - Duke Levine, who I just saw last week in Boston with lap steel player Kevin Barry. When appropriate, he can really get the nice steel-influenced voicings and correct bends down to a tea.

Most guitarists sound like guitarists, not steel players, to me, even when they're doing lots of steel-influenced stuff. In fact, even as a guitar player, I have to admit that I think guitarists should be very circumspect about trying to "out-steel" the steel guitar player. When I hear that, it usually sounds hokey, to me. The idea should be to complement each other. Of course, it is possible for a steel to be "guitar-like" - sometimes a bit of role reversal is fair game. My opinion, of course.

I've heard Trisha Yearwood's guitarist/band leader, Johnny Garcia, do what Steve is describing... Only once though, and it's been many years ago. However, I still remember the performance because it really knocked me out how much he evoked the sound and feel of a pedal steel.

Respectfully,
david burr

Thanks Herb, I have been wondering who he was for probably 30 years.. Rocky Stone. I was a fan.. I wish I could hear him play again. Maybe youtube.

Rocky Stone was amazing at psg on a 6 string. He and I became good friends in the early 90's while both incarcerated in Branson. I "swapped" him chicken pickin licks for his psg licks, which he told me he learned from listening to his old room mate back in the early days in Nashville. His former room mate would keep him up all night with his practing, so he had no choice but to listen. His room mate was the man himself, Big E.
I still have two or three 90 minute tapes I made of Rocky layin around somewhere.
Abolutely amazing playing, not just bends, but chord voicings too. And TONE.

listen to Phil Baugh on "No Deposit, No Return". one of the best steel guitar imitations on standard guitar i've heard, and a super tasty solo.

There's a guy around here named John Salz. He uses fingerpicks and has a tremolo bar installed on a Les Paul Jr. He does the most convincing pedal steel imitation that I've ever heard. Really great player. One of my early idols.

When I first started playing steel around South Bend I was fortunate enough to play in a band with a guitar player named Buddy Williams, who was a steel guitar nut. He was left-handed, but he played all these steel guitar licks on a right-handed guitar, upside down. So I copped what I could from him on guitar and then transposed over to steel (kind of a convoluted process), which was extra cool because there weren't any steel players in the area who could, or would, show me anything.

So Rocky Stone is dead? What happened?

Herb Steiner wrote:Certainly steel guitar licks have influenced standard guitarists, but guys who play with string-benders and think they're playing like a steel guitarist have to be some of the most charmingly self-deluded musicians I've run across. It's just a string bending effect that other guys could probably do with their fingers. What's amusing to me is when a tele player with a bender gets in my face to "impress me" with "steel licks." I mean, steel players don't go up to a guitarist and try to impress with their version of Johnny B. Goode, do they?

I certainly hope not, for the sake of the reputations of steel players everywhere.

As a predominately six-stringer, I gotta agree with you, Herb. NOTHIN' sounds much worse than a guitar player doing fake steel licks. Clarence White, Marty Stuart, Jimmy Olander, et. al., have mastered thee benders, without sounding like steel players, or sounding like they're trying to sound like steel players(huh?). OTOH, Sneaky Pete could do a fairly credible job of emulating a lead guitar part.

WOW!

Unfortunately yes, Conrad "Rocky Stone" Durocher passed away a few years ago in a nursing home after suffering a massive stroke.
I found this youtube of him, unfortunately you don't get to hear his psg stuff, but it has a good shot of him on the intro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7WJLihAMS0