The Steel Guitar Forum

Bobbe's newsletter got me to thinking about how many hundred times someone has come up to me and said:

Is that a Piano you're playing?

Hey, this is Murnel. He plays the keyboard.

I don't think stating what the instrument is on the name-tag is useless and/or is distasteful and ubiquitous.

It's not that it's a bad thing because everyone should know what a true American instrument this really is.

Murnel

I was playing a small bar back in Cornwall in the old days,I was tuning up my steel and saw these two older women getting settled down at the table right in front of me.
Then one women saw my steel and said to the other women....O look!!!! they got a COUNTRY and WESTERN MACHINE.

Mine has been refured to as a SLIDE PIANO before!

Most people around here, look at the steel, and ask. What is that thing?

One of the Chinese guys here asked me if it was a modified Zheng!

I dig the mysterious and obscure nature of our instrument.

I had an old lady come up to me after the show and said: "I first thought that was a keyboard that you were playing, but now I can see that it is a Zither"

My playing may not be very good, but I really don't think I sound like a Zither. I have only heard of a Zither, but don't know what they sound like. Maybe she was hinting that I should forget the steel and take up the Zither. Anybody got a Zither for sale? Needs to be black, of course.

Here is a funny story that I heard Jeff Newman tell: A steel player was playing a place that had a fence of some sort in front of the stage. I guess a split rail or something for decoration. This guy every little while, would just come up, stand at the fence and stare at the steel. So, the steeler figures the guy must be either a steeler or maybe is thinking about taking it up. So, the steeler is thinking of some ways and suggestions to help the guy out, if he comes up at the end of the show to talk. Well, the guy does come up, looks at the steel and says "What do you call that instrument that you're playing?" to which the steeler says "It's a steel guitar." Without blinkin an eye, the guy says "Damn, I hate that thing" and walks out the door.

Here's a good one...
A few years back (mid '80's) I was playing a gig at the infamous Corral in the San Fernando Valley. I wasn't playing steel that night, I was playing keys, and Dan Dugmore was on steel.

On a break this older guy, in his '70's, comes up to me - and he was well in the bag - and says. "Man, you play a mean steel guitar". Well, he's soused and he's gotten me & Dan mixed up, I guess...we would sorta look alike if you were a little juiced.

So I thank him and tell him that I'm the keyboard player, as I point to my Yamaha KX88 on stage right, and pointing to Dan's Stringmaster on stage left, I tell him that that's the steel guitar over there.

Uh- Uh, he says.
And pointing to my keyboard he proclaims, "Well, in my day, that was a steel guitar!".

Figure that one out....

I have been introduced as the keyboard man ----- one of the owners said he had been owned the place 35 years and loves "Good Ole Country Music - especally that keyboard" - and pointed at me.

I had a guy call my steel "A flat top" guitar. And a lady called it a keyboard.

even if you tell em what it is , it doesnt sink in.

young lady came up after a show and said "what is that thing? it sure is pretty sounding". i told her it was a pedal steel guitar. she thanked me and took two steps towards her friends where I could hear her exclaim "I just love that slidey thing!" from the stage.

i think "Country and Western Machine" is about the best one Ive ever heard. like it should have a crank at one end or something...

Keyboard, Zither, Autoharp, String Table,Just a few over the years.. All by dopey bar patrons.
Slide is the most common of course..


The guys in the band started calling it "Bobs's Bedsprings" several years ago, and today, the onstage moniker for my steel is "Bob's Bedpan" .. Good thing I never play it anymore.

It takes all sorts.

"I like you're impesizer playing."

It's not a synthesizer, it's a pedal steel.

"One of those wyamin guitars? I hate them!"

And then he toddled off.

Arch.

Heard a story once. Many, many years ago some of George Benson's band members were in a hotel bar where Chalker's band was playing. It's said they ran up to Benson's room and told him he has to to go down and hear "this guy who's playing a sewing machine or something."

One more ---------- Hi-waa-yen ---- Slide guitar

(not Hawaiian)

That ole boy had a chew and a hat that had been stepped on a few times. May be him too.

Joe Naylor
steelseat.com

Fo'Bro' Michael Johnson mentioned something like an " Appalachian tone bender " (?)
or something to that avail
i tell folks, it's my wifes knitting machine that she left in the closet that i recycled

y'a pas d'tracas cousin on est content d'avoir une satané contraption !

Bsides key board, and that slidey thing, I had it called a steel pedal guitar twice at the same private party one night. I loved the comment about the country, and western machine. John

"Is that a synthesizer?"

Maybe it is a good idea to keep putting "steel guitar" on the front logo after all.

My wife is a harpist. She is involved in many different styles of music. We were playing a Celtic music gig as a Harp/pedal steel duo for a party at the residence of the Irish Ambassador in New York. (Ireland has a separate ambassador just for NYC!)
A couple, in their golden years, stood in front of us for a while. The man pointed at my wife's harp and asked his wife if that was the Irish Harp. She said "No, that's the regular harp" pointing to my pedal steel she said "That's the Irish harp"
In fairness, I was playing the LDG.

I just tell them its a Vegimatic.
Makes pounds of cole slaw in minutes.

4 words: "Table top string thingy."

(I still want to call it a TIFKATPSG. The Instrument Formerly Known As The Pedal Steel Guitar)

On a more serious note, My chamber music trio has decided on a name for ourselves: "Trio de l'Acier," which is French for "Trio of Steel." So far, all of our performances have been before classical music audiences who for the most part, are unfamiliar with our instrument. And every time we play, as part of the performance, I give a 30 second lecture and demonstration, in which I call it by it's proper name: pedal steel guitar. I explain that it's a steel guitar because it's played with a steel bar (with a quick aside that my personal bar is of a different material) and that it's a pedal steel guitar because it has pedals.

Then I show briefly what the pedals and knee levers do. I tell them that they won't be able to see me use the pedals, but if they watch my knees, they will be able to follow a little bit of what I'm doing.

The post performance feedback has been very positive, both as the the music, and the brief explanation. These people are, for the most part, intrigued by the instrument, and happy to have had some sort of explanation on what it is and how it works.

Just ask James Brown: It's a sex machine!

I was playing at a wedding,when a young boy walked up and said, You ain"t really playing that, and pointing to my amplifier he said, it's just music coming out of that radio !