The Steel Guitar Forum

Nick ONeill in Sydney has started organising occasional weekend get-togethers for the local steel-players, meeting at a secluded house in a Sydney suburb for some jamming and woodshedding, partly so we can all meet each other and stop feeling so isolated and partly to help the newer players get to grips with this amazing instrument.

I was able to attend last Sunday and got to sit in with some of our top-class Aussie players. Had a blast. Thanks, Nick!

Here are a few photos:-



Clockwise from left: Nick ONeill, Tomi Graso (on 6-string), Norm Potts, Damien Odell and Gary Brown




A room full of steels. Damien Odell (left) and Tomi Graso jamming in the background. For appetisers we had a Marlen D10, Mullen D10 RP, Mullen S10 G2, Emmons LeGrande, Desert Rose S10, BMI S12, a Fender Triple-neck and a resophonic made by Claude Gilet.




Gary Brown on his Fender Triple-Neck.




Tomi Graso playing his left-handed LeGrande.

A big thank-you to Nick for organising these get-togethers, and to his wife Ann who organised catering for us. It was so good meeting all you guys, we have to do this again!

Thanks for putting up these photos Ned.

I am very privileged to have so many steel guitar friends both here in Australia and many other parts of the world. Our little gatherings are turning out to be great fun and the guys get a chance to play a little and "chew the fat" on all sorts of things. I hope we can keep them going.

As well as playing steel guitars, I'm Looking forward to doing some flying with you in the future Ned.

Take care, Nick.

Nick congratulations on a job well done, looks like it was a lot of fun ... I hope a few of you guys make it up to the Brisbane show at the end of the month, it will be good to catch up.

Did Gary have his dobro's along ??

Hi Paddy,

Gary bought the Gilet Dobro along, the one with the gold-plated resonator-cover and abalone inlays. It sounded glorious!

I hope I will get a chance to play with yall.If not tell em all greetings from Texas.Elbo

Hi Nick, looks like a lot of fun you have going there in Sydney. Hi to everyone there. I have just booked my room at the Chermside and will see you in Brissie.

Well done Nick, Ed. Hope to see you in Brissy soon. See you also Ivan and Paddy at the Festival. I always look forward to your playing from the both of you.

Cheers
Jeff

Looks like a time was had. I'd love to meet up with you folks if you decide to do this again.

Just to avoid any confusion, we were not plugging steel guitars into the hartke quad box as seen in the pics....I thought it was important to clarify this...

Good thinking 99 !!

The tragedy is I was unable to attend on the day .. sshhheeesh!
Special thanks to Nick for organising these days -- the ones I've attended previously were some of the best fun I've had.

Sorry to miss you Ned and the other guys -- I'll do better next time. Thanks Ned for the photos.

More please Nick!

Stuart.

Hello Nick, Was good to meet you in Norfolk Island a few weeks ago, hope all is well. had a grande time last weekend with Paddy Long sitting in with us,its always a
real treat to hear him,

Thanks Des it sure was a lot of fun playing with the Heatherington clan

Thanks Paddy and Ivan.I'm afraid there are not many Sydney siders going to Brisbane Festival this year (which is a shame). As always it will be great to catch up with you guys again and it's a credit to you that you come all that way from New Zealand every year. I'm getting a touch of the jitters at this stage so I hope some of that will go away before the "big day"

Thanks for the good wishes Elton and you will be very welcome to visit if you ever get down this side of the world.
Jeff, looking forward to a chat at Brisbane. Geoff ( Barnes ), If you would like to send me your contact details via the forum email I will put you on our little list. That way you will know what we are up to.
Damien, it was great to have you there and we are all blown away at how well you are progressing as a pedal steel player.

Stuart, we missed you and your beautiful Sho Pro so hopefully you will be able to make it next time?
Des, I certainly enjoyed meeting you and your band on Norfolk Island. The "Coalrangers" CD is being played every day.

To Ned MacIntosh, again a big thank you for all the photos and the kind words.

Y'all take good care and never stop pickin, Nick.

Thanks Nick. email sent!

Hi all,

While all 'aussie steelers' are on the same thread, can anyone offer me any helpful $$ saving tips on having a steel shipped from the USA to here??

My last one cost me a small fortue from Fedex and I'm keen not to repeat that episode. I'm getting prices in the order of $700-800 at this stage.

has anyone found any secrets????

I imported an S10 Emmons a couple of years ago , cost quite a bit .Had to go through customs etc.I think this was with Fedex or another big courier .
Since then I have imported other guitars using USPS. Prices seem to be better but I dont know if they would handle something as big as a PSG .

Hi Damien,

Schenker/Bax Global did the freighting on my Carter, I got a customs agent to handle the clearance and I went to Mascot to collect it from the warehouse. This was delivery "door to airport". You have to arrange transport from the airport to your own address. Either pick it up, or via a courier.

A better option is "door to door" freight because after the clearance is done, the item is actually delivered (usually by a courier) to your nominated address.

I seem to recall cost for each option worked out about the same and I used a customs agent in each case. They will do an invoice for the freight, GST, any duty payable as well as their own fees. They also look after any quarantine issues (they usually like to inspect it for wood-worm etc.) I just factor this into the cost of the purchase. Can't recall the dollar amount though.

Another thing that really helped was when I imported a Fessenden D12 the vendor packed the pedal-rods, pedal-rack and legs as a separate item and I got them straight away from my local depot as they came via international air mail. The cabinet was shipped in the steel-guitar case via Fedex (too heavy for US Mail Parcel Post) and had to go through customs, but I had specified "door to door" and a Fedex courier delivered it to me a few days after I got the package with the rods, rack and legs. I just had to arrange a time to be home for the delivery. No problem there.

This splitting may help if you are being charged by weight (the Fessy D12 was heavy!), but not if you are charged by volume, in which case you may as well just pack the steel inside the steel-guitar case and ship it as a single package.

At least with air-freight you get your item relatively quickly. My first steel in 1975 was sent out via a container-ship and took nearly three months to arrive. I did the customs clearance myself (pretty simple procedure back then) and drove from Canberra to Chullora to collect it, then drove it back to Canberra!

My GFI was bought through Bobbe Seymour who shipped it to our Florida office and they sent it via FedEx to Oz. So it was still an expensive item to ship, but it arrived quickly, was insured and I could track it.
The bloke at Oz customs phoned me when it arrived and told me that if I declared it as a piece of machinery as opposed to a musical instrument that I wouldn't have to pay extra duty on it. This may help shave a few bucks off.
(Though it was shipped directly to our factory which may have been why he passed that info along).

I've had a couple of steels shipped with Bax Global and they were great, and reasonably priced... although in recent times I have tried to co-ordinate a large shipment with my visits to the Dallas steel show - it's always a lot cheaper to bring it home as luggage

Thanks for the replies fellas.

I'll let you know how I go. With some of the rates I've been quoted, I'd be better off booking an economy seat on a plane and having the steel strapped into it....

Hi Ned & Nick
I'll be in Sydney tomorrow (Sat until Monday) on route to Brisbane (for the S.G. Festival, and was wondering if there was ant S.G. action taking place??
Cheers
Sandy