The Steel Guitar Forum

I for one, have a tremendous dislike for whomever it was the dreamed up the idea for roadway 'speed bumps'.

Not only is it annoying but when you have an expensive steel guitar standing up in the rear of your expensive VAN........ the violent rocking and
jumping around is not good for your cherrished instrument.

Likewise, I am extremely upset with whomever it was that dreamed up 'the term'......LAP STEEL or NON-PEDAL STEEL.

I was just listening to a Nov. 1939 radio broadcast recording and heard the emcee/announcer introduce JERRY BYRD on his 'electric Hawaiian steel guitar'.

Nearly all the sheet music of the day was labled for Hawaiian and/or plectrum guitar.

The electric Hawaiian Steel Guitar was here and established for several decades before Alvino Ray et al, started promoting steel guitars with pedal attachments added thereto.

Automatic automobile/truck transmissions came into vogue around 1949 some older fella told me. I don't recall them ever being refered to as a "clutchless" or "non-manual gear shifting" vehicle.

Bo or Stuart Legg are you gonna join with me to correct this unforgiveable situation? What a dilemma!

Nope. People have been calling it lap steel and steel guitar for a long time. I didn't hear the term non-pedal until I came to this forum, though.

I like Hawaiian steel guitar for people who are actually playing Hawaiian music.

Ray, since I got the bug I have only referred to it as "steel guitar". When I first mentioned it, at a party with my wife and some dear friends, I said "I think I need to get a steel guitar." You should have seen the funny looks - worth the price of admission alone!

Nothing's changed since then; I have never referred to my 7-string frypan as a "lap steel guitar", never mind a "non-pedal" anything - not once. Nor do I intend to, especially if I ever put it on a stand. So I'm on your side.

I think it's funny too that someone is inevitably going to chime in and say "what about resonators?" Those guitars are called "resonator guitars" - the question answers itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonator_guitar. You don't see Wikipedia lumping them under "lap" or any other kind of steel. Weissenborns: why not call them "Weissenborns"?

"Console" steels are steel guitars, "lap" steels are steel guitars, PSGs are PEDAL steel guitars. I for one can't think why this question is still under debate, and I like your "clutchless vehicle" metaphor.

Two bits from a noob who also happens to love the English language.

Speed bumps are usually marked. Where are you driving and at what speed? You had your "STEEL" standing up in a moving "horseless carriage"? See - names change as they evolve. Yes I have my '34 A22, '39 bakelite, '46 stamped steel Ricky "electric hawaiian guitar and proud to call them that. Then we get into all the variations of "steel" guitar that play everything but Hawaiian music. On the lap on a table or stand or with it's own legs they are steel guitars.

Cheers - Ray

Who Cares? I'll have fun making music on mine even if someone calls it a "non-cheddar ham scratcher" Which is equally known to most people as a "Hawaiian Steel Guitar".

Cheers,
Benjamin

I usually use the term "steel guitar" but then have to go through non pedal, lap, Hawaiian & streight steel while explaining the lack of pedals and the fact that it's not the shiny metal thing on the cover of the Dire Straits album.
Ray, in your one short post you used three different names to describe a metal box with a motor and a wheel at each corner. Steve or Ste or Stephen, Stevie, Mr.Baker...

I have to say I play SLIDE guitar, or no-one has any idea what I'm talking about. "Hawaiian" means you surely must play Hawaiian music; "Steel" means it's made from an ingot; as for "Non-pedal lap steel", they'd wonder what you're smoking! Maybe I've got dumb friends...?

Unless I am playing it at the time, I also say "slide" guitar -- I might add that I play it on my lap (I actually stand) -- most non-musicians wouldn't have a clue what a steel guitar or a lap steel is. The last time I told someone I played Hawaiian guitar, she said, "Oh, I love Hawaiian music!"

Now I just tell people I play the banjo.

Please don't get too upset, Mr. Montee, just think what we in the UK have to put up with.

We hear of you drawing water from a fawcet whereas we get ours from a tap.

We walk along the side of the road on a pavement whilst you walk along the sidewalk.

You place your shopping in the trunk of your automobile whilst I will put mine in the boot of my car.

Even our engines, or are they motors, are kept in different places? Yours is under the hood whilst mine is under the bonnet.

Two great countries seperated by the same language, eh?

But we in the UK haven't got a grip of the language yet. What's it called Ing-lish?

Actually, I was at the North West ( England) Guitar Show on Sunday. A steel guitar builder was showing his products and the most common asked question he got asked was "What is it?" from a room of guitarists.

Please everyone - HELP - we have been fighting to get our latest cast aluminum amplified guitar through the @#$%$@ U.S.Patent Office. They can't find a listing for it, other companies are making our product and we can't stop them without a Patent. PLEASE come up with a unique name so they will give us the Patent.

Stephen Baker wrote:But we in the UK haven't got a grip of the language yet. What's it called Ing-lish?

Only if you're from Ingland.

"slide guitar"?
It's hard to be lower than the snakes in a sand hole that call the steel guitar 'non-pedal', but calling it slide is on the belly side of those snakes. It's time to man up for your instrument, and call it what it is, no matter who's in or how long the fight. And that's the way the dipsy doodle works.

Sure, it's on the snake's belly, but it's all in the name of komyoonikayshun.

Let's put it this way: when someone refers to the guitar, they usually don't call it the Electric Spanish guitar or acoustic Spanish guitar. I think steel guitar says it all.

Nevertheless, I will still continue to use lap steel as I see appropriate, no offense intended.

Chris Griffin wrote:Sure, it's on the snake's belly, but it's all in the name of komyoonikayshun.

So why join the dummies and acerbate the miscommunication? If they called you by a different name you'd correct them, right, or not? It comes down to basic respect and education for the long and cherished heritage of the steel guitar. You either have it, or like someone just said... who cares? It's one thing for an ignorant public to not know, but if members of this forum don't care enuf, then that's a pretty sad statement.

I continually get the impression that most 'players' don't even recognize or have a clue, that the designation of "STEEL GUITAR" is derived from the stainless steel bar that is used to make those beautiful Hawaiian, country, jazz or pop musical melodies.

I guess perhaps if we started calling them ceramic guitars or stone guitars it would be easier for some to accept????

Huh?

Speed bumps should hereafter be designated as "Velocity Impediment Devices"

I agree 100%, its a Steel guitar regardless if its sat on your lap or on legs.
It has always bugged me to hear or read Non Pedal.
Its as if PSG came first and they took the pedals off.
Im glad Ray brought it up I was starting to feel like I was being petty.
Lee

I'm with you on this one Ray, it is the BAR in the left hand, whether it is electrified or just an old weather beaten 1930 no name Sears accustic guitar with a nut to raise the strings on the left end of the neck.like the one I started on. It was a Steel guitar because of the BAR in the left hand that made all that [purdy] music whether it was from "Hawaii calls" or Country western from WSM, WWVA or the OZARK JANBEREE, OH I gess I should include wls.

Well, some use the term "bottleneck guitar" as you're aware.
I just find "slide guitar" saves going into a long explanation about what we make music on, with people who don't really care anyway. When I told folks I played "steel guitar" they replied, "Oh, it has steel strings?" or "You mean like the one on the Dire Straits album?"
I know, as you likely do too, professional guitarists who don't have a clue about open tunings & the like. Let's face it, we're a misunderstood minority. It's a waste of time to go into an extended explanation with people who wouldn't know a saxophone from a kazoo. Talking amongst ourselves, of course it's a different thing. We're never going to educate the dumb masses.
Not really trying to upset anybody. We Aussies are overloaded with sarcasm genes & missing a respect gene. It's hereditary.

HOWEVER, Maybe there should be a name change considered, after all is it not true that some are now using CERAMIC bars now, I know I have one tried it,{I'm back to Steel] so maybe we should call it a [CERAMIC GUITAR]. NOT

when I was a young kid I took Hawaiian steel guitar lessons. Only after I got there did I realize I wasn't going to learn to play a Stratocaster, like my teenage cousin had. My teacher said my hands were too small to play a "guitar". Never in the 50's or 60's did I hear the name lap steel. In fact, only a few years ago did I hear that designation. It's steel guitar by me. Bringing a D-8 Stringmaster on stage has had some refer to it as a pedal steel (asking where the pedals were). Whatever. It's fun stuff to do, and often confuses others as to what it is exactly.

Wayne, I've got the Thesaurus working overtime looking for a new name. So far I've come up with "Slither Zither." Give me some more time...