The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello everyone. Shaffer Smith from OKC here.  I'm new to the forum, and new to PSG.  (So new that my first PSG isn't even here yet). I've spent the last 6 months studying the instrument and making sure I'm really ready and committed to start this journey. This forum has been a wealth of knowledge and has provided confirmation that I want to do this. 

I know I have a big learning curve and a lot of frustrations ahead of me, but quite honestly I love the challenge of "it's the toughest instrument ever made", "it's impossible", "you can't do it", and even "that instrument makes you insane".
I see that many of you on the forum have played for DECADES.  I would love to hear about what initially inspired you to begin the journey to become a pedal steel player..... and what kept you going in the beginning?

I'll share mine. I'm 36. Have played the flat top for 20+ years, but never had formal training. Self taught, heard it and reproduced the sounds like a parrot, never understanding why. I recently took 2 years of formal lessons and soon realized that "mastering an instrument" is like "mastering golf". You'll never do it and have to constantly get worse before you get better. I had taught myself so many things wrong I think my guitar teacher was more frustrated than I was!  Decided I need to start over and learn everything from scratch the right way on a new instrument.

I've always loved REAL country (not this nashville pop country crap) and I locked onto the music of a guy named Jamey Johnson (with "Cowboy" Eddie Long playing the steel).   I've hit every live show within 200 miles of OKC and realized that my draw to his music was the dominance of pedal steel guitar.  "Cowboy" is given so much creative freedom and is always VERY strong in the mix. Once I identified "that sound" as a PSG in my ear, I realized every song I've ever really liked showcased the pedal steel.

I've seen many posts on the forum from players looking to find new music that showcases the PSG.  I came about this thing backwards. I am a music lover who found the PSG through my favorite music.

I know I want to learn to make that unique sound. What made you want to learn to play the pedal steel?

Thanks in advance for sharing.

Well even though ive only been playing 2 and a half years what got me even interested was hearing steel on Hank Williams songs which was nonpedal then I heard the solo in a satisfied mind by Porter Wagoner and that really got me it was a sound I had never heard and even though the solo wasnt much by some of the things a pedal steel can do now that solo got me hooked for good.

This pops up from time to time.
I got started because I was taking dobro lessons from Mike Auldridge, and in 1979, the seldom scene released Act 4, In which mike played steel on Hank Thompson's "a girl in the night" and Life's Railway to Heaven." that same winter, at a concert later released as an album entitled Bluegrass: the World's Greatest Show, Mike played steel on "Hickory Wind" and a Haggard album cut "Out Among the Stars." (at the show, he played steel on two more: I recall disappointment that one wasn't "Wait a Minute")
Backstage, I told Mike "you gotta find me one of them and teach me to play it!" And he did, arranging a loaner while I shopped for my first guitar
(I gotta admit a bias here, my dad was the Scene's bass player)

It came to me out of necessity, I was traditionally a 6 string lead player. My band leader had written several songs that we were scheduled to record in very short order. It was evident that we needed PSG for these songs and I was challenged with the task. I bought a guitar, learned a li'l bit and with a lot of help from this forum(Thank You bOb!) and friends (Thank You Friends) I have been blessed by the experience! Good luck with your new venture! Also I need to add that I have been in love with the sound of PSG since childhood and never realized that fact until I started playing it.

Rusty Young: "Kind Woman" and Poco's first album. Also, Lloyd Green and JD Mannes on Sweetheart of the Rodeo. My appreciation for steel playing in straight country came slightly later.

Dan

Pedal Steel Guitar - Bud Isaacs on Web Pierce's "Slowly".

But, I had played lap steel for years before and was influenced by Little Roy Wiggins.

I can first remember hearing the steel guitar on John Denver's Rocky Mountain High. I wanted to make that sound. I'm still trying!
Lane, I just got to listen to Mike's steel work on Chesapeake's song High Sierra. Been a fan of his playing for years. Love that Seldom Scene stuff!

Dan Beller-McKenna wrote:Rusty Young: "Kind Woman" and Poco's first album. Also, Lloyd Green and JD Mannes on Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

Dan

Exactly the same as me!

If I had to pick one song, it would be "Jazzman", by Pure Prairie League. CSN, Byrds, Jimmy Buffett, and others had influence too. So, you see my roots pretty clearly, but my tastes 40 years later are much more diverse than this.

One other factor played into it: I played 6-string as a teenager, but gave it up in college. Then, a few years later I broke my left index finger playing volleyball, and it never healed right.... I can play great bar chords, but no way can I play a standard C or D chord. However, it is stuck at just about the perfect angle to hold a steel bar.... So I figured Why not Steel? And, while it has yet to be a year of playing, there is no looking back at this point. I'm loving it!

Doug

When I was about 9 or 10 years old, I saw and heard Randy Sorrells with the Sorrells Family Band. He was just a few years older than me. His sister Shelia was singing Connie Smith hits and Randy was playing them just like Weldon on the records! (Even I'll Come Running). That was it!!!

I should add this was about 1968 +/-.

I loved Gram Parsons and the Byrds, POCO and a lot of the country recordings, but it wasn't until the Rolling Stones came out with "Far Away Eyes" that I actually did anything about it.

I've loved the sound of a steel all my life, but it was in 1975 when I heard John Rich's great steel playing on The Oak Ridge Boys' "Light" album, John Hughey's awesome work with The Happy Goodman Family (especially on their song "What A Beautiful Day For The Lord To Come Again) and Weldon Myrick's beautiful playing on The Rambos' "Soul In The Family" album that tripped my trigger and inspired me, in 1976, to learn and play steel guitar.

I looked over several rooms such as the PSGA ,,, about 60% of the players were from the country rock influenc. But, the Byrds, Judy Collins & New Riders ... then CSN ... so, JD, Emmons, Cage & Garcia . JF

I have always loved the sound of a steel guitar, even tried playing one when in my early twenties, but didn't stick with it as I was playing lead guitar six nights a week and was more focused in that direction. Steel guitar is really what attracted me to country music.

Now, at age 64, I have taken it up seriously and have been playing now for 9 weeks, and really having fun with it. The Stratocaster's are having to play 2nd fiddle now!

Red Rhodes, tearing it up on his Fender pedal steel week after week on Cal's Corral, the Los Angeles Sunday afternoon country music TV marathon, in 1964-65.

The first time I saw Buddy Cage playing pedal steel guitar with New Riders Of The Purple Sage, on The Midnight Special, I just knew I had to get one. I had been playing guitar for years and really did not know what made that beautiful sound until then.

My uncle found a copy of Doug Jernigan's "Diggin' Doug" album, and Buddy Emmons "The Black Album" somewhere and let me listen to them. Man I was hooked. About this same time Dave Musgrave was traveling with Shot Jackson on the Fair circuit demo'ing Sho Buds. I heard him at the Tulsa State Fair, and that just cemented the deal. I had to try to learn to play one of these things. My cousin, Ed Doty had an S10 that he loaned me while he was out of town for two or three weeks, and I loved it. When he cam back, I had to buy one.

I loved "that sound." The "I loved that sound" is the simple answer to Shaffer's "what made you want to learn to play the pedal steel?" However my journey to the PSG was pretty convoluted.

There were a couple of local Dobro players that caught my ear here in the DC area. One was Phil Saunders and the other was Mike Auldridge. Phil played Dobro and Mike played PSG, Dobro, and Lap Steel.

At the same time I was hearing Red Rhodes, Sneaky Pete, Rex Hunt (with "Bottle Hill"), Don Helms, Hal Rugg, and JImmy Day (among others) on my favorite recordings. I loved the sound of Steel Guitar. A little discussion with the various Steel players I met lead me to discovering the astounding music of Julian Tharpe. At this point I had the Steel Guitar bug.

However it took me until I was 23 to purchase a PSG. Prior to that milestone I started with fretted guitar in standard tuning, then played with open tunings particularly DGDGBD. Then I got my first Steel Guitar; a Dobro 6-string which not knowing any better I tuned to GBDGBD which was the fad at the time and I floundered with that for a while.

In the late 1970's I saw final tour of a Bluegrass Band called "Boone Creek" which included Jerry Douglas. I walked away from that evening in awe of his Dobro playing. Soon I would see Jerry more often again playing with "Buck White and the Down home folk's" and with Charlie Wallers band "The Country Gentleman."

When I finally got my first PSG; a D10 MSA I had access to the C6 tuning. By then I had a copy of the Mike Auldridge LP "8 String Swing" which I still consider among my favorite Resophonic recordings. Anyhow with a C6 tuning to play with I finally understood what Lew London and later Mike Auldridge had tried to explain to me about that tuning (Mike actually uses a G6 tuning on his Reso but the same principles apply). I immediately wanted to upgrade to an 8-string Dobro with C6 once I understood it. I now wish that I could have from the outset started out on Steel Guitar with C6 tuning; but hindsight is 20/20.

Many years ago I played lead guitar for about maybe 30 years.Was playing with a band in Columbus Georgia,The band leader was friends with Lynn Owsley and Lynn would come down some weekends and work with us.I allways set up to the left of him and looked over his shoulder.I KNEW I had to do that.Bought me a steel,and a couple of months later had a steel gig,that was over 25 years ago,have'nt played a sixstring since then. YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.

The first thing I ever heard that actually got my attention was the intro to your cheating heart and that is the actual first thing I heard that made me say what is this instrument.

Truth be told, I got into it because I thought (correctly) that it would make me more employable. As a lead player, I was always losing gigs to guys who could sing (I can't) or play steel. The decision was purely mercenary.

BUT Once I started, I fell in love with the instrument. I decided to play steel full time and forget about the guitar and other instruments I previously played.

duplicate post, deleted

Outside of an uncle, who had played guitar and lap steel at Turner's Arena, in Washington D.C., a west coast group out of Hollywood (Bob Sandy and the Rhythm Rangers) turned out to be my first "real listening exposure" to steel guitar. A cousin gave me a couple of their records, and I was hooked on the sound. I had played Ventures music and Duane Eddy stuff on lead guitar in an instrumenta1 band back in the early '60s, but there were just sooooo many good lead players, and few steelers. So, like Mike, I chose the "instrument less played" as my primary, and it worked out pretty well.

Joachim Kettner wrote:

Dan Beller-McKenna wrote:Rusty Young: "Kind Woman" and Poco's first album. Also, Lloyd Green and JD Mannes on Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

Dan

Exactly the same as me!

Exactly the same as me too!