The Steel Guitar Forum

They don’t need a new show with a new genre they need to be able to acquire a PSG.

A young person can plop down a couple hundred on a Japan Strat and amp and start pickin’ some Hendrix but with a couple of hundred for PSG and amp they can’t even think about Robert Randolph.

You say well they can get a lap steel and amp for $200. Sure but you’ve dazzled them with your shinny DorS13 10&6 at the gig or show and asking them to drop down to a lap steel is going to be a very hard sell.

As a consequence when they and/or the parents (or the wife if they are a little older) see the price tag for a PSG the dream is all over.

About the only thing a young person can do with a PSG these days is use it for a ploy threatening they want one knowing that after the parents or wife learn the price they are going to be very happy to plop down money for that Strat and amp.

No! Santa is not going to drop one of those vulgar displays of wealth down your chimney.

Until we start leasing PSGs like school band instruments to the young the PSG is going to be forever mostly handed down from relatives, a second instrument for the mature already musician or the retired irregardless the music genre.

Costs could be kept down if the PSG was sold in kit form.

I was recently asked by a fine guitar player if I would teach him how to play steel............when he found out the cost of a decent steel......he said no thanks.

It's not an instrument for Everyman. And why would we want it to be? To have a bunch of steel guitar wankers cheapening what the devoted players try to accomplish?

I feel the same way. If you love the sound enough, you'll find a way to get the money together. I worked a lot in high school because I was hooked on Teles, Strats, and the warm glow of tubes. Some kid out there is working his but off for that first steel.

Herb Steiner wrote:It's not an instrument for Everyman. And why would we want it to be? To have a bunch of steel guitar wankers cheapening what the devoted players try to accomplish?

I am not sure that I can submit to that logic. I don't think having a bunch of steel guitar wankers in existence would cheapen what devoted players try to accomplish. There are plenty of 6 string guitar wankers on the planet and that doesn't cheapen what Al Di Meola accomplished, or Larry Carlton, or Jeff Beck, or Les Paul or Robert Fripp, or Johnny Winter or Jimmy Page or... Ok. I will stop.

Seriously, I don't think having more accessible equipment cheapens anything at all about the accomplishments of devoted players. If I spend the next 25 years becoming an accomplished pedal steel player, that accomplishment would have a certain amount of value associated with it. If 25 years and 1 day from now, all pedal steel guitar manufacturers started selling all of their equipment for $25, that would have no impact at all on the value of my accomplishment.

Still....... if a person gets bit by that sound bug...they WILL find a way.

I may have sounded too curmudgeonly in my previous post, I'm really not as exclusionary as I sounded.

The fact remains that a quality steel guitar is expensive to manufacture, and therefore has a price tag higher than the average entry level instrument. It has a lot more mechanical parts to produce and assemble than an inexpensive electric guitar. Add to that the fact that economy of scale cannot be reached at such low production levels for most builders.

The Sho-Bud Maverick and the Carter Starter were probably to closest to getting the wide distribution required to reach more people. The Starter was in the Musician's Friend and American Musical Supply catalogs for years, and there are a lot of Carter Starters out there now.

Another thing keeping the PSG out of the hands of new players: There's hardly anyone working sales in a guitar store that knows ANYTHING AT ALL about the pedal steel, so there's no incentive to sell the thing or even the ability to sell it. Chances are good the person looking at the steel knows more about the instrument than the salesman does.

If someone wants it bad enough, they'll find a way. But it's not an instrument that lends itself to wide distribution, financially and culturally.

most of all them young sacred steelers start out on a lap steel
Robert did
since budget's the boss, startin' out on a lap steel is the way to go
there's more young'uns playin' em already, that you can shake a stick at imo

As someone who started a little over a year ago, I agree with Herb. When I decided to play steel, I was determined to find one to play. I even went in to local music stores and asked about them and I was told the closest place was Chicago or St. Louis. I was a little discouraged. I was determined though and eventually found a nice Sho-Bud Professional not 20 miles from where I live.

Personally, I don't think it's a price issue as much as it is an issue that it's not heard very much in modern music. There's not enough demand to bring in a lot of young players.

I heard the recording (Wichita Lineman, Emmons on "Suite Steel") that was to change my life, and found a steel right down the street from me the same day. Sho Bud Maverick (Thanks, Tom!), and though I knew it was an entry level instrument, I was so proud of it, and so pleased to be able to being learning, that I made it work for me in a band for a year or more until I could afford a slightly better used Marlen.
Although there are a few pitfalls out there in guitars that are so worn as to be unplayable, there are many good used instruments available, and anyone with the desire and $500-$1000 can be set up to start learning. For slightly more than are quite a few "semi-pro" instruments being built today that are far superior to the "student" models of old. The availability of teaching material and you-tube lessons makes it much easier to at least get started.

I think it's easier than ever for young/new players to get into steel these days.

I agree, those who wish it will find a way. In these days of $400 cell phones, $500 Kindles, and $600+ IPads and laptops, investing $550-$900 in a starter or used steel isn't big news.

Despite what others may say, you don't need to start with "the best". (How many of us learned to drive in a new Cadillac or Corvette?) Sometimes, I think that players who advise "You need at least an S10 3+5" are doing a great disservice to potential players, and to our pedal steel world in general. A great many of these players have really loaded guitars. But, even with all that "hardware", even after years of playing, they still can't do a decent copy of all the songs on "Steel Guitar Jazz", or "Steel And Strings".

"Why's I cain't sound like Buddy or Jimmy? Humphf. Mus' be ma pickup or ma bar"

yes to donny....'i can't go to school if i don't have my $300 tennies'....

and herb. you were right the first time!

don't get me started.

One lever and three pedals will keep you busy for a long time to come. I'm with Donny on this one (iPads and such), if the hunger is there you'll find a way to satisfy it. JMHO

I was lucky enough to have an Uncle loan me his Sho Bud. He told me I would give it back to him mad as hell he thought i could play it. I haven't proved him correct yet.

I am also lucky enought to of found a program in Northern Iowa called the Jumpstart Academy which LOANS a PSG and even gives free lessons/access to a guru for a year-and a chance to play live with a band at the local steel show.

There are a lot of ppl my age (mid 20s) who are intrigued but think i can drive an airplane since i can sit behind the Tennessee sewing machine and not be intimidated. . . . I fake it well.

I think the program is great and am forever indebted to my guru Roger Miller and his wife Kathy for they have taken me into their house and treated me like family.

I was lucky enough to have an Uncle loan me his Sho Bud. He told me I would give it back to him mad as hell he thought i could play it. I haven't proved him correct yet.

I am also lucky enought to of found a program in Northern Iowa called the Jumpstart Academy which LOANS a PSG and even gives free lessons/access to a guru for a year-and a chance to play live with a band at the local steel show.

There are a lot of ppl my age (mid 20s) who are intrigued but think i can drive an airplane since i can sit behind the Tennessee sewing machine and not be intimidated. . . . I fake it well.

I think the program is great and am forever indebted to my guru Roger Miller and his wife Kathy for they have taken me into their house and treated me like family.

Herb Steiner wrote:It's not an instrument for Everyman. And why would we want it to be? To have a bunch of steel guitar wankers cheapening what the devoted players try to accomplish?

Interesting comment. I think the cat is already out of the bag tho'. There are "wankers" playing every kind of instrument ever invented. Folks just gotta start at the bottom I guess....

Right on Bo! At the same time, yes, if someone really wants to do it they will find a way, no matter how young or old, no matter if it's a banjo.

Herb Steiner wrote:It's not an instrument for Everyman. And why would we want it to be? To have a bunch of steel guitar wankers cheapening what the devoted players try to accomplish?

Ah heck, we just make the real players sound that much better, Herb!

Message goes here.

After playing guitar for years and playing country licks on a Tele, I decided to take up pedal steel. Tommy Bolinger at McCord Music in Dallas, sold me an MSA semi classic 3and1 and showed me the 1,4and5 chords, and I was off to the races. 40yrs later I play an Emmons LeGrande II, that is a fantastic steel, played through a Session 400 Limited, or a Fender Twin, with EV-M12-L's. Sure it's heavy, but I'm a tough old coot, and my hernias have healed up well.

I wasn’t speaking of building a cheaper PSGs just suggesting Rent to Own.

I think when we say that young person can figure out a way if he really wants a PSG, we are forgetting that the young person has to convince himself, the parents and/or wife to share in that want in addition to overcoming the bad economy objection.

Yeah sure, fat chance that young person is going to wind up as a PSG player faced with all the negativism and these choices:
1. Japan Strat and amp “you can do it now”
2. PSG and amp “Well you can do it sometime in the future. You’ll figure out a way if you really want one bad enough”

"
Until we start leasing PSGs like school band instruments to the young the PSG is going to be forever mostly handed down from relatives, a second instrument for the mature already musician or the retired irregardless the music genre."

I don't really see this as a viable idea because it doesn't make any sense from a business perspective. All pedal steel manufacturers are tiny compared to other instrument manufacturers and couldn't possible afford to have the inventory necessary for leasing of instruments. In addition, school bands most likely wouldn't let you play them . I remember the problem I had with my son when he wanted to play mandolin with the Jazz band. Denied. Even though he had already played on staget with David Grisman and had been featured in the local paper. My son had to learn the bass in order to join the jazz band.

The real problem as far as I can see is not attracting new players but the fear that current pedal manufacturers won't be able to afford to stay in business. As the pedal steel is featured less and less in contemporary music, fewer people will be exposed and one the current players ( the average age of which has got to be up there) start dying off, I think it is really going to be hard to maintain that business. Which will leave future players looking for used instruments.

Starting people on lap steel is a much better route to get the instrument introduced.

Bill McCloskey wrote:"
I don't really see [rent to own] as a viable idea because it doesn't make any sense from a business perspective. All pedal steel manufacturers are tiny compared to other instrument manufacturers and couldn't possible afford to have the inventory necessary for leasing of instruments.

Bill, it doesn't have to be the manufacturers offering the rent-to-own programs. After all, it's not the band instrument manufacturers (e.g., Selmer) who offer it for those instruments. It's music stores that do it. They could potentially buy a few student model guitars, rent them out at $X per month along with lessons at $Y per week (assuming they have a teacher available to teach it). That would also help keep the axe in decent shape since the teacher would be able to check it at every lesson. I could think of one or two stores around Philly that could be interested in such an arrangement if they were approached with the idea. But I agree that it's unlikely that the manufacturers themselves would do so.

I was fortunate enough that a music store local to me was willing to rent me a Maverick when I got interested in trying to play PSG, in 1983. (That store no longer exists.) Don't remember how much they charged, but I don't think the 3 or 4 months of rent set me back much more than $100 total. And by then I was thoroughly hooked and nothing would have stopped me (or did) from buying my first good steel, a Sho-Bud S-10. I'm not sure if I would have pursued my interest initially if it would have depended on buying, given my financial situation at that time.