The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey there, Everyone.

Thought I'd introduce myself:

I'm Pat Lynch, a prototype machinist, musician, and soon-to-be pedal steel player. I just recently found a Carter Starter on eBay within my budget ($650) and had to jump on it, so if all goes well it should be at my door this Thursday or Friday! I'm pretty excited to start learning this incredible instrument, and I'm looking forward to learning from and sharing with you all my progress.

Why Pedal Steel?

I never listened to country artists growing up, but some of my favorite musicians (as is precedent for any great musician) had a few country songs on their albums. From Sting's album Brand New Day, "Fill Her Up" is the first song I can recollect hearing with pedal steel, and it was always a favorite. When I was 16, my brother introduced me to CAKE, and I absolutely loved "She'll Come Back to Me", "Mexico", and "Walk on By" (featuring forum member Greg Vincent on PSG!). Few years back, I got hooked on Allison Krauss and Robert Plant's album Raising Sand, and once again loved that pedal steel sound. The final blow was discovering Robert Randolph--Wow! Ever since, I've been absolutely enchanted by this instrument, and I just couldn't take it any more!

What's Next?

Welp, as soon as the darn thing gets here, I'm gonna dive in and take advantage of all the great starter material this site has to offer. Accepting all recommendations, tips, and advice!

-Pat

Ben Elder wrote:http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=260762

Awesome!

Hey Patrick, we're neighbors. I live just outside of Pasadena, near the intersection of the 2 and 134 freeways.

Check your E-mail.

Welcome Patrick. I also just acquired a Carter Starter at a bargain basement price on Craigslist. Mine needs a few adjustments but I think it is going to be ok.

Hopefully yours will be ready to go out of the box. You have already found the most valuable resource out there for steel guitar...this forum. You will meet people here with decades of experience with this instrument that are very generous with their time and knowledge helping us newcomers.

Several people on here have some very good learning material at reasonable cost. Most of them I think produce the material more as a labor of love for the instrument than a profit making venture.

Doug Beaumier's books have been a big help for me learning the lap steel, and I plan to order the pedal steel volume from him as well. Quality wise you can't do any better than his stuff IMO. This is primarily a song book of tab and two disks of demo and backup tracks. Below are some references to some basic material on tuning, technique, pedal and lever functions, etc. that probably should be a primer before learning songs though.

If you haven't already found them I would suggest the series of free lessons by Joe Wright found here: http://www.sierrasteels.com/lessons/e9th-lessons.html

There is also a ton of material on youtube for the beginner including this: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBNmSk ... Z70FSIOuww (look for his beginner pedal steel lessons).

Mickey Adams has loads of excellent material on youtube as well, both for techniques and songs.

Best of luck with your guitar.

One thing you might do to the guitar since you're obviously handy w tools is to replace the lever stops that are currently round head Phillips screws w a small plate- a real no- brainer and will result in more consistent results when activating those levers. Pasadena was my home- Mountain and Sierra Bonita.

Welcome onboard Patrick - I'm new to this too. The best thing I learned, straight off, are the "Grips" that form the basic chords. Practice those and you'll have a great start.

10-8-6
8-6-5
6-5-4
5-4-3

Then mash the pedals and do it again = fun

Just saw this. Thanks for the shout-out, Patrick! How is your steel journey going one year later?