The Steel Guitar Forum

Craig Baker and I were having a conversation in the forum feedback section and he asked me to post my comments in a public section on the forum. Feel free to comment as you wish. I stand behind my comments.

They are as follows :

You are totally right, there isn't a product that a steel vendor makes that I wouldn't be proud to own. I think that the fact that these products are carefully thought out and vetted through the steel guitar market sometimes gets lost on players. Nobody,and I mean nobody, is getting rich in the steel guitar business ! They do it for the love of the steel guitar. It is such a small and segmented part of the overall music manufacturing business. A lot of times you can adapt some stuff(like effects and SOME amps) to meet your needs,but, steel specific products can be a cost prohibitive venture from the get go. So I can understand why prices on these items cost more. The steel specific botique amps these days are made with painstaking research and the best possible parts from small shops. They don't have the buying power that Hartley does,so their costs are higher. The high quality guitars being made today's are as about as advanced as wood and metal can get,with tight tolerances, are built for the best performance and they'll outlive us all ! I don't think Del Mullen or Fred Justice are getting rich off of the buisiness. I quite honestly have to wonder if they are able to live above the federal poverty level off of their sales numbers ! They do it for the love of the instrument. The startup costs in these businesses are enormous. Jerry Brightman had to close his shop down,and that guitar had some top notch ideas on it. Hats off to our suppliers, and that includes you, Craig !

Steel guitar is a very narrow market and unless you do business directly with the manufacturer of these products oe steel specific store like Jim Palenscar, you will never see them in a traditional music store.

I'll second the motion and props for Craig and others that keep us playing the instrument we love.

Len, some music store (generally either owned or staffed by steelies) carry steels and steel stuff. Back when I lived in Maryland, Wheaton Music was a regular music store, carrying Fender, Martin, MXR as well as MSA and Emmons. And these funky blue boxes from C. M. Baker in Hatfield Pa.
But retailers don't like high-cost, low-turnover inventory.

PSGs are hard to find depending on where you live. You can always order a new one but if you want to sit down and play it first, it usually requires a long drive. After a year's search, I finally found an older gentleman that had two and was willing to sell one. It was a BMI S10 for $850 and I bought it.

I ran into the same thing trying to buy a pro quality dobro. The local stores all had imports, but I had to drive a considerable way to find a selection of American made pro quality dobros to pick from.

The music stores all have guitars of all sorts, but usually not a pedal steel or good dobro in sight.....

I did buy a Gold Tone dobro locally and I consider it a 'good' dobro. But I had to drive all day to get a Beard.

CM Baker is in Georgia, hasn't been in Pa for many years.

I bought my 71 PP Emmons through Chuck Levin's Washington Music Store in Wheaton MD. I was living in Laurel, MD at the time. That store was an Emmons dealer.

Steel specific items cost more because of the very small market. However, I have also seen some items get (over) priced "out of the market" and then stop production because they are not selling.

Jack, I know Craig has moved. He never updated the case of my Izzy Plus.
I never knew Chuck dealt Emmons, Wheaton Music was around the corner on Triangle, and they were a dealer 11 years after yours (I bought my push-pull in 82 there)

Good to know CM Baker saw the light and is a Southern picker now.

There used to be a store in Cleveland that sold steels and steel stuff, but that was 52 years ago! Everyone up here just went straight to Joe Kline.