The Steel Guitar Forum

I recently had one of THOSE nights! Most of you Forumites know,by now,that I love experimenting with new ideas. If its not a new tuning or pedal setup,it will be something else. I recently changed the whole setup on my S-12,practiced on it a couple of days,then decided it was time to take it for a test drive. It was the perfect opportunity:full band,good instrument,very few customers at the old club,no visiting musicians,good acoustics,etc.~~~WRONG!
The club was packed with customers when I arrived (first time ever!),the guitar player had an emergency and couldn't make it,no keyboard player either,several musicians came out just to here me play,I had to play all the lead,I had to play all the rhythm,a knee lever fell off the first set,and I was lost on the new tuning. Aside from that and the PA feedback,it was a beautiful experience!~~Tell me about yours!?
W.C.

Geeze Wayne, I think you're over reacting here..Now I could see if TWO knee levers fell off...

I'll be doing two gigs next week without the Lead player and without the regular Bass player. The bass player that is coming is a bass owner..thats where it ends.

This will be very interesting ..Hopefully no knee levers will fall off though...

tp<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 15 October 2002 at 01:50 PM.]</p></FONT>

<SMALL>I recently changed the whole setup on my S-12...</SMALL>

That'll learn 'ya durn 'ya!

It's called "MURPHY'S LAW"

Bill

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Bill Ford

I've had some nights where I was so bad that if I had had any pride, I wouldn't have accepted the meager pay.

<SMALL>if I had had any pride, I wouldn't have accepted the meager pay.</SMALL>

Working for meager pay is more demeaning than working for free.

<SMALL>the guitar player had an emergency and couldn't make it,no keyboard player either,several musicians came out just to here me play,I had to play all the lead,I had to play all the rhythm,</SMALL>

That sounds more like the bestest than the worstest.

Well,the boss DID pay me extra! Guess he took pity on me and was probably happy because he didn't have to pay the others who didn't show. Or maybe he wanted me to be able to buy a new knee lever! Or maybe I should negotiate for higher pay and buy a new steel?~~I can dream,can't I?
W.C.

Out West here, we've got a fellow named Eric West, a mighty FINE steel guitarist. He had two knee levers fall off....years, no, actually more than a decade ago, while playing on the bandstand before a packed house. He merely excused himself for a moment, returning shortly with two radiator clamps and then, after snapping off the blades of two table knives, he readily afixed them to his wiggly old Sho-Bud and Wham-Bam, he was off and running again. He's STILL playing with this radiator clamp/kife handle set-up. As he asks...how many of you have two Sterling Silver knee levers?

<SMALL>Working for meager pay is more demeaning than working for free.</SMALL>

Now that you mention it, I think you're right. One of them was 5 sets (5 sets of guitar death, "remember when I said that I can't play bluegrass...") and we were at a bar whose patrons were a good argument for licenced procreation.

Years ago I was playing in a local band and they wanted me to play a steel solo, I had purchased a talk box from Pete Drake, so the band said play forever. we had the voices within the band to do it close to the record, So off I went slobbers running every where and I was really cooking, but then the people in the front started backing up and pointing, and I didnt notice what was going on, but I soon found out, My amp. was on fire, and by the time it was unpluged it fried the power supply and their I sat with this hose running out of my mouth like some Idiot smoking one of those water pipes.
B.Jenkins<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by B.Jenkins on 16 October 2002 at 04:32 PM.]</p></FONT>

Hey Ray M. I liked the story about the table knives.I think it was about 1948 or 49 I was picking at some friends home.I had a little Gibson lap steel and a small Gibson amp.Well I opened my case and got my guitar out and the bar was gone.I went to the kitchen and got the table knife with the biggest handle.It worked pretty good .Now here is the ionteresting part...It was a hot summer afternoon and very humid. We finally took a break from the music and I layed the table knife on top of my amp.Immediatley in came the Detroit Tiger base ball broadcast.
We listened a minute or two and I picked up the knife and tried to get something else to come in.I never got the tigers back either.
Has anyone ever had something like that happen ?

Buddy Van

If it's bad, or embarrassing, or out of tune, or dumb, chances are it either happened to me at one time or another or at least I was there to see it happen to somebody else. And it will probably happen again...I've logged too many hours and miles and I'm certainly not getting any younger, so the odds are pretty much already stacked against me!

Oh well, bad performances do serve a purpose: they have given me a better appreciation for good performances.

Tim R.

While playing on a local TV show....about midway thro' the telecast, my amp came alive and started blaring out rock and roll music from a local FM station on the nearby hilltop. I was nearly beaten alive, since they tho't I'd done this on purpose.
At varous times years ago, my Fender Bassman would quite often pickup POLICE Radio Calls. None of this has happened to me tho', for more than 25 years. In fact, each of those referred to instances occurred thro' a FENDER amp. Hummmmmmmmmmm

That stuff happens for sure. One night while visiting Dale Bennett at George's Round-Up #2, his steel player Tommy Johnson
had the end roller on his Fender 1000 fall off. Talk about a tangled web ???

Carl West
Emmons LaGrandelll

Well, I'm not gonna say who this actually happened to. But once, a long time ago, at a joint on the strip in Knoxville, a band was playing that had a lead singer who purveyed pharmaceuticals on the side. In fact he paid for most of their equipment that way. The band had worked up timed sets so there were a certain number of songs per each 45 min. set. Before the first set the leader brought out some of his wares and the band partook of this - ah, let's just say it didn't slow you down. Then the band proceeded to play through the first set. When they had gone through all the songs they looked at their watches and still had about half an hour left to go on the set. Kids, don't try this at home - or anywhere else either.

Re: B.Jenkins,
Since you shared your "talk box" story,I;ll share mine. When I was much younger,I was pretty innovative,but poor. I couldn't afford a real Talk Box,so I made one. A local steel player invited me to bring it to a local "Jamboree" type of show. Everyone there agreed that I should be featured on my new "Talking Steel Guitar",so I set up everything and the crew placed a microphone in front of me. To properly use one of those Talk Boxes,your hands have to be touching the strings on the Steel Guitar,right? strings are made of metal,right? Microphones are made of metal,right? I have a long nose,right? PA systems are not always grounded properly,right?...You guessed it! When the song started,my nose touched the microphone and sparks flew. Reliable witnesses say I instinctively played a demolished 13th chord with an added tonal cluster! I'm not really sure how the plastic tube got so full so quickly,but it sure didn't work very well after that. A swift end to a brilliant career. Pete Drake had to carry the torch by himself!
W.C.

Around 1985 I was playing a Sho-Bud Pro II and a fight had broke out right in front of me on the dance floor. A guy brought his underaged daughter and then got hot when someone had her up dancing..imagine that. I never notice what goes on right in front of me because I'm trying to concentrate so here they came right over me and the guitar. All of us went through or over the amp and I was throwing these guys off the bandstand right and left. The band never stopped playing. I had to re-set the legs on that old Bud but it survived and the amp wasn't hurt either.

A few months ago I did a slot at a steel show in South Carolina. Man what a disaster! I've been playing lead guitar in my current band for over 2 years now and sort of neglecting the steel. I didn't realize just how far out of practice I was. A friend of mine was running sound and gave me a tape of my performance. It was terrible. I'd have to practice for six months before I got good enough to say "I sucked"..........I've got old band tapes of steel work and some sessions I did 20 years ago and it doesn't even sound like the same guy. Since then I've kept my steel set up and practice on it every day. I've even found a little throw together band that does Friday nights at a restaurant here and I've been setting in with them when my band isn't booked. I ain't gonna let that happen again. I was out of tune, had horrible tone, and stumbled around on the thing. I guess a guy just can't put the thing away for months at a time and expect to play as well as he used to. At least I can't. I plan to make another appearance sometime soon to redeem myself if that's possible.

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.