The Steel Guitar Forum

Well, the news is out! Here is a quick sneak peak on what the Jackson Family and myself have been up to. We introduced 3 new instruments last week in Nashville's Summer NAMM convention. The response has just been incredible.

I so enjoyed playing with Lonnie Bennett for those 3 days. We jammed and jammed! It was a blast. Needless to say, these SlideKing instruments were a big hit! In short, here's what is happening….and BELIEVE ME we are working feverishly on introducing these things to the world so be watching for updates and news to follow.

The 6 String SlideKing Steel Guitar with 3 or 4 pedals that you play standing up is off the hook!!!!!!

The SlideKing Dobro with 4 pedals is AMAZING!!!! Just you wait!!!! You haven't heard anything quite like this thing. Dobro players are taking this serious and steel players will marvel at the accuracy of what can be done here.

THEN we have the SLIDEKING BASS STEEL GUITAR!!!! Here is just a quick video of me playing it on the first day at NAMM. Now PLEASE keep this in mind this was my first time to play the instrument. They taped this about 2 hours after I had first played it. My point here is to not showcase me, but to show all of you talented steel players how fast you can adapt to making some freakishly great music with the SLIDEKING BASS STEEL!!!

Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvWr9rB ... e=youtu.be


Stay tuned, (and positive)

Zane

thats insane

nice

Interesting.

I would like to hear this instrument played in a band.

Is this something that will be marketed to bass players?

Zane,,,You're amazing!!!(understatement) Zane King + Jackson boys,,,,,WHOA,,,,,look out!!!!!

Zane of course is a great musician, so this is NOT a knock...Its more or less a musing.. a question of practicality if you will..

It sounded to me like a fretless bass played by a very proficient jazz/progressive/avant garde' bassist..
There was no "steel guitar like nuance" to my ear...
I mean its REALLY cool, and they will most likely sell a few due to that factor alone, and Zane ripped it up, but I dunno it seems to me to sound like a standard fretless bass played by a great bass player.. Its VERY impressive that Zane has the immense ability to pull it off with a steel bar instead of his fingers, but I still heard an electric bass guitar played at high speed by a very talented musician.. Am I missing something here???.. bob

I don't think we have enough threads going on this one yet, probably need two or three more...

zane, i think you've found your calling!

Awesome playing Zane!!

Bob, maybe it could be considered a challenge for a steel player to get behind one of those things and do bass gigs backing other steelers at conventions & funk bands if you secretly like that music, but can't tell your steeler friends you do?

And possibly double your work load?

You would be the only bass player in your town that knows ALL the steel instrumentals, which could garner more work.

You might inspire countless others to a new field & instrument(s)?

The possibilities are endless . . . I think

Never the less, its still thinking out of the box or steel case, and that can't hurt.
Redd

Hey Bob, those are kind words you are saying about my musicianship. I am humbled. To be completely candid, I don't think the expectations have been outlined just yet. That said, I don't see this as something that is being marketed to the steel guitar community. Yet, I think as it turns out steel players everywhere will love these possibilities and will be able to quickly play one of these things with a relatively low amount of time invested into learning. Honestly, I think it will be complete newbies to the instrument that will excel with this particularly instrument. It needs the creative minds of youngsters who can take this places that even players like myself can't imagine. There is an enormous amount of music in this instrument. I will only touch the surface it. Existing bass players who like to have a lot in there bag of tricks will use this much like an electric guitarist will also have a gut string lying around pretty close.

Yes, Chris - I feel as if I was born to play this crazy thing!

Every country band I ever heard wanted somebody playing bass parts just like that! Especially the big ones - Martina McBride and Alan Jackson oughta be proud to sing over that much talent. Plus, it will inevitably inspire the lead guitarist to turn down his volume and search out some slow, soulful licks too.


(I used to be able to get hired as a bassist, no audition, just by telling people I didn't like the way Jaco Pastorius played bass - AKA, where's the BASS player? When he & Stanley Clarke bumped outta Weather Report & Return to Forever (respectively) and went out on their own, the first thing they each did was.... hire a bass player! The last several years though, I tell them that and they just say..."WHO?" )

Thank you Sonny! Always great when I see a post from you friend!

Redd- thank you so much for commenting here. You are spot on with that thinking.

David M. - love those comments. When I went to Berklee, one of the players I heard story after story about was Jaco Pastorius. I don't know what will happen with what we are calling the Bass Steel Guitar but hey who knows maybe Victor Wooten might add this to arsenal. Yet, I think those who have the training with the right hand (which is mostly steel players) might have advantage here of doing something in Jazz/Fusion bands that could have value. Just a thought.

No matter what - it's fun as heck to play. I'm brushing up on some old tunes that have a lot of famous bass lines. Truly, it works phenomenally well. Just wait!

Barney Miller?

Lane - Another One Bites Dust.

Any video of the slide king dobro?

Tom

Soon to come Tom! A whole lotta fun stuff on the way!

How about 'Donna Lee' or 'Teen Town'?

I can sure see it as a great stage & show-off instrument - if there's any footage of the two of you tearing it up, post it! A pair of the guitar and bass, yeah.... though you'd have to be at least 25 years younger than me, 35 pounds skinnier than me, and absolutely wearing some snakeskin underpants or sumptin' somewhere. I have been drifting into the inevitable Johnny Winter binge, and that's helping remind me that nasty can be good... if he'd died at the same time as Hendrix & Allman, he'd probably be up on the same pedestal!

Badly recorded, dumb horns, and at 1:20 a truly shocking slide solo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G92q2FVKXkY
you didn't DO that in 1969.

Note cleanliness, bad tone, impeccable notes and three times as many chords as the dumbed-down ones:

Key to the Highway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRQzWTMtSIA

Randy Jo Hobbs needed one a them bass thangs there...

(tho this might seem like a bit of a 'jack, there's a hinted theme... )

P.S.(vitally crucial PM sent about putting them on the COVER of Premier Guitar Magazine.)

Zane of course is a great musician, so this is NOT a knock...Its more or less a musing.. a question of practicality if you will..

It sounded to me like a fretless bass played by a very proficient jazz/progressive/avant garde' bassist..
There was no "steel guitar like nuance" to my ear...
I mean its REALLY cool, and they will most likely sell a few due to that factor alone, and Zane ripped it up, but I dunno it seems to me to sound like a standard fretless bass played by a great bass player.. Its VERY impressive that Zane has the immense ability to pull it off with a steel bar instead of his fingers, but I still heard an electric bass guitar played at high speed by a very talented musician.. Am I missing something here???.. bob

Careful, Bob….

Since this newer thread on the subject (with a title that is more appropriate to draw readers attention) is taking precedence, I'll lift what I wrote on one of the other threads and include it below:

What is interesting is though these new instruments are designed by Jackson, they are going to be manufactured by Roman Guitars, which I assume is Roman Guitars of Las Vegas, founded by the late Ed Roman.

Premier Guitar Magazine's comments below about the bass:

"... Jackson Steel Guitar blew a lot of minds at #SummerNAMM with what very well may be the world's first pedal-steel electric bass. Fashioned out of hard-rock maple, it uses a wide-frequency single-coil and four pitch-changing pedals to unleash harmonically rich tones that are like a cross between Western steel and an incredibly bell-like fretless bass. Street price will be around $2,000."

I'm intrigued by the thing, I think it's cool and all that - but if the street price is accurate at $2000 then it might be an instrument for "the man who has everything." Most of us would have to think really hard about dropping $2K for one of these things. And it is unique - there's no question about it, but one needs to have money to burn to buy one of these things on a whim.

Now the pedal dobro, and the pedal lap steel if there is something about that which makes it very unique as an alternative to a typical pedal steel - these two might be another story.

Mark - what I can tell you is that everything stated there in your reply is accurate. However, until these products come out of the testing and development phase it's hard to say exactly what suggested retail price will be on each of them.

I am excited because the 6 string steel with 3 pedals is really enough for me to use on 95% of gigs. I'm not saying it is a complete replacement for the pedal steel but it sounds amazing and for the most part it is a pedal steel. The fact you play it standing up makes it so much more appealing from the stage. The bass steel guitar has more potential than I initially realized. I hope to introduce it properly in about 3 weeks to you all. Then the dobro with pedals…..well, all I can say is THIS IS IT! So much there for steel players and honestly even dobro players are saying they need something like this.

Stay tuned,

Zane

There's really nothing to keep you from putting your favorite bass across your lap and playing it with a tone bar. I've used this on occasion to keep from having to buy a fretless bass


That being said, other than being able to reuse your bar technique, it's not clear this is an improvement over a fretless.

Again, what a treat. Thankew for your time Saturday, Zane. You, Lonnie & the Jacksons HELD COURT. Whew!

I'll send you a PM soon.

Zane, it reminds me how Zane Beck would think outside the box. It is good to see you carry on the tradition.
As I think through the history of all kinds of music, where would be if we hadn't had folks like yourself.
Waiting to see more....wow the potential!!

Could be cool through the right pedal....