The Steel Guitar Forum

I've been making noise on my steel just a month and spend a lot of time with it. I write out charts to help me find notes and chords, which strings, pedals and levers do what. At the end of an evening of concentrated practice, I'm sure I finally have a good idea what I'm doing. Now, here's the problem: I'm becoming suspicious my cat is moving all the notes around in the middle of the night. I sit down for another thrilling experience and discover notes and chords are not where I left them. The cat grins then waddles off to his food bowl. Is this a common thing? Do seasoned players still have gremlins playing their guitars in the wee hours of the night? Unspoken secrets in the journey to Steel Guitar Nirvana? Would a cat fur pouch to hold my bar and picks look cool hanging form the end of my steel?
Mike

Mike, now don't lose your temper about this. Keep your whiskers on straight.

Catnip rings around the legs,
and not leaving it too close to tables, shelves and other launch platforms helps some.

Also several months more of practice.
remember after 15 years you will become a beginner again.
Ebjoy!

Cats hate citris. Sprinkle the guitar with lemon juice to keep the cat away, and add that trendy "distressed" look to your pretty lacquer finish.

Tampered tuning? Gee, whose tuning isn't tampered with at one time or another?

James
Sho-Bud LDG

Just one more reason to hate cats !!!!

Hi fellas.
Just a little playfulness dealing with learning this great instrument. There are times when nothing goes right. Trying to learn a song by ear and forget where the minors and 7ths are. I've found it's best to laugh it off and walk away. Other times it's heaven. I'm better at it than I was last week and not as good as next week. Practice, practice, practice. The rough spots are to be worked through and the good is to be savored. Pedal steel is a lot like life, isn't it?
Mike

i used to wake up in the middle of the night to metal fingerpicks being batted around the house (and down heater vents) by a cat that took them off my steel.

Chris, I just lost two Nationals for the same reason. Found the thumb pick. Dunlop bar hardly moved. Ordered another half dozen Nationals from Bobbe.

Young children are much more into tampered tunings than cats are. In my experience it takes the better part of two decades to ween a kid off of tampered tuning - which not coincidentally is about the time it takes to get them out of the house. Also, the cats usually leave the bar alone, but not so kids. They keep the bar makers in business. Also, the picks will frequently be where you left them, but bent to several sizes smaller.

To add to Davids post on kids....
Why do kids think that "tuning" means turn the tuner up until the string breaks?

A constant of the universe.......

Just be patient. My cat is not bothered by my playing at all anymore. He has heard me make noise for five years now, ever since he was small, and only walks across my steel when he wants to jump upon his favorite sleeping place on top of the wardrobe.

Regards, JH

Probably a distempered tuning. Is the cat ill?

I have two cats and they like bothe of my pack seats. I think i will teach my cat how to play hehehe. Now what do i do for the hair on my pack seat though. The next hit record might have a steel player called Puss n Boots hehehee.Called the "Fur a flying shuffle". Or i couild stomp my feet and name the song, " Paws don't fail me now" . Just joking had to laugh at this one.

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I discoverd my fat cat was sleeping on the strings! Didn't seem to affect it. BUT I don't leave it uncovered in a cat-acessable area anymore - I'd hate to see a furball in the changer They love to hork up a good one on stuff they know is yours.

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Chris Kennison
Ft. Collins, Colorado
"There is no spoon" www.book-em-danno.com www.seldomfed.com

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by seldomfed on 17 November 2004 at 12:27 PM.]</p></FONT>

My cat has gotten his tail caught in the open frame of my volume pedal a few times. I've dropped my bar on him and he still insists on napping under the steel when I practice. He's not the brightest apple on the tree.
Mike

I love cats- - - - -they taste just like chick in..

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MCI D10 8/4 and Nashville 400