The Steel Guitar Forum

I just turned 70 years old, I feel like I just got out of High School?
I have a hunch that many of us here on the forum are not in the High School/College age group

Are steel players a dying breed? I hope not...

Please be honest with your answers, If you don't like polls just don't answer.
And Please comment with your opinions and thoughts on Steel guitarists in general.

Thanks
Dom

Dom Franco wrote:If you don't like polls just don't answer.

I was already thinking the results will be skewed towards people who have the most time to take part in polls.

I am also a member of the recently-seventy-doesn't-hurt club, although mentally I'm still about sixteen. Playing this thing gives me something to aim for and a use for my brain. I didn't think I'd still be learning new songs and practising for gigs. But 70 is nothing nowadays, is it?

To be clear, I am not 77 years young.
I am 77 years old.
Anyone comes up and calls me 77 years young I will whack them over the head with my guitar.
I made it this far and am somehow still standing and darn proud of it.
**puffs out chest and gives out a Tarzan yell**
Ouch.....I just pulled a groin muscle.

I don't think steel players will fade away.
We are getting more younger players being seen and heard in popular music.
I also think there are thousands of us happily playing by ourselves
in our little music rooms that no one knows about.
I quit telling folks I play because every time I said "lap steel guitar" their eyes would glaze over and they'd say "What?"

This is not exactly scientific I know, but I see a general trend (a bell curve with the largest distribution in the 60-70 year range)

I believe that the average age of steel guitarists (pedal steel, non-pedal, resonator etc.) Is now much older than 30 or 40 years ago when the Steel guitar was more mainstream in County and Country Rock Music... in fact judging by our average ages most of us would have been in the 20 to 30 year old bracket.

A dying breed in my area compared to 30+ years ago. Most steel players that inspired me are gone. Two of them passed away at 64 yrs old 20+ years ago. Not many young ones picking up the slack like before. It's bleak here. I'm 72.
However, there's not a demand or support for live music around here like there was 30+ years ago. I haven't played a wedding or anniversary dance in a few decades. During the 70's we played 6 private jobs per month. Three of those years we played Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Thanks for posting this Dom. I've been curious about this myself lately. I'm just getting started on my pedal steel journey at 49 (turn 50 in two months). As I look around my area for a potential teacher, or even someone just to shadow, it has been extremely hard to find someone who is either enough beyond the beginner stage to teach, or who is experienced who can find the time to pass on information (not out of selfishness just out of business due to demand).

I will also say that the amount of players on here that are 70+ is inspirational to me.

your groups are uneven
you have 10 year groups except for the one that is 31-50
makes it hard to interpret the graph

I'll be 76 in August. I think steel players, in general, are the most open and friendly of all musicians. Scotty's passing brought the end of an era. Even though we may not get together as much, we seem to communicate on line or in local jams more. I feel about playing steel like I did when I went to college. The more that I learned, the more I realized how little I really know.

I'm 83 and currently not doing any picking. Covid is partly to blame but I haven't been actively looking for a gig or even a jam. Along with other body parts my fingers do not work like they used to. One time I could do some speed picking and even some thumb picking but those days are over.

Jeremy said:

your groups are uneven
you have 10 year groups except for the one that is 31-50
makes it hard to interpret the graph

Yes I know it's not evenly split... but that seemed to me the best age group to indicate the steel guitarists most likely to be pursuing a professional career in music. (Studio work, Club gigs, Touring etc.)

Even if I split the group up into 30-40 and 41-50 making each category smaller the data would still show the largest distribution 61-70.

75.

I was playing a little lap steel in the late 90's( not real good)and was on the verge of buying a pedal steel.
The country band i was in broke up,and i was asked to play rythym in a blues/ rock band.
20 years later i was playing lap steel in a band,( a little better)and dove in the pedal steel world.
Im 57...alot of younger(20-30) musicians i know are very interested in them but 2 things seem to keep em back- cost of instruments,and really, they know the gals are looking at the guys up at the front of the stage.Just my opinion.

Im 57...alot of younger(20-30) musicians i know are very interested in them but 2 things seem to keep em back- cost of instruments, and really, they know the gals are looking at the guys up at the front of the stage.Just my opinion.

This.
I am in the process of spending almost $5000 on a new pedal steel. Spending half the equivalent of that 40 or even 10 years ago would have been unthinkable for me. The stage presence/babe magnet thing - yeah, maybe that’s an issue for a large percentage of pickers, but in my case it was more about me looking out at them.

I also agree with this

I was already thinking the results will be skewed towards people who have the most time to take part in polls.

I was already thinking the results will be skewed towards people who have the most time to take part in polls.

...and that there are only about 20K members, many of whom don't participate in the forum at all and that number represents only a small number of people around the world that play pedal steel but aren't part of the forum populace.

Perhaps the poll might reveal something of the membership here, v. the overall world wide community, but even here, most of the participating population is of senior age.

I was 84 last January. I played rhythm and sang in the late 1950's early 60's; played and still have the Gibson L-50. Stopped playing professionally in 1963 to follow my career in Civil Service moving from Minnesota to Wisconsin to Illinois to Indiana where I am now. I took up the pedal steel and learnt on a well used Sho-Bud. Went to the Steel Guitar Convention in St. Louis two years in a row playing all the pedal steels--decided on a Williams and ordered one in 1999; a single neck on a double neck frame like the Sho- Bud. Still learning--it is endless on a pedal steel guitar like music songs. Not many people like doing the Traditional Country Music from the late 1940's, 50's and early 60's so I play along with rhythm tracks I've made and bought. The Style I do is like Sonny Burnette--smooth pedal steel music.

Bob Jennings

Ian Rae wrote: I was already thinking the results will be skewed towards people who have the most time to take part in polls.

How much time does it take to take part in this poll?: *click* and done.

I'm almost 52, been playing 3.5 years.

New to this genre, I'm surprised and happy to find so many folks older than me so into the instrument and playing so much. Also plenty of younger examples killing it (on YouTube at least).

As of now I get to play almost more than I want to, and if I can for the next 30 years that'll be great.

Hopefully we'll be in demand and country music will snap back from what it is currently-it has to, right?

75, been lusting to play pedal steel since I was 25 or so, but was acutely aware that I had family responsibilities, a new business to run, and would be no use for anything else if I got a pedal steel.

Been playing 3.5 years, having realized I was now retired and could do whatever I wanted about playing music. I was right in my earlier assessment -- I am completely addicted to playing pedal steel. I can't imagine anything more enjoyable than playing music, anyway, and pedal steel is simply the best.

--Al Evans

Average age (maybe) of forum members. I know a bunch of young steelers that are not here. I suspect more are out there.

h

I'm with Howard, I know a bunch of younger guys who are actively playing, and several of them are my students too - but I don't think they participate in the forum that much. (Yet)

I'm 23, been playing since I was 14.

I've seen some players come along recently that can really play that are under 30, a couple in their teens. Nice to see.

A couple are from England too which is good for me as they are helping getting pedal steel known in younger bands here. I always struggled for work in my teens but some known multi-instrumentalists have raised the profile of pedal steel and as a result I'm pretty busy too.

The steel brotherhood is different to most other instruments, very generous and courteous bunch on the whole.