The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm a guitarist, and I mainly play indie(wilco, jayhawks) classic country, and folk. My steel hero is probably Daniel Lanois.

I had a steel 10 years ago but a divorce right after leaving the military left me flat broke so I had to sell it.

Found an identical Rickenbacker with a private seller so I'ma get it.


Any and all advice so much appreciated!

Oh. And suggestions for favorite/best bars would be cool too. Amp is covered. Thank y'all!

Doug Beaumier's books really helped me learn to get around on C6 tuning for classic country.

http://playsteelguitar.com/

Troy Brenningmeyer has some great resources too...

https://www.lessonswithtroy.com/

We're pretty much cut from the same cloth, Teddy. If you want to get some basic sense of stuff, do a month or two at Troy's site below. It got me started and I figured out where to go. You can take a look at some examples of what and how his video series go on youtube.

A lot of material is tuning specific, otherwise I'd recommend some specific material. Nels Cline is playing in open G. Here is Troy teaching in open G: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HfRLQMcI4U

As far as bars, the Pearse stuff available here is fine. For a bit more money, I like the Clinesmith and Hillman bars.

Lots of valuable info here:
https://www.hawaiiansteel.com/index.php
And here:
https://youtu.be/2G8qAmotF_c

Andy Volk has a number of books, many to choose from so should be easy to find something for you.

https://www.volkmediabooks.com/

It's a fantastic instrument but may take awhile to find comfortable bar (either style) and picks

Anyway, recommend books from Andy Volk, Dewitt Scott and Rob Haines many avail thru Forum store: https://www.steelguitarshopper.com/lap-steel-dobro/

Tons of great vids on YT also as mentioned ...

I’m going through the same thing but am ahead of you by a few months. What I’ve discovered is: 1. YouTube tutorials with Troy are fantastic (there are others too), 2. a book with accompanying CD or downloadable tracks (with a publishers code) is essential, and 3. picking out melodies and chord progressions you like, then “playing by ear” is critical.
With all the above I’d strongly recommend deciding what tuning is best for your genre. Between Indie and classic country I’m not certain what to recommend; however asking how many strings on your forthcoming Ric are there may be helpful in recommendations (congratulations, I’m a Ric fan too).

For me learning began by drawing out my own diagrams of scales and chords, starting with open G on a six stringer, later I picked up a second steel for C6 tuning, and not long after that I decided 8 strings was more for me. Sadly life and work expectations piled up on me this summer and i haven’t played regularly since mid June (total bummer summer!).

Anyway, as already recommended Andy’s books are fantastic. For classic country the Don Helms E13 book “Your Cheatin’ Heart” has been very helpful, it inspired my switch to 8 strings (but you can still use 6 strings to learn it). As for bars i like the Jerry Byrd Dunlop bar (all the above recommendations can be purchased here in the online forum, I get no kickback!).

Best of luck!

Thank y'all so much!

So I've seen the "cylindrical" bars and the shubb-pearse thing that is squared at the top. What is each type used for/why?

I also learned a thing or two from these two courses by Cindy Cashdollar...

https://www.homespun.com/shop/product/l ... tar-dvd-1/

https://www.homespun.com/shop/product/l ... tar-dvd-2/

Although she teaches an 8 string C6-high G tuning (A C E G A C E G low to high), most of the material can be applied to a 6 string C6-high G tuning (E G A C E G low to high).

David DeLoach wrote:I also learned a thing or two from these two courses by Cindy Cashdollar...

https://www.homespun.com/shop/product/l ... tar-dvd-1/

https://www.homespun.com/shop/product/l ... tar-dvd-2/

Although she teaches an 8 string C6-high G tuning (A C E G A C E G low to high), most of the material can be applied to a 6 string C6-high G tuning (E G A C E G low to high).

I enjoyed these videos. There's a fair amount of material that is useful here.

Doug Beaumier has some great arrangements in his 3 books. Very good backing tracks also. Other good basic books are "BASIC C6TH NONPEDAL LAP STEEL METHOD" BY Dewitt Scott (Scottie), and Troy's video lessons. Cindy Cashdollar has some great video lessons, and John Ehly has a website with a lot of good advice. Many others on YouTube are worth searching out. Here is my recording of Walkin' After Midnight, arranged by Doug Beaumier and my background licks included.
WWW.joelmonson.bandcamp.com

Teddy Ray Bullard II wrote:Thank y'all so much!

So I've seen the "cylindrical" bars and the shubb-pearse thing that is squared at the top. What is each type used for/why?

The cylindrical bars are bullet bars. They let you get different chords when forward slanting by hitting the same feet on the two higher strings and the feet below on the lower string. I'm on a phone now though and cannot give an example.

They are harder to hold onto but if you get it, it opens up a new "trick" for you.

My first steel came with a WAY too large, pedal steel bar. Once I got the right size, it made life a LOT easier!

So I've seen the "cylindrical" bars and the shubb-pearse thing that is squared at the top. What is each type used for/why?

They are used for two different types of music and two different approaches. The Shubb bar has a sharp end in order to snap pull off and hit fast hammer-ons used in Bluegrass primarily, or any fast single note work. the problem is it makes moving ACROSS the neck very hard and the end of your bar will need to be slightly lifted as you move north and south on the neck.

The bullet bar is more difficult to pick up, often much heavier for better tone, but is very easy to move across the neck because of the rounded tip. It is used in primarily in country, jazz, and things that are more chordal based.

I started lap steel with a Shubb-like bar, after a month switched to the Jerry Byrd 7/8”
cylinder and didn’t look back. I’ll be on the hunt for a Resonator and Weissenborn soon and more than likely use the Shubb bar for those.