The Steel Guitar Forum

Weldon Myrick had Bigsby Palm Pedals from a Telecaster put on his dobro. Does anyone know what strings he raised with the Palm Pedals?

Sounds to me like he raised the second string a half step and the third string a whole step...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvCc1mWaCJk

SH

I don't know the tuning, or what strings he pulled, but I'm pretty sure he had an eight-string dobro at some point.

Here's a link to a track that he played it on with Michael Nesmith in 1977; it was a pretty big international pop hit and one of the first videos that, (for better-or-worse!) helped jump-start MTV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wUv89kx7Yo

Weldon played steel and dobro on this album and the first song is dobro. Awesome album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uBH2yyMJ0I

Tony

here's a pic from The Dobro Book by Stacy Phillips explaining Weldon's setup. very unique!

Now I’m really confused!
I swear I thought I heard the second being raised a half…
Now I’m not even sure what note the second is tuned to!

At any rate…I stand corrected.

SH

I remember when Chet’s RCA “Superpickers” LP came out. The front cover is a picture of several A Team members including Weldon, Charley McCoy,and others.

This cut of City of New Orleans sure has some pure E9 top strings roll licks on it. https://youtu.be/SQJ9RAm3CZw.

I always heard that Weldon’s pedal dobro didn’t stay in tune which made it a handful.

I know Weldon used it on another Chet LP but I can’t remember the record title or the tune. An old friend who was a Chet aficionado played it for me a long time ago.

Bill Cunningham wrote:
I always heard that Weldon’s pedal dobro didn’t stay in tune which made it a handful.

The cone and spider(what the bridge sits atop)would flex-that's what Weldon told me...

Not much hope of that ending well...a cool sound while it lasted!

SH

I've got an 8 string that I'm going to try his tuning on. Looks interesting.

Tony

Weldon played dobro beautifully on Vernon Oxford's excellent 1975 album By Public Demand. It never occurred to me before, but listening to it now some of the tracks do sound like there are some lever raises going on. The album is on Spotify.