My first Pedal Steel gig - lessons learned!

[Paul Seager]

For anyone about to go to their first gig with a PSG, here is my experience, listed roughly in order of occurrence. By all means have a good laugh!

Know the surface! The gig was a private party, set in the yard of a farm house complex. It was mostly gravel. Fortunately the host put the band under a small marquee where there was some concrete but barely enough to get all four guitar legs on and a chair! At last I managed it but as people walked past the "stage", gravel would spill under the pedals, making the surface "slippery". Interesting sound slipping almost but not completely off A&B! I may make a wood panel the size of the steel's footprint for future outdoor gigs.

Take a chair. Those fancy PSG seat / cases are rare in Europe but I regretted not taking a familiar seat. I was given an iron garden chair with a stone seat. It was about the right height but difficult to manipulate (especially in the gravel!) Also really was a pain in the butt after a couple of hours!

Play safe! Even on a simple two-chorder like Jambalya, mistakes happen. We play it in C and I started off in the 3rd position (so easy pedals down and up for C > G). Then I got adventurous, bored or carefree - probably all of those and moved up to positon 8. Now of course its pedals down on fret 10 and slide back to 8 but then came the solo and I lost my place. The lesson is 1) Stay where you're safe and 2) if you've ignored (1) then STOP PLAYING AND LISTEN! I didn't, I tried to soldier on but lost all hand-foot coordination.

Know your amp! So far, at home, I've practiced through a tiny Yamaha or headphones. Live, I normally play a gutsy Rickenbacker twin 8 console which sounds great through my live amp but my PSG sounded very different, far too thin and nasally and I kept grabbing controls mid-song to correct this. So try your live amp out at home to get a basic idea how you'll sound at louder volumes.

Know your program (and have a fallback plan!) Ok, this may sound obvious but we got to the gig and our frontman suddenly announced he'd forgotten his iPad containing the lyrics (he's German and to be fair, remembering foreign language songs is an effort!) He grabbed the bass player's print outs and chose songs where lyrics were printed with the chord charts. Everything was a little random (albeit alphabetically organized) and he and the rest of the band had no problems. However, I had only done my PSG orientation on the planned set! The fallback plan is, when in doubt, A&B down and play as if you are in A6 (my preferred non-PSG tuning). I successfully ignored strings 1-3 but kept forgetting about string 9 but it mostly worked!

Definitely overuse/abuse the A pedal. I mean this is the bread and butter of PSG, right? If I was within a hundred miles of a US roadhouse country bar, I'd probably have received a bottle of Lone Star right between the eyes, but in Germany, it's an unusual instrument and no-one seemed to mind my one-trick pony playing style!

Throughout the gig, my band-mates were largely encouraging but I admit to some absolutely horrible mistakes. However, no-one has yet said "next time bring the Ricky please" so I guess I'm going to be a PSG'er !

[Ian Rae]

Paul, that's a great checklist and I can identify with all of it!
Possibly the most important point is that we PSGers are very self-critical, whereas your bandmates and the audience don't really understand what's involved and are just glad you're there doing something a bit different. I frequently mess up but the band I'm in think I'm good so I don't argue

[Chris Brooks]

Paul, your gravelly surface rang a bell with me.

Last month my Western band played an outdoor wedding reception at a waterside restaurant. Being Rhode Island, the surface we set up consisted of . . . clam shells! Yeah: a bit unstable!

BTW, I carry small felt furniture pads with me since even "flat " stages can be uneven. I put a pad under the "short" leg.

Also Paul, consider carrying a drum throne instead of a steel seat. 3 legs, takes up less room. Set it and forget it.

Play on!

[Frank Freniere]

Hey Paul -

Herzliche Glueckwuensche! That first PSG gig is a tough one but you learned some practical lessons on the bandstand (barnyard?) that are hard to get anywhere else. You passed the test - keep going, man!

Also, what Ian said: you're always going to be your own toughest critic. If you're not, you're in the wrong band!

FF

[Fred Treece]

Good stuff. Congratulations. Now that #1 is out of the way, you know what to be scared to death of for the next 999

I was 100% not ready for my first gig. Who among us ever was? In the aftermath, I overcompensated for getting lost in the songs by working out parts and trying to strictly adhere to them. It didn’t work and I ended up frustrated. What has worked much better is diligent, focused practice time learning the instrument. Now I have more confidence in being able to play parts, as well as recovering if I hit a clunker.

Logistics are a whole nuther battle.

I have a half-sheet of 3/4” plywood and a rug for use as a personal stage on grass or gravel or dirt. One gig was on a hillside in the woods; there was no hope.

I try to have a backup plan for everything I can think of that could go wrong. Then I try to think of what I haven’t thought of yet.

Also, your chair. YOUR CHAIR!

[Dave Hopping]

Yup. Outdoor gigs will often require you to be equipped for a safari into Darkest Africa.

Or else the top of the Matterhorn

[Paul Seager]

... I overcompensated for getting lost in the songs by working out parts and trying to strictly adhere to them. It didn’t work and I ended up frustrated. What has worked much better is diligent, focused practice time learning the instrument. Now I have more confidence in being able to play parts, as well as recovering if I hit a clunker.

Yeah, I know this feeling from other instruments. I tried to get my PSG skills going with self-learn books, admittedly with an on/off focus. Finally I decided: play it or sell it and paid $99 for Paul Franklin's 'E9 Foundation' course. It's a subscription is for one year and that became my time-window, get the basics down, play the first gig within this year. Achieved!

The course, btw, is excellent and like a good teacher, Franklin repeats his key messages consistently throughout the material. I will definitely pay for the next stage, for next year. Who knows, I may even work my way up to buying a D10 in a few years

I have a half-sheet of 3/4” plywood and a rug for use as a personal stage on grass or gravel or dirt.

That's what I'm thinking, a wooden sheet with maybe some fake grass instead of a rug

[Bobby D. Jones]

The rug is something you may want to keep in your kit, In the winter if you get another outdoor gig, On a stone or concrete surface. Cold in the stone or concrete can make your feet and legs very cold. The plywood and rug are great insulation from the cold floor.

Some heavy extension chords with 4 place outlets are great to have in vehicle. Electric power can be a big problem at lawn parties and no stage venues.

Good Luck in your steel journey, Happy Steelin.

[Roger Rettig]

Like everyone else, I can relate to your experience. I had my first steel in the early-'70s and, as I was pro guitarist of many years standing (even then), I was reluctant to take the steel on a gig until I'd achieved a basic and acceptable competence.

A good friend (who already was an accomplished player) contradicted me and said: 'You won't really learn until you take in on the bandstand.'

Wise words indeed.

However, MY first night of trying to play in public was sullied, not only by all of Paul's hurdles, but by the terrifying discovery that my amateur efforts had been witnessed not only by about 400 people but also by Buddy Emmons. The Big E was being 'entertained' by the editor of a UK country music mag, Bob Powell; Bob was taking him around the various London venues.

I was introduced to the Great Man and apologized profusely. He couldn't have been more kind and polite (and encouraging). I expect he'd heard even worse before but not for a long time, but I returned to the stage and stayed on my Tele!!!

The lesson is clear, though - taking it on to the stage is where you'll really start to solidify things.

Congratulations on your maiden voyage!

[Ian Rae]

I had an experience like that playing trombone in a quintet at a friend's party. I didn't realise that the recently retired principal trombone of the BBC Symphony was a family friend and was sitting about ten feet away.
It certainly helped me to focus, especially as the set contained one of his old party pieces! He was very kind.
And then there was the bass player who put me in as a dep on a sight-reading gig and then came to listen when his date stood him up!

[Roger Rettig]

Good story, Ian, but I suspect your level of competence on trombone was a lot higher than mine was on steel!

Nonetheless, I can imagine it got your attention!

[Ian Rae]

Yes, sorry, apples and oranges. It wasn't my first trombone gig!

[Paul Seager]

I'm enjoying your responses, no matter how diverse! It's good to know that people arrive at steel guitar (with or without pedals) through many diverse routes. Also good to know that one should never underestimate who is in your audience!

Apropos diverse routes, greetings from Mons, Belgium where I've made a random stop-over between Germany and the UK.

[Jeff Mead]

The fallback plan is, when in doubt, A&B down and play as if you are in A6 (my preferred non-PSG tuning). I successfully ignored strings 1-3 but kept forgetting about string 9 but it mostly worked!

This was (and still is) my pedal steel safety net - I don't get the opportunity to play pedal steel very often.

On my guitar, I have a lever that drops my D to a C# so, along with A&B, I have a full six string A6 tuning on strings 4-9 plus a bonus high A on string 3.

I have found that most people I play with are so unfamiliar with pedal steel that they don't even notice when I am playing in lap steel mode.

[Daniel Bailey]

I played out on Friday night (first time), and dealt with a couple situations.

At home, I play guitar into Boss GT-1 multi-effects pedal for some delay, reverb, and volume then into Boss Katana. Seems to work pretty well.

Sound was awful at the venue. I was going Boss GT-1 then into their PA. The result was nearly any volume at all causing unpleasant distortion. Then, while trying different volume levels, I must have hit the "toe" end of the pedal too hard, and turned the pedal into wah-wah mode!! I never did that at home, but anyway lesson learned: disable any mode you don't want to end up in. Even if you think you won't trigger it by accident.

Another guy had a Fender resonator with pickup going straight into their PA. It also sounded awful, just a screetchy clanging metallic mess.

That all leaves me wondering what my signal path should be in that situation; I don't really want to spend lots of cash on guitar pedals or a Kemper Profiler or something. Seems like acoustic guitars with pickups straight into their PA sounded fine.

[Dave Stagner]

I played out on Friday night (first time), and dealt with a couple situations.

At home, I play guitar into Boss GT-1 multi-effects pedal for some delay, reverb, and volume then into Boss Katana. Seems to work pretty well.

Sound was awful at the venue. I was going Boss GT-1 then into their PA. The result was nearly any volume at all causing unpleasant distortion. Then, while trying different volume levels, I must have hit the "toe" end of the pedal too hard, and turned the pedal into wah-wah mode!! I never did that at home, but anyway lesson learned: disable any mode you don't want to end up in. Even if you think you won't trigger it by accident.

Another guy had a Fender resonator with pickup going straight into their PA. It also sounded awful, just a screetchy clanging metallic mess.

That all leaves me wondering what my signal path should be in that situation; I don't really want to spend lots of cash on guitar pedals or a Kemper Profiler or something. Seems like acoustic guitars with pickups straight into their PA sounded fine.

Sounds like a problem with their PA! (Often a problem with the person operating the PA…) I do NOT like going direct-only for that exact reason. Well, that and not trusting their monitoring. At the very least, bring your own DI box, rather than trusting theirs - either a passive DI, or one that can run on batteries, with a known good battery and a spare. That way, you can unplug their DI and plug your own into the XLR.

Better yet, bring your own amp! That way, you can self-monitor and not have to rely on the sound engineer to make sure you can hear yourself clearly (the other big problem with going direct). And if needed, they can just mic your amp. Worst case scenario, any decent amp is loud enough to fill a small/medium room! Your Katana probably has a line out, maybe even XLR out, so get a DI if you need it and plug your amp straight into their system. That’s what I do with my Fender Tone Master Deluxe, which has an excellent-sounding XLR out. I can hear myself onstage, the sound engineer can run me through the PA without hassle, and everyone’s happy.