The Steel Guitar Forum

I have been listening to a box cd set titled Eddy Arnold The Tennessee Plowboy. Roy Just plays the melody, simply, but in a word, heavenly. He tastefully backs up Eddy without being overriding. I know I'm showing my age but I do not enjoy the music where everyone tries to drown out the others. This man deserves more accolades. I have a couple questions that maybe someone on the forum can answer (Carl Dixon?) Roy is shown with Eddy in some photos playing a single neck lap steel either Dobro style or on a stand. What brand of guitar was this? Also I have heard
he used E13,E7th,C#minor and E6th tunings. Which one did he use with the earlier Eddy recordings or did he just use one his whole career? Thanks for any input.

Bill
Excel J.B d8, Nashville 400

Bill,

Your words were so very poignant. Little Roy Wiggin's playing behind Eddy Arnold MADE Eddy Arnold. I will go to my death saying that. Just like Ray Price was MADE by Jimmy Day and Buddy Emmons. NO way would either of these singers EVER achieved their trmendous stature had it not been for these steel players in my opinion.

Roy's playing was often criticized by steel players as being too simple. Well, it was simple all-right but it fit Eddy's voice like a glove. NO other player ever, could have been a more perfect match for Eddy than Little Roy IMHO. And as such, I can not go along at all with criticizing him.

Ya see Roy came along at a time when MOST steel players did NOT play melody. Most ad-libbed. With a myriad of tunings they used a mixture of western swing and/or big band chord type tunings. Many used the steel as just another chording type instrument like regular guitar players did.

Little Roy tuned his 6 string guitars to a simple E tuning or C#minor. Two of the 3 most popular tunings ever for lap steel. The other one being A major with low bass. And he played strictly melody 99% of the time.

Roy played several lap steels often using a stand up SG stand. One was a Gibson 6 string. He also played this guitar using a string around his neck. There are pictures depicting this floating around. In fact, if my memory serves me right that is what he was using when Eddy hired him at the Opry one night in the late 40's.

Eddy told Little Roy to change the Oswald type ting-a-ling Dobro sound, to a more mellow type without the twang sound. Roy of course did it beautifully.

Later Roy purchased a Rickenbacker bakelite with white plates. I once saw a large picture of Little Roy holding this Rick in his home when Wayne Tanner and I had breakfast at Roy's house.

But the guitar he played most on through most of his career with Eddy was his new Gibson console grand D-8. I believe it was a D-8. It may have been a D-6. But my memory is fading fast with those stats. Forgive please.

During the ealier years with Eddy, Roy only tuned to a straight E tuning or the C# minor. Later however he added a 7th to his E tuning and changed the C# minor tuning to E13th with a high G#. It was at Eddy's suggestion he do this.

Here is the story as I recall it. One night Eddy got up tight about his fans applauding louder when hearing Little Roy's ting-a-ling than they did for Eddy. So he told Little Roy to change his style so it would not take away from the "business" of Eddy Arnold.

Let me go into this a little more, and it was NOT totally unjustified. There were two distinct Eddy Arnolds. Eddy the man and Eddy the very popular singer of that era. Eddy always wanted the latter to be unscathed. And I must say he achieved that to a very large degree. So I do not fault him, IF it was perceived that the fans were more concerned with the ting-a-ling than the "business" Eddy Arnold. Most could see what this might do in a higly competitive field like singing.

It was about this time when one of Eddy's greatest hits came about. "Just a Little Lovin". you will notice that Roy's playing on this tune was NOT at all like most of what Eddy had done. It was a more "uptown" steel sound.

From that day on, while he continued to "ting-a-ling" it was never really the same sound. If you will listen to it closely on such tunes as "I'll Hold You In My Heart" and "Bouquet of Roses", you can clearly hear the difference as compared with later recordings.

But that withstanding I still feel that Eddy's tremendous and unprecedented rise to fame in not only the country field BUT the POP field was due to Eddy's incredible voice AND Little Roy's perfectly matched "simple" steel guitar backup.

My opinions of course. Others will surely dissagree,

carl

Great posting, Carl. I agree with you about the "simplicity" of Wiggins' playing. Like Don Helms, Wiggins shows an extraordinary sensitivity to melody and texture, and his apparent simplicity is really a sort of distilled essence: a less sophisticated musician simply couldn't get away with playing such basic parts as Wiggins does on these records.

I know Wiggins also owned at least one double-neck Bigsby. It's now owned by Jimmy Roy, with the name plate still intact.

Carl, I can agree with your post all the way.
Good historical perspective. Regards, Paul

Thanks Carl.

You are a fountain of history and insight of steel guitar. You are a great asset to this forum.

Rick

For those of us that truly love and have willingly become lifetime slaves to the steel guitar and its many still unsolved mysteries, we have only the Byrds, Helms, Seiberts, and Wiggins to THANK!
These creative,giant talents not only lead the way thro' the darkness, but did so in the face of great odds. Electrified instruments were still "the unknown". Drums and ripped up blue jeans have been accepted more readily on the Opry than the steel guitar has been over the years.
Not only did these fabulous musicians set the standard for all who followed....but they gave their vocalist artists the identity that is so lacking in today's c/w music.
They were often criticized for the simplicity of their playing...."Why, anybody can play that!" Yet, undaunted, they set out and created unique styles that have lasted down thro' all of these many years.
Where would WE be today, had it not been for them?
Playing the simple melody of then popular tunes.....is what made c/w music. When Johnny Seibert kicked off a tune, YOU knew Carl Smith was going to sing the next song. Same with Wiggins and Arnold. Billy Robinson and Red Foley. Helms and Williams.
Where has it all disappeared?
Now, we pickers sit and anxiously await a note here or there by Emmons, Rugg, Hughey or anyone of the many other fabulous talents on today's records.
Perhaps as my good friend Wayne Tanner once said: for many of us pickers, we're stuck in a time warp. While the whole world is moving forward at a rapid clip, we steel guitarist, the hardcore types, are moving back in time still trying to discover what has been, by most, long ago forgotten or yet to be recognized.
I'm afraid the era of Roy Wiggins and his types........has faded into history and likely will never be revitalized. So much gadgetry......so many electronics.....such a lack of style/personality....it's like a world of clones and synthasizers!
Thank goodness we DO have Buddy Emmons, John Hughey, Hal Rugg and so many other new comers.....that are still attempting to bring new life to our favored instrument but can they ever overcome this Hollywood trend?
If only I could have lived my life in Nashville of old......during the40-50's. That was real steel guitar.......IMHO

Well said Ray!!!I'm agree with you..That was real steel guitar.
The sounds of Jerry Byrd, Wiggings,Don helms, Johnny seibert and may others made me beguin to play steel guitar.

As Carl dixon says about little Roy Wiggins..."it was simple all-right but it fit Eddy's voice like a glove" Amen Carl.

Someone say Simple? ... maybe but it has true feeling and it works.I'm tired of hear today a lot of overplaying .That's my opinion of course.

Yes friends....That was real steel guitar.


Fernando

Roy Wiggins music simple?Yes unlike many today when he played a song you could name that tune.With all the cloned dead sounding steel music its nice to listen to the real players who could and can play anything not just fills and Nashville sounds.We have lost much of the music between then and now.Are we a generation of clones with rods and pedals?

Carl & Ray, you said it well and brought tears to my eyes too. Perhaps 50 years from now there will be a board like this for the She Daisey types, but I seriously doubt it. Musicality seems to be lost today in an effort to shock, wow or overwhelm the audience. It seems like the guy running the mixing board should get all the awards today because the musicians aren't making the sounds. Both black & white music from the 20's-60's has a lot more appeal to me than anything put out today. I think I will stay in my time warp.

Carl
Nice post and I agree with you. I have been working in my shop out back for the last 2 days and listening to our local country station. In 2 days appox 8 hrs each day only heard 1 song with good steel guitar (Look at Us,Vince and John). however George Strait was in town last Sat live at the stadium with lots of excellent Steel Guitar and young people enjoying.That should wake up some record Exe's.
Vern