The Steel Guitar Forum

Posted: **8 Mar 2004 11:43 pm**

Does anyone know if there is an online bio about Hoot Rains ? What kind of guitar did he play, and how did he make those singing high notes on the Slim Whitman records, with the harmonic-slide combo ?

Posted: **18 Mar 2004 11:47 am**

I'd love to hear something about him too. He was one of the first players I paid any attention to....JH

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Posted: **18 Mar 2004 8:45 pm**

Hoot Rains played a Gibson Console Grande. His guitar is now in the Blue Grass Museum in Marthaville, Louisiana.
Who knows how he played the licks he played on the Slim Whitman records. No one, after he left Slim Whitman, could come close to duplicating his sound. As a matter of fact, how do any of the great players do the things they do with such amazing ease and grace.

Posted: **20 Mar 2004 2:39 am**

He played a Fender Stringmaster Quad on a tour of the UK in the late 50's .... My friend Albert Green bought it from him along with a Fender Vol/tone pedal...Hoot said that this guitar and pedal were used on the original hits of Slim...I know no more...
Basil Henriques
www.waikiki-islanders.com

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Steel players do it without fretting

[This message was edited by basilh on 11 November 2005 at 11:16 AM.]

Posted: **11 Nov 2005 11:17 am**

I've found the guitar.. B.J Says <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Fender Stringmaster 1953

I originally saw this fantastic guitar in a shop window in Denmark Street during the 1970's and was completely blown away by its brilliance! I had to have it, but the shop had acquired it without the legs! I bought it anyway and later on to my surprise the shop where it originally came from in Birmingham had found the missing legs, I was so thrilled and have used it whenever I can ever since!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

http://www.bjcole.co.uk/Guitars_stringmaster.html

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Steel players do it without fretting

[This message was edited by basilh on 11 November 2005 at 11:18 AM.]

Posted: **11 Nov 2005 4:53 pm**

What is IT, that captures your "ear" so?

Can you describe it for us?

Is it possible it was done with merely a pluck of the first string followed by a slide to the the next octave position?

Just curious..........

Posted: **11 Nov 2005 5:39 pm**

.[This message was edited by basilh on 11 November 2005 at 05:41 PM.]

Posted: **11 Nov 2005 5:40 pm**

Played as a palm harmonic and glisses galore!! a real inovator..Should be in the SGHOF just because of his signature sound with Slim Whitman.. He brought the steel guitar to places around the world that it had never been to before, LIKE, the LONDON Palladium, The Royal Albert Hall and who knows where else..
Rather than someone not even known outside their own state,this man Should be there..

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Steel players do it without fretting