The Steel Guitar Forum

For beginners only.........the jerrybyrdfanclub.com site is now featuring an old tune by Ernie Lee, from back in the WLW-Cincinnati days.

The tune is: "YOUR TRAIN"........

Jerry Byrd, through-out the song, uses the oft' referred to "Doo-WAH" button to make the sound of the old steam locomotive's whistle.

As you know, this of course, is NOT, a "button" but rather....a sensitive touch and movement of the TONE CONTROL KNOB in such a way as to "sound like" the old lonesome locomotive's whistle. Give it a listen. You'll likely see WHY "a button" and/or "footpedal" or "ooopty T-dooooP" pedal could not achieve such an expressive sound for you to hear.

Let's talk some more, AFTER you've listened to it. Okay?

Ray,

You are indeed correct about Jerry's Boowah. He was truly the master of the tone control and that awesme sound.

How he could go to it sooo quickly is still a mindboggling experience. Garland Nash of Atlanta comes the closest to getting that Jerry Byrd boowah I have ever heard.

An ironic twist of fate is even though I can't play worth a flip, I somehow learned to get it early on. I could even emulate it almost exactly on a Fender T-8. But I wrapped my little finger around the tone control and of course played the bottom neck where the treble strings were nearest to the control knob.

A bit of trivia. I did play for a very short while in a country music band in Jax, Fla And the drummer and I worked up a little diddy making use of the drummer's brushes an my use of the hammer on bar then followed doing the boowah using the tone control on that Fender.

As I recall it was a crowd pleaser and to several members of the band. The ONLY thing I ever did musically that was worth even mentioning.

Thanks for the memories dear friend,

carl

WEll Carl.....as you by now have discovered, to get the "sound" we're discussing here, one must have "the right" tone control pot; and, the amp MUST BE TUNED some what treble so that the guitar's tone knob can do its job and the smaller diameter the amp speaker cone, the more perfect "the train sound" seems to be. The huge 15 inchers with lots of bass cranked in, seem to dampen out that RICH elusive sound.
NO ONE EVER TOLD ME THIS when I was younger and striving so hard to learn every move that Jerry Byrd made on his recordings of those days. YES! Those WERE the days!

That sound is one of the few things I ever really got down right. I loved to do it on the old Hank Thompson song -- Waiting In the Lobby of Your Heart -- anyone remember that? And I, too, played it on my Fender D-8 Professional. This guitar has just the right design for this with the tone control just perfect for wrapping the little finger around when you're on the bottom neck. My Stringmaster T-8 has the controls over BEHIND the pickups which makes the move almost impossible. I never could figure out why the design went that way.

And on my D-10 pedal guitar --- just forget it!!!

Forgot to mention in my previous post that another great non pedal steeler who does this really good is Kayton Roberts. and he also does it on a Fender D8 prof.

I did it all the time on my 6 pedal Gibson Electra-harp. What fun, and as Ray says everone liked it. Back in those days a 12 inch speakear was considered big.

I gues we all tried that train whistle in those days.

On my Gibson the tone control was just perfect place for my little finger.I still have a old tape of me playing "Whispering" and using the doowah slap the bar down. I made the tape in 1951 , plugged in the board at a radio station, just solo, no band.
Oh what fun! ...al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 18 July 2004 at 01:33 PM.]</p></FONT>

I also use this effect alot on my Fender Dual 8 Professional.

I own a Stringmaster but rarely play it, because the Dual Pro works so much better for me and my playing style. It is just about impossible to play the B section in "Steelin' the Blues" on a Stringmaster.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I think the reason the Stringmaster was desinged without the easy tone knob access is because the playing style was drifting away from that sound.

CS

Chris
As usual you are right on the money.

Yhe reason I can do it like Jerry is I use a 8 string Supro and the tone button is perfect another steel good for this is the fender professional A friend of mine by the name of Pepi pealer used to play wabash wa wa blues and we played it on both necks and I played the harmony part on one neck and he played the other neck Those were the days Garland Nash

Actually, Doo Wah Buttons was the brother of the actor, Red Buttons. ...just kidding.

I once saw a Fender T-8 Custom player who had a door bell button mounted in the plate on which the controls are located, and wired to switch from full bass to full treble, just by pushing that one button.

Rick