The Steel Guitar Thread

[tele salivas]

In sweet anticipation of receiving my Stage One Pedal Steel guitar this week (Thanks Doug!), I thought I'd start this up to turn people on to some good steel guitar, as well as being turned on to some good steeel guitar music.

Ladies and gentlemen, Dick Overby backing Leona Williams

iVamanos!

!

[tele salivas]

A personal favorite..

[dog fart]

Congrats on the steel! I wish I had the guts and wasn't so embarasingly broke ATM.

[Brokenpick]

Thanks for posting that!
Sweet steel playing, and a great old song.
(Why can't I find more live music like this!? & why isn't there a huge "Country" audience for it...)
Congrats and good luck with your new pedal steel!

[telequacktastic]

Oh, is that a Zum Stage One? Is that a 10 string with 3 foot levers & 4 knee benders? I've been drooling over the fessy's lately!! I just started playing fiddle, got a teacher and a new bow and strings but it was a toss up between getting a steel or a fiddle. I think it was my admiration of Don Rich that ultimately steered me towards fiddle. Congrats, and pics please!

[jmiles]

A thread of mine on the "AXE" forum;

http://www.axetalk.com/forum/electri...yers-here.html

[jmiles]

My 1974 Shobud. Came to me as 3 pedals, 1 knee, Now it has 6 knees. Dead mint, "under the bed" guitar!

[telequacktastic]

she's a beaut jmiles!

[twangjeff]

Originally Posted by jmiles

My 1974 Shobud. Came to me as 3 pedals, 1 knee, Now it has 6 knees. Dead mint, "under the bed" guitar!

Wowee!

[jmiles]

My other Shobuds;

[tele salivas]

Originally Posted by telequacktastic

Oh, is that a Zum Stage One? Is that a 10 string with 3 foot levers & 4 knee benders? Congrats, and pics please!

Yep, the very one. This is what it looks like as the check winds its way through the postal routes...




Pretty damn simple, but it has what I need.
I'll post pictures when I get it in person. Thanks and good luck with the fiddle!

[tele salivas]

Dang Jmiles! Those are really something else! I mean, they look pristine.
Those are some pretty cool laps over on the AXE forum. Any more?

[Crawfish]

Well, it doesn't have pedals, but it is a steel nonetheless:



I just started playing. I figured why get an inexpensive new one when I could get one with vibe. Made by Valco in Chicago, 1951.

Those pedal steels look amazing! Keep 'em coming!

[jmiles]

Actually, only the almost finished '67 has been restored. The '59 Permanent in the middle needs quite a bit of work, but the finish is good. The Fingertip model in the rear will require refinishing. Lots and lots of aluminum buffing and polishing to be done! Here's the '63 Fingertip. You can see how many things have to be taken apart, buffed, polished, and then reassembled. But Fingertips are stunning guitars,

[jmiles]

Any more?
Here's my workhorse. A mid-Eighties Kline Keyless 12 string Universal.

[jmiles]

BTW; At Axe Talk, I'm Hu Duck Xing. There are a bunch of pics of the restoration of the '67 over there.

[syrynx]

TS, congratulations on the imminent arrival of the Stage One, and welcome to yet another addiction.

If I didn't have so many steel guitars, perhaps I might have a camera to photograph the ones I have. The current roster:

- Fender triple 8 Stringmaster (circa 1959), acquired 1976

- Fender 400 pedal steel (circa 1972), 4 stock pedals, 3 homemade knees, acquired 1979

- Fender 400 pedal steel (circa 1958), 6 stock pedals, 2 homemade knees, acquired 1980

- Fender Deluxe 8 (circa 1960), acquired 1981

- Martin O-15 (1959) with extension nut, acquired 1982

- Harmony H165 (early 1960s) with extension nut, acquired 2011 :D

- Ovation deep bowl Balladeer (1970s) with extension nut, acquired late '70s by my late wife

For many years, lack of physical space and pickin' partners kept me from playing steel at all. I missed it. Also, my standard guitar playing was increasingly limited by arthritis. So, a bit over two years ago, I dug out the Martin, which I had kept in a dobro tuning since I got it in '82, and started exploring DADF#AD, DADFAD, and DADFAC, under the influence of Lindley, Manx, Phelps, Paddy Burgin, Mike de Velta, Fred Kinbom, our late friend Steinar Gregertson, etc. I made the happy discovery that I could actually play and sing a fair number of my original songs, given enough practice. That kept me pretty busy for a year, and continues to be an ongoing effort.

I missed the reso 135135 tuning, though, so about a year ago I set up my late wife's long-idle Ovation with an extension nut to play that way. However, I was dissatisfied with this tuning's bottom end (actually, the lack thereof) when played thumb-style. After trying several different tunings on the lowest three strings, I ended up with an F7 tuning (FCEbFAC) with the fifth string an octave below where you'd expect it to be. This opened up a whole world of possibilities which I'm still enthusiastically exploring. The Harmony lives in this tuning; the Ovation (a shockingly good acoustic steel guitar, if played with a dobro-style strap. On one's lap? Well, not so much...) is now my test bed for continued tuning explorations.

BTW, there's a Steel Guitar Club thread in the Guitar Owners Clubs forum.

Some of the folks who inspire me:

Mike De Velta, on a Takamine 12 string with a tall nut (and six strings).



Freddy Roulette, on his 8 string National Dynamic.



Larry Hutcherson, on the only Deluxe 8 I've ever seen that's more beat up-- er, road-worn than mine.



Oh, right! That Stage One is a pedal steel, innit?

[jmiles]

'59 Permanent;

[tele salivas]

I've played lap steel for about 6 years to see if I really wanted to go this route. I've gotten pretty good at simulating pedals steel lines with slants and tone swells, using a ba$tardized six string E9 tuning. I've seen some guys that are amazing on lap steel,like Freddy Roulette! and Mike Neer over at the SGF. I almost went with an 8 string console, but those crazy pedals and levers prove that I am a glutton for punishment, plus, it fits more into that whol;e "mad scientist" outlook that pedal steelers seem to morph into. You can get close, but nothing sounds quite like those levers and pedals.
Some very cool pictures and players here.

What is it with the Deck of Cards you see on some steels? Is it an Emmons reference, or something else that I've missed?

[jmiles]

"What is it with the Deck of Cards you see on some steels?"

Shobud thing. Not Emmons at all. Emmons used atomic symbols. Klines used mathematical symbols.