Pedal Steel Music

Hello fellow players,

Well here we go rapidly coming up on anniversary number thirty. Going back through all our records and probing the dusty corners of my memory, it seems as though May first of this year will be our thirtieth anniversary. Where does time go?

I remember how I got started. I’ll have to thank or blame the Emmons Company for getting me stopped and aimed in the right direction. I had been walking down the street in Goodlettsville, a close suburb on Nashville, getting my car repaired and while just wandering down the street and waiting for my car to be fixed, I walked by a beautiful little space for rent with a great big picture window and a Dairy Queen next door.

There was a guy watching me come up the street and when I got to him he asked me if I’d be interested in renting the building. I had just sold my 1963 Shelby Cobra roadster and had a pocket full of money so I said, “Sure. I’ll rent your building.”

He said, “What are you going to do with it?”

I replied I didn’t know, however it would be legal and fun. I gave him the first and last month’s rent. He gave me the keys and I wandered on down the street not knowing what I was really going to do. That quandary was soon answered by a phone call from Ron Lashley who said he was coming to visit and wanted to borrow a car to get around town.

After asking him where he was going to go in town, he replied he was looking for someone to be a dealer for the Emmons guitar. I said, “Great. I’m your dealer. Come up and get your car and some money.”

A month later I had twelve new Emmons guitars on the floor. He promised me that I could never sell them as fast as he could build them. We all know that wasn’t true. However, I sold a lot of Emmons guitars in the next two years. I then took in the Sho-Bud line in addition to Emmons and Steel Guitar World which it was called then never looked back.

I hired a good crew including several employees from the Sho-Bud Company. They ran the business while I toured around the United States with the famous hillbillies of the era.

Over the years there have been many changes but the craziness has pretty well settled down to a calm, dependable world including a name change and some other changes. Probably this has been the best move I’ve ever made in the world of steel guitar. It has been a dangerous move at times according to my bank account fluctuations, but I always had my playing life to keep pumping into the business.

I got much help from competitors in the beginning. Shot Jackson and his sons, Ron Lashley and his sons and other dealers helped me in many ways to keep my doors open. Many people have been very good and I will always appreciate my friends around the United States and in Nashville itself.

Steel guitar people are about as good as it gets. Anyway, we’ll probably be throwing a big anniversary deal around the first of May. So get ready for big sales and big parties.

With much grief, we received an email from the president of our local union, Dave Pomeroy. Larry Butler died early Friday morning in his sleep. He was 69. In 1975, he won a Grammy songwriting award for “Hey, Won’t You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” which was a hit for B.J. Thomas. Butler co-wrote the song with Chips Moman.

In 1980, Larry won the Grammy for Producer of the Year, the only Nashville producer to win the award for his studio work with artists ranging from longtime friend Kenny Rogers to Johnny Cash. He also became Johnny Cash’s in-house producer, pianist and musical director. His closest Nashville relationship was with Kenny Rogers and the two remained close throughout his life.

We also lost Larry Nutter. Larry played lead guitar for Kitty Wells, Jack Greene, Jean Shepard, Jeannie Seely and was an in demand session player.

One of the greatest selling items we have amongst professionals and other players that maybe have not spent as much time, is the Bobro that makes your steel guitar sound like a Dobro. These items have sold very well over the past years. We have the Bobro on special now with free shipping and a free nylon bar that makes it sound even more like a Dobro than ever. See it here: www.steelguitar.net/bobro

I’d also like to remind everybody that for the rest of this month and for all of February we have free shipping on any guitar.

See our monthly specials at … www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html.

The friend to all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Hello fans and fellow players,

As we were closing the last newsletter that you should have received by now, I was answering questions about tube amplifiers versus transistor amplifiers. Either can be made to sound very good by the designer or either can be horrible. Now days, if an amplifier is made to be a lead guitar amp, you’d better forget about trying to use it with steel.

These usually don’t have a lot of power and they start distorting at a pretty low volume which is what guitar players seem to love, want and need. I remember once when I was in the Air Force, I played through a very small old Gibson tube amp that had the most beautiful, rich sound I had ever heard.

For some reason, the owner wouldn’t sell it to me, but it made me think that when it comes to amplifiers, if you’re buying something you’re not really familiar with, you’d better try it before you lay the bucks on it. Of course, this is not necessary if you’re buying a famous well-known amp with a brand name like Peavey, Fender or the like.

Buying from a store that has professional musicians working in it in the daytime and getting their opinions is probably the most valuable service a store can offer. Once you trust them, you will find that even though they are sales people, the incredible knowledge that they will part with can save you much worry in making your choice.

I remember as a youngster going into stores in my hometown where the local professional players were working their day job. If I’d say something to them like, “Boy that Premier is a beautiful looking amplifier.” Many times they would give me a helpful nod “yes”, but if they looked the other direction and cleared their throat, I knew I should leave it alone.

One of the biggest, greatest amplifier companies in the United States today makes the world’s best steel amp, but don’t do very well on their guitar amplifier. Then there’s another company that we all know well that makes very good guitar amps, but don’t do very well in the steel guitar area.

Of course I’m not talking about weird amps that have a way of coming across our shores like a Vox or possibly Marshall and so on. When it comes right down to it, between all of us having our tastes changing as we grow older and trade guitars and as the amplifier companies themselves are making continual changes, we will all have hard core opinions that may be hard to deviate from.

Remember of course, there are different amplifiers for studio and onstage equipment. Different styles can also dictate different equipment. Even guitar picks can be figured in here.

Another question that I am asked occasionally is who played certain parts on different instruments on albums I’ve recorded. On many of my albums, I’m playing the piano parts on steel guitar using a Proteus synthesizer triggering device. I even played Last Date with a piano setting using this method.

There are times in the studio when I’d be finishing up a mix and the piano player would have already gone home and it would have cost mega-bucks to get him back into the studio so I would do the piano fill or intro on steel.

And of course, horn parts and violin parts I’ve been doing for years by hooking up two Proteus units together. I can just about sound like a complete orchestra. And remember, on steel you can slide violin parts much easier than you can with a keyboard synthesizer. I got so adept at this at times that the musician’s union would threaten me with fines for putting musicians out of work.

Now that I’m not really an A team player anymore, I can talk about it. I would do many sessions for big name artists on major labels that would not give me credit because of fearing the union getting involved in disciplinary actions. I look back on this now and usually just laugh at it.

It’s a shame that people don’t understand that I did many albums in the late sixties to late seventies. I’d like to be able to brag about these now, but I really have no way of proving that I did them even though there are many producers and musicians in town that know I did.

I still get asked a lot about my equipment and how I hook things up and tricks I have like true stereo volume pedals that controlled my stereo signals going out to the board. And I had full control over my Proteus units with the setup that I had. There are a lot of great former number one hits that I still hear on the radio with big lush strings and horn sections where there may have only been four of us in the studio when it was done.

Producers loved me because they could save the money in hiring a lot of musicians, but yet could charge the record company for a whole bevy of strings and horns, put themselves down as leader and put the bucks directly in their pocket. Such is the life of a studio musician in Nashville, Tennessee.

Just a reminder that I’m giving you free shipping within the continental U.S. on any guitar you buy during the months of January and February.

Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we’ll try to save you a lot of money.

The friend of all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Hello fellow players,

I’m still getting many technical questions from many players that need or want answers, some of which sound like the sooner they answers, the better. This is one from Wiz Feinberg from the Chicago area.

Subject: What should I do about my neck screws?

Bobbe;
How do you like the subject? 😉

Seriously, my 1983 push pull, with 8 pedals and 9 knee levers is in need of a slight adjustment of the neck screws on both necks. I almost got them right, but no banana.

The problem

Harmonics don’t jump out any more like they used to; they are clunky and I have to be dead on to get a harmonic at all. When they sound, they don’t sustain very long. The 3rd string is thin sounding above the 12th fret; no sweetness at all. Sustain on plain strings is way down. Cabinet drop is noticeable on un-pedalled strings when 1st two pedals are mashed (E9). When strummed unplugged, the guitar does not “bloom” very much on the E9 neck, but does on the C6.

I believe that the guitar is fighting with me on harmonics and tone on the high strings. It now sounds more like my old Super~Pro than an Emmons push pull!

The decline has occurred gradually over the last half year or so. Temperature varies in the Eagles Club, where the steel lives until I take it out for the occasional one-nighter with another band.

What I have tried

I loosened all (aluminum) neck screws equally, then pushed down on the necks as I struck harmonics at the 5th, 7th and 12th frets (no bar). When I found places that improved the tone when pushed, I tightened the screws under that area. The screws at both ends are a bit tighter then those in the middle.

I have tried raising and lowering the Lawrence XLR-16 pickups and even tried tilting them with the bridge side higher. No improvement. Sustain sucks and harmonics are hard to hit and keep going.

All other screws are tight, including body to frame and bridge mounts. The anti-warp bar is in place across the front to back in the middle of the body.

Which way should I go with the neck screws? Tighter or looser all around? Tighter in the middle than the ends? If I start with the screws all the way tight, how much would you recommend loosening each pair?

I am trying to get back the classic push pull tone and harmonics like John Hughey or Buddy Emmons had. I play classic Country at a local Eagles club and outlaw Country with another band on Fridays when they can afford the extra man. Any recommendations for adjustments will be appreciated.

My amps are a Nashville 400 at the Flint Eagles and a lighter Nashville 112 on the one-nighters. I use Goodrich electronic volume pedals. One I bought from you, the other from Bob Moss. I have a buffer plugged into the end of the guitar, which I built, which provides 1 meg ohm in and 10k out. Nothing in the effects chain affects the tone directly. I go from the guitar to the volume pedal to the amp, then feed the effects using the first patch loop. They include the Bobro I got from you. I use it every night, on multiple songs.

Wiz Feinberg, Pedal Steel Guitarist Extraordinaire!
www.wiztunes.com

I am a firm believer in my answer in the fact that every screw and nut and bolt on a steel guitar has a purpose. The purpose is to hold something together or to make the guitar perform as well as it can under many different circumstances. Because of this I’ll say that almost every nut, bolt and screw on a steel guitar should be as tight as possible without being in danger of stripping or breaking.

Yes, there are some in the world that feel that different tensions on these things in different places will improve the tone if left loose. If it does affect the tone it will not be in a favorable way and I feel all these ideas should be discarded. Let these individuals that think they need to take your guitar, charge you $200 to loosen up various screws on the neck and so on should technically be put in jail as far as I’m concerned.

Put your guitar together the way it was designed to be put together. If you’re having trouble with sustain, try new Cobra Coil strings, check your cords and volume pedal and you should end up being okay.

Several people have called or asked me via email what they have to tear down, unplug or disconnect when they go on break after a set in a club or go home at night after the gig. My answer is turn off nothing when you go on break except anything that might cause the guitar to feedback when you’re in the middle of a cup of coffee seven tables.

As you know, many volume pedals work so easy that a good stomp by someone walking across the floor or someone tripping on your volume pedal cable can cause your volume pedal to go all the way down. When this happens I think you know what can go on from there. Of course, if you have a tube amp, put it on standby.

When you go home in the evening or leave the stage for long periods of time, it’s a very good idea to turn everything off and possibly even disconnect one of your cords and put it in the back of your amp. Even better yet, unplug the amplifier so the janitor in the club won’t be trying to play steel when you’re not there.

You tube amp players need to keep the smallest amount of time on your tubes as possible. Tubes are kind of like an old electric light bulb, they deteriorate over time and can be pretty expensive to replace. When it comes to tube amplifiers, steel players generally don’t really care for them because of the problems that can invite.

Some guys absolutely love them as I do myself if they sound good. There are some tube amps that sound absolutely horrible and some that are absolutely wonderful. Just like transistors, there are some transistor amps that are horrifyingly bad and there are some that just sound better than anything in the world. It’s not the tube or the transistor that is determining good or bad, but the total design concept of the amp.

The thing I don’t like about tubes are their undependability compared to transistors. The weight of the transformer in tube amps makes the amp very close to impossible to move around. A hundred watt tube amp will probably weight more than your car, but a hundred watt transistor amp will only weigh twenty to forty pounds.

Several people that I know love the Fender Twin 12 tube amp or the Peavey Delta Blues. I agree they are both good sounding vacuum tube amplifiers, but when you figure all the problems that a vacuum tube can give you, the transistor is probably the better choice for your rig.

Just a reminder that I’m giving you free shipping within the continental U.S. on any guitar you buy during the months of January and February.

See our monthly specials at … www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html.

The friend to all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday