Pedal Steel Music

Hello fellow players,

I have seen several arguments, I use that term loosely and good naturedly, on the steel guitar forum and am always astounded to see the most famous person or the most famous player always winning the argument. Unfortunately, the famous player may actually be wrong in his statements, but because he is a big famous player or recording musician, the majority of folks think he is the know all and tell all.

I am not referring to any special case here, however after going back and reading past several years of forum arguments, I have noticed this trend. Just remember, use your own mind and make your own decisions when it comes to right and wrong.

Here we are now in one of the biggest heat waves that eastern half of the United States has ever had. Records are falling daily in the southeast and the high temperature records are being bumped daily in the north and Midwest. If you double an accordion which is an instrument that is held together with hot bees wax, you can be in a lot of trouble if you put it in your trunk and pull it out later for an important overdub or TV job.

Violins are also extremely susceptible to heat. Steel guitar fretboards will fall off and formica that is glued on many guitars may also depart when the temperature gets over 150 degrees in the trunk of your car. You better believe that this temperature is very possible if you have a black car and live in the south.

We have lost some very valuable brilliant folks in the world of steel guitar recently. Folks that gave a lot to steel guitar, either in their playing or through books they have written or direct one on one teaching. Buddy Charleton comes to mind. Of course, Jeff Newman, the great Don Curtis, Don Helms and the list goes on.

One of the most notable that nobody really thinks about was an extremely valuable person in the world of steel guitar is the great Duane Marrs. Duane had many teaching tapes out and invented so many things that all steel players use today. He was among the most likable guys ever in this field.

Players and teachers today that I highly recommend and think the world of are Mike Sweeney, Mickey Adams, Doug Jernigan and of course, there are many more throughout the United States. Just listening to Buddy Emmons, Buddy Charleton and many other CDs can be a great learning experience in itself. Anything that I can do to further your efforts at learning steel guitar, let me know.

My recommendation is don’t just copy somebody’s style because every time you play a lick that is associated with him, you won’t get credit for it, he will. There are many changes on E9th guitar that are associated with certain players, so every time you hit that knee lever or use that pedal, somebody else will get credit for it.

This means when the chance for a big job comes along, they would rather have the guy that invented the style than the guy that copies it. Wouldn’t you rather be famous for something than famous for somebody? In the very beginning when you learn to play, you about have to play things that other folks have done. But remember, you’re going to be a whole lot better off studying real music than just styles somebody else has already invented and exploited.

Signing off from Nashville, Tennessee – a drinking town with a music problem.

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

Your buddy,
Bobbe
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.com/bobbeseymour

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 must get sixty emails a week concerning people that want to sell me steel guitars, amps or related equipment. I have to change my policy on how I handle these emails. For instance, I just got an email asking me if I would buy a Sho-Bud, an old one in perfect shape with a good case and amplifier. But just like many other inquiries there was no asking price in the question and description.

To make a long story short, the price is an important bit of information that I need to make a decision on whether I want to buy it or not. As a matter of fact, you might say the price is the most important thing even over condition, model of guitar and brand. If I don’t have the price, I don’t have you an answer.

I usually email back with a question. How much do you want for it? My reply is always, “I don’t know. What’s it worth?”

So from now on, I’m not going to even answer folks that want to sell their guitar and won’t tell me how much they want for them. You don’t walk into a Cadillac dealer to buy a new car and have the salesman ask you how much his Cadillac is worth. You don’t walk into a restaurant I hope and ask how much breakfast is without being able to tell them what you want for breakfast.

The reason most people have trouble selling their steel guitars and related equipment is they just plain don’t know how to sell. You need to know the price, the model, the condition of what you have and you should know something about the market for the guitar you have.

Just because your Sho-Bud Maverick says Sho-Bud on the front, it’s not worth as much as a Lloyd Green model would be. The Pro II, Pro III and SuperPro may be about the same price, however a Sho-Bud Christmas tree amp is worth a lot more to use than a Sho-Bud Compactra 100 is.

Getting ideas off the internet on what your guitar is worth is not really very accurate. You’ll find the widow of some steel player in Yugoslavia that thinks her guitar is worth six thousand dollars or some wonderful player in Houston that wants a quick sale on his Super Pro II for only fifteen hundred.

Actually it makes no difference what your guitar is really worth unless you bought it just to make money with. What matters is what you’ll take for it. What the rest of the world tells you it’s worth or not worth probably won’t be accurate anyway because they won’t know how bad you want to sell it, what you need the money for or the condition of the guitar. So you are the one who needs to determine what you’ll take for it.

One thing I’ll warn everybody about whether you’re buying or selling is where the lowering bar in the mechanism touches the string cam and rubs on it to raise and lower the string is where many guitars will cut a groove into the finger. This will need to be replaced and has total control over tuning that string. It also will affect the tone of the guitar.

Sho-Buds with the zinc chrome plated finger are very bad about this problem. We have to repair several of these a month and it’s a pretty lengthy process. So even when we buy a Sho-Bud of this vintage now, we will check and repair if necessary any of these models.

All the guitars we have on the floor for sale have been checked and modified for many years of future use. If you buy a Sho-Bud from us, you’ll have no worries. However, if you buy one from eBay or craigslist or off the steel guitar forum, try to get it with a warranty against this potential serious problem.

To fix it involves tearing the entire guitar down, replacing the fingers or doing a modification that will keep it going forever. We have four or five great Sho-Buds on the floor right now that sound like Heaven and play even better. If we can help you with one of these let us know and remember this problem can occur with any all pull guitar using the three piece finger with the exception of Emmons LeGrande which doesn’t have a lowering bar rubbing the cam.

At least one good thing about buying used Sho-Buds is that parts are available from about anywhere including from this company, Steel Guitar Nashville and we do full service on all Sho-Buds.

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

Your buddy,
Bobbe
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.com/bobbeseymour

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 get many questions a month asking me how long it will take for them to learn to play steel guitar. Growing up with a father that owned one of the largest music schools on the east coast and watching his teachers work with students over the years, it seems as though the answer to this question boils down to aptitude, personal drive and native ability.

Dad used to give students a test after six weeks and this test let him know what the student was capable of. For instance, he’d play two notes, one slightly higher in pitch than the other, then ask the student which one was lower. Then he did the same thing with volume. He’d play fast songs and slow songs. He would ask the students questions about what he was doing.

He’d play melodies with big chords, then melodies with just simple one note harmonies. Then he would play a note in a popular song with a choice of notes and then ask which notes sounded better for harmony to what he was playing.

After many of these musical type questions, he would pass judgment on the ability of the student. This determined what direction and how far to go on with the student’s musical education. Some students could play very well after six weeks. Other students played no better than they did when they came in. So when somebody asks me how long it will take to play steel guitar, my answer is usually, just as long as you want it to.

To me steel guitar is one of the easiest instruments there ever was to play, but then again, I tried to play many instruments and don’t feel I did very well and of course, we’ve all seen professional steel players that didn’t play very well at all and undoubtedly never will. It’s sort of like everything else.

I have a buddy that was mowing my lawn three years ago that took flying lessons and got all his licenses and is now flying right seat in a business jet for a very famous big company. I wouldn’t loan him my airplane to fly around the pattern because I know he would at least tear something up on my airplane and at the most kill himself and anybody else that was standing around.

If you’re blessed with a lot of drive and you have the aptitude and an innate native ability, you’ll probably be a great steel guitar player. If not, you might borrow somebody’s steel guitar and injure somebody while trying to play it. Just like learning to do anything, you’ll have to spend some time, spend some money and start by really enjoying what you’re doing.

If it’s fun to you, you’ll do it much faster than if it’s not. It’s nice to have equipment that will make all your rivals envious just like when you were a kid with a sparkling new chrome and metallic bicycle, you were a lot more proud than you were of your old bike.

My first few years of learning steel guitar was pretty well hampered by not being able to afford a good guitar. I was out of the Air Force by the time I could afford a guitar I could be proud of. This is one of the reasons that I have gotten into the steel guitar selling business. I want people to have what they need to be a good steel guitar player. I was playing professionally in Dallas and barely had the equipment good enough to do the job at all, much less feel comfortable with what I was doing. I just know in my heart that I’d be a lot better player today and done my band leaders more justice if I would have had a better guitar and amp.

I look back now and have to snicker, but it’s amazing how far determination and drive will take you. When a young player comes in my store telling me how badly he wants a new guitar, I’ll do my best to see that he gets what he needs.

Another great subject I’d like to touch on here is the brotherhood that steel players are in. The care they take for each other, the interest in each other’s welfare is a wonderful thing for a band of brothers to have. Let somebody’s guitar get stolen, as soon as every steel player in world finds out about it through the internet or whatever, the guitar will undoubtedly turn up and get back to its correct owner.

Your fellow brotherhood members will give you help in finding rare equipment like old Standels, old Bigsby guitars, that rare push pull Emmons and so on. Help in finding work and jobs is a very important thing that this brotherhood will do for each other. After all, what other instrument by itself has their own shows and meets, either on a local level or international level?

And remember this, steel players have their own Hall of Fame. The brotherhood of steel guitar is a wonderful thing and not just for country style players. There are many jazz oriented players that have found great camaraderie in each other. And then of course, there is the great Hawaiian steel guitar club.

Steel guitar is a much loved commodity the world over. Being a member of one of the big steel guitar organizations may feed you information and continuing love for the guitar and music we all now care so much about.

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

Your buddy,
Bobbe
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.com/bobbeseymour

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