Pedal Steel Music

December 23, 2013

Jason emailed me from Niagara Falls, Canada. He asked me to explain how to do harmonics easier than by using your palm. There are many players that don’t use their palm. The top of the third finger can also be used to make a harmonic and this is by gently touching the string in the right place as you pick it. I believe this is the way Buddy Emmons does it.

This is very close to the way I do it which is even easier since I don’t use picks. Make sure your treble is turned up enough on your amp that your harmonics will sparkle.

I’m going to mention some things about tone quality today. Ever notice how some guys get a big rich full tone and other guys with about the same equipment sound anemic? There are several things that affect this. Some are very simple, like the kind of cords that you use, I mean the electronic kind that go from your guitar to your amp, not the kind that you play like triads, sevenths, ninths and so on.

The strings that you use are a critical factor in the tone you produce. That’s why I use and highly recommend Cobra Coil strings. If you’ve been playing them, then you understand why.

Another thing you need to do is run your volume control pedal near half wide open all the time. When you pull the control back, not only does your volume go down, but your tone changes a little which is not something that is desirable, but just the way it is. If you using an electronic pedal, you may not be experiencing this trait. However, it may be just as bad as an old tone pot rheostat.

Once you make sure you’re not losing tone in your cord, you can work on other more basic things. We have discussed volume pedal pumping in the past. Nothing is more aggravating in listening to a steel player play than hearing him pump the volume pedal. This is like listening to the radio while continuously dialing the volume knob back and forth.

I remember Jerry Byrd giving advice to a professional steel player here in Nashville a long time ago. He told the player that he would sound a lot better if he’d throw his volume pedal in the Cumberland River. Jerry was a direct kind of guy.

Of course there are times when you may want to use your volume pedal for an effect the way Curly Chalker did on Hank Thompson tunes.

Another big reason not to pump the pedal is to extend the life of the pot in the pedal. The more you pump it, the shorter its life will be. We all know what a mess it is when your pedal starts scratching and how expensive it is to replace the pot in time and money. I’m sure we have all heard other players pump the volume pedal. Listen to yourself and don’t do it. Ask other players if you are doing it because they’ll know it before you do.

Listen to Nashville’s finest players and you will never hear the volume fluctuating around.

I remember I was working in a club in Las Vegas with a local band from that area. Well, they were all local except the guitar player who was Jimmy Bryant of Capitol Records fame.

I heard a swoosh between songs. I looked up at the dance floor just in time to see a steel guitar case coming across toward the bandstand. I looked for who threw the guitar and there he was, Gene O’Neill. Gene watched me play for a little while, then said, “I can hear your volume pedal scratching. Why don’t you replace it?”

I told him the job didn’t call for it. It wasn’t no more important than the job was. He said, “You’re not doing it for the job, you’re doing it for yourself.” I never forgot that. He was right. Gene was a good steel player and a good friend. He was working Vegas with Charlie Pride and had a day off.

When setting the tone on your amplifier, be sure to have it set with plenty of treble and plenty of bass so you get a big fat tone. Don’t get carried away with the treble though. The mid range will need to be turned up enough that it balances out the treble and bass, not so much that it hurts it.

Just remember that most of your good tone comes from your guitar. Most brands of steel guitar today deliver a pretty good tone. Those guitars that don’t deliver good tone have pretty well fallen by the wayside.

I myself am looking for a new guitar after playing my last one for near forty years, an Emmons pushpull. I like the tone of the new Fessenden and the new Mullen. Either one of these guitars is a worthy successor to my pushpull. We try to keep both of these in stock at all times at Steel Guitar Nashville.

Good tone and good equipment isn’t for the dancers, it’s for you. Thank you for asking the question about tone because it is very important and is very important to me also.

Since this is the last newsletter before Christmas let me say once again Merry Christmas from all of us here at Steel Guitar Nashville. Remember, gift cards make a great last minute stocking stuffer and you can take your time decided what you want because they never expire.

Merry Christmas,

Bobbe Seymour

P.S. I just got word that we will have a brand new Mullen Royal Precision 8/5 in black delivered today, December 23rd. You can pick it up here or I will pay the shipping within the lower 48 states if you order over the phone. This is one gorgeous guitar that you will love. It sounds and plays the way it looks.

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info@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

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Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Open 9AM – 2Pm every Saturday until Christmas
Closed Sunday

Hello fellow steel guitarists,

It looks like we finally lost the king of steel guitar employers. Ray Price is gone everywhere except in our record collections and our memories. I don’t know of another country music singer that has employed more great steel guitarists over the years than Ray has.

In Nashville, it’s hard to find anybody that hasn’t worked for him. I’m sure this the same about Dallas also. Hard to believe I’ll never work again in that big luscious band with those beautiful Cam Mullens arrangements. I’m sure many of you that have worked for him also feel the same way.

It was his sound that I fell in love with while working for him that made me produce an instrumental album called Priceless using the same musicians and studios Ray used.

I remember when Hank Williams died. Ray Price took over and hired his band. With Jerry Rivers on fiddle, Don Helms on steel, he recorded songs like You Done Me Wrong along with several other hits. I guess it’s too much to dream that someone will come along, take over the band he has now and continue that for the next 50 years.

So much for another of country music’s greatest sounds. Goodbye Ray, there are a lot of things about you we’re going to miss. Thank you very much for your contribution to great country music.

I got an email from someone that was turned off by Curly Chalker’s personality. There are very few steel players that have identical personalities to Curly. They just don’t play well enough to pull it off.

To answer an email from Bill Cook in San Antonio, yes Curly did play with Hank Thompson several different times but never did play trumpet. Hank’s trumpet player was a gentleman named Dubert, whose last name I can’t remember but I’m sure many of you will.

It was fascinating the way some western swing bands could switch instruments and totally change the overall sound of the band. They could go from western swing with a 3 or 4 piece string section to a 4 or 5 piece brass section.

Hank Thompson was a lot like Ray Price in that he used many steel guitar players in the second half of his career. The first half of course, he used two steel players, Bob White and Peewee Whitewing, two of the nicest guys that ever picked up a bar.

I haven’t said anything about the passing of George Jones. It seems like everything that could be said was said, in Nashville anyway. I don’t know what his band is going to do for work but I believe they’ve all gone their separate ways.

We don’t have many great classic country music artists left, however we keep hearing steel guitar where we can find it. There’s still nothing prettier than E9th being played behind a gorgeous voice like Vince Gill’s.

It’s interesting to know that so many of you care about great steel guitar no matter where you find it. It’s going to be many years before George Jones and Ray Price are forgotten.

Just a reminder that gift cards are great stocking stuffers for the steel player in your family and of course, our Christmas sale is in full swing so with that let me say Merry Christmas to you from all of us at Steel Guitar Nashville. May the Santa in your life fulfill all your wishes and dreams.

Bobbe Seymour

www.steelguitar.net
info@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
Open 9AM – 2Pm every Saturday until Christmas
Closed Sunday

I was asked about the Boo Wah technique. I once worked a job with Hank III (Hank Williams grandson) and had to play Don Helms and Jerry Byrd things, so I’ll explain how we did the Boo Wah technique.

It was all done with my hand on a bass treble control on top of the four neck Fender I was playing. What you do of course is just pick a triad in the key you’re playing in then reach with your right hand over and turn the control from bass to treble several times.

There is also a volume pedal made that has a sideways tone control ability. Fender makes one and Bigsby made one for many years. However, most professional steel players that have a guitar with a tone control mounted on it, prefer to use their hand to do the Boo Wah bass to treble sound.

I was asked to give my thoughts about stage presence and showmanship. Actually it depends on the band or group you’re working with. If you go see a symphony orchestra play, you’ll see that the string section doesn’t jump up and act like Doug Kershaw playing his fiddle or the rhythm guitar player in the symphony doesn’t act like Peter Townsend with The Who.

Rock n roll groups demand that you do more than just sit there. However, jazz and older country groups have no call for these antics. However, it sure doesn’t hurt to show that you’re alive and well sitting behind your steel guitar. Don’t be afraid to have a conversation with the singer or whomever if you have a microphone in front of you, getting clearance of course to do some things ahead of time.

On my stage shows where I’m the star in steel guitar shows, I always try to have some jokes ready and maybe a couple of stories to keep the women and kids from going to sleep. But I don’t get up and run around, slam my steel guitar on the floor or set it on fire.

Antics definitely take away from your ability to play well. There’s a steel player that played with the now defunct Poco group that was pretty famous for his show biz antics. He was also a pretty good player. Rusty Young is his name and he definitely made the group worth watching.

And then of course, we have The Robert Randolph Family Band which sells his playing with antics. Rusty and Robert are actually pretty good players but they are doing their shows for the masses of people in the audience, not just the music fans.Showmanship is important. Even if you have the personality of wallpaper, you can at least smile, nod and acknowledge people in the audience, maybe even say it’s nice to be here tonight and thank you for coming. Or you could join a symphony.

We are now handling the Bradshaw Resonator accessory for steel guitar that will make your steel guitar sound like a dobro. It looks beautiful and sounds great. We try to carry everything you need for your steel guitar shows. We are also doing a lot of repair and restoration work again and look forward to serving you.

Remember, when you’re ready for that new guitar, we take trades and we stand behind everything we sell which hardly anybody does anymore. They certainly don’t do repair work or upgrades on eBay. Please come by and see us in our store anytime. We are open every Saturday until Christmas.

There’s nothing better for a stocking stuffer than a gift card from Steel Guitar Nashville. It covers everything from picks, bars and strings to new steel guitars and amplifiers.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Steel Guitar Nashville.

Bobbe Seymour

www.steelguitar.net
info@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
Open 9AM – 2Pm every Saturday until Christmas
Closed Sunday