Pedal Steel Music

Hello fellow players,

Jessi Colter has created a Waylon Jennings fund for diabetes research and I’ve been asked to help spread the word via my newsletter. Here is a link that explains it.

www.tgenfoundation.org

He answered my note saying “I hope so. I’ll let you know in ten years.”

A few years later, he invited me to the wedding of his daughter and Ray Rider. Ray was his personal road manager and was also a very wonderful person, much like the rest of Ray’s family and employees.

The Waylon Jennings brood were all wonderful folks. Anything that Jessi wants today, you should all be there to help her out. Jessi is an extremely giving person and her cause for diabetes research, I promise you is very worthwhile, especially to those who suffer from diabetes.

Mike Gross is a very big part of the northeastern United States steel guitar shows. He does a lot of MC work and singing at the New York and Connecticut shows. Mike also has his own internet radio show throughout the week. He plays the kind of music we all love and I’d like to encourage anybody that loves western swing and country to tune him in and listen to his shows.

A nicer guy and more hard core steel lover there isn’t. Go ahead and give him a listen and let him know how much you appreciate his great show. Here is the recent email I got from Mike.

The weekly KSEY “Swingin’ West” hour for 9/25/11 is now heard all month long and then some any time of the day or night at YOUR convenience. A Pod cast can be listened to any time for over a month. In addition, the prior five weeks can always also be heard. Just click where it says Pod cast- “Listen Now 24 Hours a Day” on the home page of the “Swingin’ West” web site. Choose the date of the show! (IT CAN BE A COUPLE OF MINUTES FOR UPLOAD depending upon your browser). www.swinginwest.com Sept 25, 2011 (3-4 PM, Central) (It is repeated the following Sunday right after the new show.)
South of the Border Western Swing

I was reading the forum and saw a subject that we can all relate to and that is losing or leaving our bar behind when we are on the way to playing a job. Picks we can live without. A volume pedal we can live without. A bar, you just can’t do it.

However, there are a lot of substitutes for a bar. A small diameter shot glass from the club bar. If you are in the studio, you can look around and find some things. Of course, every toolbox has a one inch diameter socket in it.

No more than bars really cost and as important as they are, you should always keep a spare either taped inside your steel guitar case, in the glove compartment of your steel guitar car or taped under your left armpit so it will be warm and handy if you ever need it.

Get a Cobra Coil bar because it is the hardest bar money can buy and is not plated so you never have to worry about it coming apart, extra slick and probably the best value that’s ever been in a bar. Definitely the greatest bar being made today. Order one from out website.

I remember going on the road with Faron Young one day, somehow lost my bar, got to the job and had to use a long shot glass from the club we were playing in. Faron thought it was so funny that he made me use this bar everywhere we played and called attention to it to the audience. I finally asked him one day why he loved me playing with that shot glass.

He said, “It’s simple. I know as long as you are in the band, I’ll always have something to drink out of.” He gave me a big haha and slapped me on the back.

I said, “Are you serious?”

He said, “No, I’d just drink out of the bottle.”

I would like to point out that the guitars that we specialize in as far as service or rebuilding are the older Sho-Buds and most definitely the Emmons push pull. We really don’t like to sell parts anymore for either one because by the time we sell somebody the parts, charge them for it, listen to them complain about the price and they call a week later asking how to put it on their guitar, then explain to them how they did it wrong, it’s just much faster for us to do the job ourselves.

Our shop labor rates are very low, so we will take care of you if you send your guitar in and have us do the job. We can also do this with Mar-Len and Sho-Bud permanent and Cross-over guitars.

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

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

I have had several questions and some of them have been waiting for months to be answered. It makes me feel like I’ve sluffed some of you off.

Question: In your playing, do you prefer working live or in the studio?

Answer: It sort of depends on which one pays the best, which is usually the studio, but as far as pure enjoyment, live is much more enjoyable because when I play, I try to communicate my music with my entire body. I’m not above throwing my hands up in the air or yelling across the stage at someone or jumping up and taking a bow after a solo. I like to get a joyful response from the audience when I do these things. In the studio, nobody cares. They might just want to throw me out.

Question: Does it have something to do with the natural interplay with the audience?

Answer: My answer is yes totally.

Question: The word entertainer. Do you look at yourself as a musician or an entertainer?

Answer: The answer is I always totally look at myself as a musician. If something entertaining comes along while I’m playing, I go with it. When I setup on stage to play a job, at the beginning of the evening I have no plans to entertain, just play good music. However, I have been called an entertainer also by many folks.

Question: Do you classify yourself as a country steel guitar player?

Answer: Not totally, however it seems to be where I make the most money. I have been recording country music for many years and if that’s what I get hired to do, so be it, that’s what I do.

Question: Are there any rock n roll guitar players you like?

Answer: Absolutely, but most of them I don’t like to work with because most of them go into their entertainment role when a beautiful guitar part is called for.

Question: Do stage antics and funny uniforms turn your ears off?

Answer: Absolutely not. Showmanship is wonderful as long as it’s not affecting the quality of the music.

Question: Did you ever hear any of Jimmy Hendrix music?

Answer: Actually, I worked with him onstage here in Nashville when we were in the same band at a club called The Hound’s Tooth. It seems like Charlie Daniels was our singer at the time. This was a little over forty years ago. He was not really fun to work with, but was a nice enough person.

Question: When you are doing sessions Bobbe, how do you approach doing a solo?

Answer: First I learn the melody of the song and get the chords from however they happen to demonstrate the demo to me. Then I try to work out something that is interesting and a little different.

Question: How do you decide if it’s you or the guitar player or somebody else who is going to take the instrumental break in the song?

Answer: Usually I just jump right in and start playing something and wait for somebody in the studio group to say, “Oh that’s nice. Let’s do that.” But quite often it’s the guitar player doing the same thing and if he sounds especially good or if he is being exceptionally pushy, I’ll just back out, look at him and say something like, “I like what you’re trying to do. Go ahead and get it perfected and we’ll see how it goes.”

Meanwhile, I’ll be working up something very killer up in my mind. If I really think mine is better, I’ll look at him with a smile and say, “No. Not this time Charley. Try again next song.” Then I’ll charge in. If this doesn’t work, I’ll let the producer make the call.

Question: Do you ever sit and play just to relax?

Answer: No.

Question: If you go on vacation, do you always pack your steel?

Answer: No, never.

Question: How did you get along with star singer guitar players like the late Jerry Reed, the late Don Gibson and how about Steve Wariner?

Answer: I get along extremely well with them. I have much higher respect for a singer if he is a musician also. I’ve worked many television shows in the past with Don Gibson. Things had to be his way or else, but that was fine because they were his hit songs. Same goes for Hank Snow. I didn’t really care for his ricky-ticky guitar style, but the secret here is he was the star with the money, so you listen and do what he says with a smile.

Steve Wariner is an incredible guitarist. When I work with him, which is not very often anymore, I push him as hard as I can, like my rendition of Rocky Top on my website. We got the tempo so fast, poor Steve just could not keep up. This was a live show at Dollywood and the drummer was also the steel guitarist and thought speed was only something you played. But Steve holds his own very well. I have tremendous respect for him as a singer, as a guitar player, but most of all as a wonderful friend.

To clear up some confusion, we can make George L cables in any length you want. We make them to the length you want. If you want one that’s 43 feet and 4 inches, no problem. We’ll do it. Just keep that in mind.

The boys at Cobra Coil are continually experimenting and trying to make a better product. I feel they have done an incredible job with this brand of string in the past fifteen years. I feel they are by far the best which is the reason why so many great steel guitarist use them on a professional basis.

We also got a new shipment of Cobra Coil strings in. We’ve been warned that our cost for strings will be going up so now might be a good time to get yourself a set or two if you’re in need of them. Here’s the direct link: www.steelguitar.net/strings.html

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

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

Guitars that I recommend in this day and time are of course Emmons because of its tone, but for most players, it’s awfully hard to beat GFI because of the tremendous dependability, simplicity, light weight, very reasonable cost and ease of making changes and serviceability.

I also recommend Mullen because they also sound good and are very easy for young and new players to learn how to tune. Mullen also is a company that like GFI, is very easy to get service from the manufacturer. If you have a problem, one phone call to Mullen or GFI will take care of your service request.

I’ll never forget the Masters Collection CD that Tommy White and I did with Jimmy Day. Jimmy’s tone was so great through a Webb amplifier that it sent Tommy and I scurrying to try other things to catch up with his great tone. Jimmy was playing a blue, wood, lacquer Mullen. I was playing a push pull Emmons and Tommy with a new wood neck LeGrande by Emmons.

With three of us on the same album, or as a matter of fact, when any three players are recording on the same album at the same time, if the tone doesn’t come up to par from any of the players, it’s not good. Anyway, if you listen to this album with Tommy, Jimmy and myself with a few passes by the great Buck Reid, you can notice first hand that there is no slouchy tone going on anywhere.

If you are a professional steel guitar player, you know that when you get into a situation like this where you’re recording or playing anywhere with other pros on the same session, you had better be developing a killer tone with your equipment.

The last time I got really bad tone on sessions was in the early seventies when I was using a different guitar and amplifier. As a matter of fact, I tried many guitars on sessions over the first few years of my recording career. There is no question what the winner is and there’s no question which one the loser was.

Believe me, start as early as possible in your career getting as great a tone as you can get. And I don’t mean tone like just adjusting your amplifier. I mean tone like timbre, the true voice of your guitar and the true voice of your amplifier.

Effects are wonderful if you’re going to do tricks, if you’re going to mimic violins, a race car, birds chirping or whatever, what kind of guitar you use to get it really doesn’t matter.

As far as amplifiers go I’ll just offer my opinion of the finest, and none of this will mean anything unless you have a great guitar. The new Standel amplifier is a wonderful amplifier to have, especially if you like tube amps. The transistor Sho-Bud amps of the early seventies are wonderful, dependable amplifiers with incredible tone and very good power but need a very efficient 4-ohm speaker to reach out and touch someone. One of the best amps in the world today I feel is the Webb amplifier. Not in production at the moment, but there are many used ones available. No matter what price you pay for it, it will probably be worth it.

There’s no question that the standard of the world for the steel guitar and most other instruments is Peavey and the Peavey Nashville 112, way ahead of everything else in sales. Don’t worry about buying two in case you’re playing very loud or need more coverage in two directions because these amps are very dependable and very loud for a single twelve. They may only be rated at 80 watts, however they are louder than most 150 watt amps. It puts out as much volume as most single fifteens. Besides, it’s loudness we’re after.

Fender seems to be a thing of the past, much like Premier, Magnatone, Rickenbacker and the old Gibson tube amps. Forget about Silvertone, Vox and Marshall. Every once in a while you’ll run across a weird new amplifier that will sound really good to you, just make sure you get a real good warranty and they’re going to be in business awhile so test them out very good before you buy more than one of them.

Little boutique amplifiers with very little power seem to be in vogue at the moment in some parts of the world. Just use caution here because most of them have only enough power for rehearsal in someone’s living room.

A small light amplifier with great power and tone, dependability and resale is the Peavey Nashville 112, one of the best values to come along in a lifetime. Great tone, power, lightness, serviceability and about anything else you could demand in an amplifier is right here for very little money. Buy it from me and your savings will be unbelievable. By the way, this isn’t just a left hand commercial, this is truly the way I and thousands of others feel about this amp.

I’ve given you my opinions on amplifiers, guitars and equipment. Now I’d like to hear your opinions. Email me.

A good friend of the steel guitar community and a well-known old golden age player, the great John Bechtel is in a local hospital and not doing well. John Bechtel has had and played many of the industries finest pedal steel guitars and is one of the finest Jerry Byrd style players there is. He knows all those tricky Jerry Byrd tunings that Jerry did all those wonderful deep Hawaiian tunes with. John and Shot Jackson were very dear friends. John was owner of one of the first triple neck Sho-Buds ever built in 1957. Let’s wish John the best of luck in getting out of that hospital.

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

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