Pedal Steel Music

Hello fellow players,

NOTE: Bobbe hasn’t been feeling well enough to do a newsletter today, so we’re sending a reprint of a newsletter from several years ago.

Best Regards,
The Staff

This special Bobbe’s Tips is for you hardcore steel guitarists and history buffs who like to remember the great guitars that brought us to where we are today.

I remember a story from the great Alvino Rey telling of the first time he played an experimental electric lapsteel guitar somewhere between 1928 and 1932. He practiced with the orchestra and everybody was amazed and happy about how well the steel could be heard.

Unfortunately, his amplifier was plugged into the lighting circuits so when the orchestra started, the curtain went up, the stage lights were turned down and so was the power to his amplifier. He was right back to square one. He learned a lesson that day.

His guitar of choice at the time was from the Rickenbacher Company, one of the first guitars with an electric pickup on it.

Now we move ahead to 1939. Many people and companies were experimenting with methods to stretch the strings to get different tunings to keep the guitars small instead of going to 3 and 4 neck models. A significant guitar was the Electradaire which had 3 rocking pedals, each with 3 positions. These pedals were actually electric switches that triggered solenoids under the guitar and raised and lowered the strings through an electrical changer apparatus.

Jumping ahead to 1946, we saw the birth of the Fender Guitar Company by Leo G. Fender who was inspired to build guitars by motorcycle genius Paul A. Bigsby. Bigsby had been commissioned to build steel and lead guitars by such notables as Merle Travis, Joaquin Murphy, Ernie Ball, Speedy West and the elite who’s who of the guitar playing professionals. Bigsby’s guitars set the standard in quality and tone from ’46 to at least 1958.

Of course, Fender was in on the end of the non-pedal guitar manufacturing and had one serious attempt at building a decent pedal guitar. This model was called the Fender 1000 and was brought to prominence by such players as Curley Chalker and Ralph Mooney.

In 1945, an incredible little pedal steel guitar was designed and mass produced by the Harlin Brothers of Indianapolis, Indiana. It was called the Multi-Kord and was truly a work of art for it’s day and time. This was the first 3 piece finger mechanism all pull steel guitar ever built. It was built very inexpensively. This means cheap body, legs, pickup, but strangely it did sound good. Many came with the mother of toilet seat pearloid finish. Most were six string and four pedal single neck versions with a few eights and even fewer double necks being built before production ceased.

The Multi-Kord is not a good guitar by today’s standards but definitely a significant guitar in the history of steel guitar. This was the first good working pedal steel guitar with a universal changer produced in significant numbers. This guitar remains the easiest steel guitar to change pedal setups on that has ever been made. The tuning possibilities on the Multi-Kord are limitless, unlike any guitar that has been made since. However, forget knee levers. The design of the body of this guitar does not allow for knee levers, not that anyone had them in that time period anyway. Remember, this is the birth of pedals. Knee levers didn’t come along for another 15 years.

Every pedal on the Multi-Kord could instantly be changed to raise or lower any or every string with just one pedal push. This means if you wanted to raise and lower every string in your tuning, you could make the change and tune it in less than a minute, almost as fast as you could think about it. Of course, the more strings you changed with the pedal, the harder the pedal was to push, but this rule applies to steel guitars today as well. I definitely consider the Multi-Kord to be the great-great-grandfather of today’s modern pedal steel guitar. Every design today is just a modification of this unique changer system built by these four brothers in Indianapolis.

The value of these guitars today? Pretty close to zero, right down there with the values of the Gibson Electro-Harps but possibly unfairly so, unlike Bigsby which has risen to it’s highly deserved place of honor in history.

A few of you will remember Gibson’s very feeble attempt at producing a workable pedal steel guitar. Even though they engineered and built many different models, all of which had the classic beauty that Gibson is famous for, none of these guitars ever worked well enough to be called real pedal steel guitars. These are only collectible today to look at and talk about, not to play. Since the Harlin Brothers held the patent on the good three finger design, Gibson was unable to design an effective changer that didn’t infringe upon the patent.

In 1949, Bigsby added pedals to Speedy West’s triple 8 steel guitar that worked very well. However, pedal steel guitar was pretty much still a novelty until Webb Pierce recorded “Slowly”, “More and More”, “In The Jailhouse Now”, “Wandering, Wondering”, “There Stands The Glass” and “I Ain’t Never”.

All of these were Number One tunes in the early to mid 50’s. The first song, “Slowly” was recorded with Webb by Bud Isaacs and his double neck 8 string, 2 pedal Bigsby guitar.

The rest of this great string of number one hits were recorded by Sonny Burnett on a double neck 8 string Bigsby steel guitar that Webb Pierce purchased from Carl Smith’s steel guitarist, Johnny Sibert. This guitar is presently being restored and is referred to as the Webb Pierce “More and More” guitar. The former Bud Isaacs guitar, the “Slowly” guitar is now owned by Jack Hamlett in Maryland.

These two guitars are probably the two most significant guitars in the history of pedal steel guitar. These are the guitars that first put the beautiful pedal steel guitar sound in the ears of the masses. Up to this point in history, every steel guitar player wanted pedals but from this point on in 1953, not only the players themselves, but the band leaders, club owners, producers and audience had to hear those pedals pushed.

Many Fender guitars that didn’t have pedals originally, had their owners out in their garages hacking out homemade pedals so they could sound like the Bigsby’s on the records. Some quite possibly even came close.

Bigsby being a one man operation working in his garage at 56 years old, could not keep up with the sudden demand for his instrument and this is what opened the door for the Fender 1000, Sho-Bud, Wright Custom and Emmons guitars that followed. Bigsby guitars are the ultimate collectible steel guitars.

In 1958, several players who could not get Bigsbys because of the 3 year waiting list that Paul Bigsby had, bought a guitar called the Sho-Bud built by Shot Jackson and sons and promoted by Buddy Emmons at first, then Buddy Charlton in the mid-sixties.

The next very significant guitar that turned out to be the standard of the era and still endures in the hearts of many pros is the Emmons Push Pull guitar. The design work on this guitar started in 1961 with the first models being available to the public at the end of 1964. This is one company who’s first guitars are just as good as their last guitars. This company never made a bad one and set the standard of tone that most players say still stands today.

Now we have a new wave of steel guitars that have come out in the last five years or so. Since the development of computerized milling machines and lathes, parts can be made quicker, with greater precision and for less money, thus the quality of the newest steel guitars has risen to near perfection. This made way for light, compact, extremely high quality guitars with very acceptable tone at very acceptable prices such as the GFI-Magnum class of guitars.

Remember, this is about significant guitars in history and not about how good one guitar is compared to another. There seem to be as many guitar builders today as there are guitar players. Most guitars seem to be improved or copies of what we will call the standard design of steel guitars. I will define this as being multiple raise-lower changer guitars with raised aluminum necks weighing from 44 to 50 pounds without the case, most using chrome microphone stand legs and pickups from the two or three vendors of choice.

Most of these manufacturers aim at the Emmons All Pull LeGrande or the Sho-Bud SuperPro for what they want their final product to look and sound like.

So I will say significant guitars down through history are Rickenbacher, Electrodaire, Multi-Kord, Bigsby, Fender 1000 (and 400), Sho-Bud, Emmons and the new wave of GFI-Magnum class of guitars.

Now remember, there are many other fine brands of guitars like Mullen, Derby, Williams, JCH, Performance, Rittenberry, MSA and of course the incredible reproduction of the Emmons Push Pull, the Promat. I’m sure there are many others including some homemade brands that range from pretty good to astounding, but I wouldn’t call them milestones in the evolution of guitars like the ones mentioned in this newsletter.

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

Your buddy,
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,

Have you ever noticed how people dress according to what their hobby is? For instance, a golfer will wear a hat that says Ping on it and his shirt and pants will be looking he like he is just about ready to hit the course. A guy that likes cowboys will dress like one, the western shirt, the cowboy hat, jeans and boots. Motorcycles guys all seem to dress apropos . Pilots will wear the leather jacket with a large embroidered circle on the front.

This pertains to the music business too. Hawaiian steel guitar players always have to have a shirt with flowers flowing free down to the waist and lower. Bluegrassers with a white shirt and a string tie (in the east anyway). This is very much the case regardless of where people live or?

I find it very interesting and it shows a caring for your instrument or livelihood. Blues players will come in the store wearing their Greek fisherman hats. Next time you go to a steel guitar convention, look around and see how much you can tell about the crowd by the way they dress, from their hats to their shoes.

There is always a war going on between the car guys about what brand is best. Mopar Forever on the front of one tee-shirt. Ford stands for First On Race Day. Chevy guys will always have interesting things to say about Fords like Ford stands for Found On Road Dead. Pontiac means Poor Old Nincompoop Thinks It’s A Cadillac.

When it comes to steel guitar, there are the less mean tee-shirts that proclaim the brand of guitar that one may like very much. At least these let the public know that you are a steel guitarist.

When I go to a show and see someone wearing a tee-shirt from a player that is deceased, it makes me feel very good that this player’s memory is being honored. So wear those tee-shirts and let everyone know that the souls of these hard working individuals are still being appreciated in this day and time.

The temperatures are taking us into the magic days of summer, that is in some sporadic places around the country. Interesting when it’s 86 degrees in New York City and 72 degrees in Florida, but I guess this is typical of some years. That shouldn’t stop you from playing your steel guitar under any circumstances.

We here at the store are trying very hard to stock a big variety of used professional guitars and guitars in all price ranges. We are still keeping a variety of Emmons guitars and a full stock of GFI guitars ready for delivery, no waiting. Any guitars that we sell, we have a warranty behind and we stand behind it.

Please learn about the guitar you’re buying before you have it sent to you. We will give you a very thorough description of any used guitar before it goes out the door here. However, the more you can learn about what the guitar is, the better.

For instance, some people still don’t know how to tune an Emmons pushpull and find that after they get one, they don’t really care to learn how. These folks will and can be much happier with an all pull guitar such as an Emmons LeGrande, a GFI or a Sho-Bud if they want a great tone and easy tuning.

We are getting a very nice stock of older Fender steel guitars, many in an immaculate condition. Many of the old Fender guitars are being used not just by Hawaiian groups, but hard rock groups like Pink Floyd and most of the House of God gospel players. There is also a resurgence of young Rockabilly groups showing up all over town.

Players like Chris Scruggs have resurrected the great old styles of Faron Young’s Carl Smith and Marty Robbin’s James Farmer styles of playing. Does it look like these styles will never die? I certainly hope so. I’m sure Don Helms, Roy Wiggins and Joe Mac Vincent would be very proud.

We have professional hard working pros who work in Nashville that can help you with the subtleties of different brands at all times. Sometimes you can just call here and one of these great professionals from town will be sitting around in our showroom very willing to talk to you about these things.

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,

Here is one of the most prolific questions I get when it comes to country music and recording in general. I have been getting this same question way before I ever started my store 28 years ago.

Bobbe:

I hope this note finds you healthy and happy and want to say that I enjoy your letters very much. I was reading one of your older letters and you mentioned studio sessions and I cannot help but wonder why stars do not use their bands? This is not intended to down play studio musician’s ability or talent in any way, but as many country bands I have seen live and on television their talent is obvious also.. The star’s band must to reproduce what is recorded fairly closely on stage, so why doesn’t the star cut out the middle man and have their group play the session?

Thank you -Bruce Spencer

There are many reasons why musicians don’t record with the artist they are working for on the road and as you know there are a lot of musicians that will be working the road with one artist while they are recording with another artist, possibly even being a competitor of the artist they work for on the road.

I remember when I was working with Lynn Anderson, every once and awhile I would be not called for one of her sessions. This would perturb me greatly and is actually one of the reasons that I quit working for her at one time.

If I should go through all the hell of working the road with her, I figured I should at least get some of the gravy by working the sessions with her. However producers decide who they want to hire on a session. The artist has very little to say about it. It’s actually the producers responsibility. That’s why you call him the producer. He produces the end product which means he has much authority over the beginning product.

I’ll name some different artists now and tell you why I did these sessions with them or why I didn’t do sessions with them.

One of my first big artists to record with in Nashville was Jean Shepard. I recorded a song with her named Virginia. I really enjoyed this great session produced by Earl Ball for Capitol Records here in Nashville. Several years later I found out that Jean actually really liked my playing very much, but to be honest I was very shocked that I was on this session. Finding out that she liked my playing was a great extra bonus to being on it.

That actually opened up a door for me in Nashville as the producer and I turned out to be pretty good friends and as a session leader on other sessions working for other labels, I actually got to hire him on some good country sessions. But then after I went to work for Lynn Anderson many years later, I did not know the producer, her husband.

I was working the road many dates a year with her and lost doing the account with her because she found out I was doing some with Loretta Lynn. Not doing some sessions with Loretta Lynn later seemed to magically get me hired by Lynn’s producer. He and I turned out to be truly great friends so I managed to nose Lloyd Green out of a session, not on purpose but because Glenn and I turned out to be such great friends and we were until the day he died.

So as you can see here, politics plays a part in doing recording sessions here in Nashville. I loved working for Glenn no matter who he was producing. I remember having an appointment for lunch scheduled with him when I got the news that he had died. This hurt me very deeply.

So as you can see, if you want to do sessions in Nashville, you better be very nice to the producers and prove to them how well you can play. It has no where near as much to do with how well you play. This may be why the incredible fantastic Buddy Emmons is not doing the sessions he should be and could be doing today.

There are many sessions being worked in Nashville by star players that shouldn’t be working them because they don’t play necessarily well enough to do them and of course many great players have gotten great by working sessions and getting better and better each year because of doing a good job over time.

Of course, knowing when to go bowling with the producer or buy his wife’s abstract art and playing golf and just making the producers into great friends surely does not hurt a thing.

Many times the artist/singer will insist to his producer that he really wants his band to work the session, but gets turned down consistently. Personally I love just the old way when Ernest Tubb was king and he had this great road band recording with him. That meant that every time you heard Ernest Tubb, his sound was consistently what you saw in person, heard on the Opry and on the radio.

Every time you heard a new Ernest Tubb record come out, you would know that the steel player, either Buddy Charleton or Buddy Emmons, was going to have a new steel lick on it that was going to be copied by every steel player that ever heard the record. A pretty cool thing from yesteryear.

In this day and time, with a new country artist or even an old country artist, there may not even be any steel guitar on the record. I’m not talking about just steel guitar here either. There was great fiddle and some great guitar licks associated with many fantastic country singers that didn’t make it to all their recording hits.

However, when I was doing a lot of producing in Nashville, I found that many of the bands that the artists were using were not of studio quality. That’s because many of the musicians when they come to town, get their experience and seasoning on the road and then prove their worth for bigger and better things.

I remember Buddy Emmons working both studio and road jobs for everybody. This was probably a validation of what a great player he was.

One of my favorite producers in Nashville that produced for Capitol Records was Ray Baker. He produced many artists for different labels such as Hank Thompson, Merle Haggard, Charley Pride and so on. He never used anyone from the road band unless the artist had twisted his arm and talked him into it. His reason being that studio musicians were always in town and available when he needed them whereas road musicians were often out of town.

With the high dollar studios and tight budgets, he couldn’t hold up production waiting for a road musician to be back in town. By using studio musicians, he could produce the tracks even if the artist was on the road, then the artist could come in and overdub his vocals when he was available. It was a matter of efficiency. The show as they say, must go on.

I hope this gives you some insight.

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

Your buddy,
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