No steel player has excited me as much since I first heard Buddy Emmons, and the tone he gets is, simply, the best I've ever heard!

This guy was incredibly musical, and there are times when his steel has the timbre of a great arch-top Gibson or D'Angelico, but with the added beauty that only the steel guitar can acheive.

If you're a PSG 'newbie' that, like me, came to the steel in the '70s, you owe it to yourself to expand your horizons and buy this from the Forum.

My thanks to Michael Johnstone, Chas Smith, and all the guys that made this project happen - great work from all concerned!

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Roger Rettig

[This message was edited by Roger Rettig on 10 October 2003 at 03:03 AM.]

I agree totally. This is one fantastic CD. I just love his choice of chords and phrasings. And as you say his tone is wow! Somewhere I have the tuning he used on that CD. I am going to have to dig that old album out and mess around with it on my spare PSG.

Thanks for honoring this incredible player.

Click Here

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               Bobby Lee
-b0b-   quasar@b0b.com

Kid with the Rip was written, incidentally, by Jack Owens, the Methodist minister that also wrote the Hawaiian classic The Hukilau Song..

The Ozie Waters cut is Speedy's favorite Murph solo.

I have others which I will put up from time to time. It's time consuming, but I think I'm gonna change the webpage to a Murph dedication page, with selected great cuts that are kind of obscure except for collectors.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

The files sounded fine when I first put them up on the website. Sheeesh!

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Thanks to Chas for the copedant as well!

[This message was edited by John McGann on 09 October 2003 at 12:58 PM.]

Now I'm keen to hear his early stuff.

While he may well have been more formidable when he was younger, the simple fact is that he swings.

That's a quality that remains, even when someone's chops have partially deserted them.

I'm much obliged for all the response and the information in this thread.

Charles has listed the copedent that I recall. I hope it helps. It is basically what we have on our C6 necks on the standard D-10 PSG's after closer looking at it more closely.

Your post above jogged my memory: it was you who sent me "Kid" and "Hounds"

Thanks again for them.

quote:

---

this man KNEW the C6 tuning backwards,forwards and sideways

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Joaquin was a virtuoso and not just a great steel player,his original style of playing back then was just as good if not better than
most pedal players of today. I am not by any means diminishing the pedal guitar with all its advantages,but Joaquin did it like no one
else on his Bigsby guitar.

His phrasing and imagination was the best and
there is not a pedal guitar that could replace the orginal talent of Joaquin in my
book.

Who does obligattos today as he did? who plays with the sweetness and then tasteful hot swinging style which was typically Joaquin.

Again,,what Joaquin had, many today and tomorrow will not have.And all without pedals

My ears hear what others dont,personally I liked his playing best with the Cooley and Williams band. But I guess time marches on and pedals are necessary,but give me the Murphey of back when and he will never be equalled.

I hope you accept my opinion in a repectful manner and I am NOT by any means taking anything away from the great talent of Joaquin.

We all remember him as what he was before pedals and that was good enough for me.

There will NEVER be another quite like him.
I remember seeing him at the Santa Monica Ballroom years ago and just before he would take a chorus he would take a deep breath as he swept across those strings with taste and speed and feeling..never have I heard anything like it before and I doubt I will live to hear anyone do what JM did.

This is my opinion and I am entitled to it.

And thanks to Chas and Mike,they were friends of Joaquin's and did him proud till the day he passed and still they continue their love and crusade for the "Greatest Steel Player Of His Time and ALL TIME..

A Virtuoso who inspired many of todays fine players.

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 09 October 2003 at 06:56 PM.]

Dave

[This message was edited by Dave Zirbel on 10 October 2003 at 09:13 PM.]

quote:

---

Was he playing pedals with the Plainsmen?

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the "historical" recordings, was non-pedal.

Yes,and what you hear is pure talent self expression and feeling as though he was wrapped up in the melody as being a part of it.. I cant say this for
certain,but I beleive it was the limitations
of the non pedal guitar which inspired Joaquin and other great non peddlers to use their own imagination and feelings and not be
hooked on to a pedal guitar where the chords
lie right there waiting to be activated. The use of substitutions made Joaquin create his own chords and patterns.

His guitar was a natural non pedal and he did
it justice beyond what I hear today some 55
years later.

Many are still trying to catch up to Joaquin
but it will be a difficult task. He had a heart and brain and hands that were unique and that cant be duplicated. Those of that era took the disadvantage on a non pedal guitar and turned it into an advantage,that is what makes those great players of yesterday unique.

He is still "The King" And Herb,,Throw A Saddle On A Star is one, if not my favorites
Joaquin does it all on that cut with Ozzie Waters. How about San Antonio Rose.. ?

55 years and they cant catch him

Try it and see edited again to add.......
Those of you JM admirers try to get a copy of
" Petal From a Faded Rose" recorded on Capitol records circa 1950 vocal by Eddie Kirk and listen to Joaquin as he rides herd on this beauty. 78 rpm recording.

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 12 October 2003 at 09:20 PM.]

About 15 years ago I was playing in a band called The Radio Ranch Straight Shooters that did a lot of Spade Cooley covers and I was expected to learn Joaquin's solos, need I say more. At the same time I bought a few Bigsbys, including one that had belonged to him. Wow, a guitar made by my hero and played by my hero. So I got his phone number and planned on calling him up to ask what kind of tuning he was using that he was able to zip thru those diminished phrases so fast.

I had also been warned that he wasn't very friendly when he was drunk. Nevertheless I called him and told him what I was doing and that I had one of his guitars...."I had a lot of guitars"....ya, and well I was wondering about your tunings..."I had a lot of tunings"....ya, um, well..."they wouldn't let me play what I wanted to play so f*ck 'um and f*ck you"...click.

I think that was the first time one of my heroes had told me that, at least to my face. So I called Jerry Compton to ask his advice and he suggested that I engage him talking about his '48 Cadillac. Great Idea, I've had a number of Cadillacs and loved every one of them. I waited a couple weeks before dialing and that call was going really well until he figured out that I was a musician and then it pretty much ended the same way.

So I thought, phones are pretty impersonal, maybe if I just went over there, he might be more receptive. So much for that optimistic plan, well at least I saw the top of his head when he refused to answer the door.

What was really sad for me was, we put our heroes up on pedestals and one of mine had been reduced to living in a trailer in a trailer park in Pacoima.

Jump cut to the mid '90s, I got a call that Joaquin had had surgery for cancer, that his doctor told him simply that he could quit drinking or die, and that he wanted to play again, would I let him play his old guitar. Well of course, but I am going to want an autograph.

Mike called and said that well, he didn't want that guitar, he wanted one like the engineer from Lockheed had made for him. I suggested that we pick up a single neck Professional (I like the "birdcage" changer and it would be more than adequate) and then I could modify it to his specs.

A couple weeks later I got a call that Mike, Murph and Don McGuiness were about two blocks away and could they come over and take measurements. My housekeeping skills are notorious so at first I said geez, he's going to see how I live, imagine that you're Catholic and the Pope is coming over for a visit, but Mike assured me that he probably wouldn't notice and that it might make him feel more at home.

I did remember those phone calls so I wasn't sure what to expect, but since I was on the verge of an anxiety attack, it didn't matter. When I opened the door, he turned out to be a sweet little old man who was just plain delightful. We talked it up a bit and then he sat down at my guitar, which didn't have his tuning or string spacing, which didn't matter since he basically hadn't played in the past 14 years. He took out a bar that looked like he had got it at a swap meet, put on his picks and strummed the open tuning a couple times. He pushed the nose of the bar around a bit and did a little picking, to loosen up his right hand, while mumbling.."now where was that"....before taking off on a jaw-dropping single string run. My immediate thought was "that guy hasn't played in 14 years and I have no hope of playing like that in this lifetime"....

That answered the first questions I had for him, what was your tuning?, answer- didn't matter, How did he zip thru the dim phrases so fast?, answer- he just did. It looked like he was just barely touching the strings while zipping across the neck, didn't dig into them at all.

A couple weeks ago I had a friend over, who is a jazz player , sax and guitar, with one of his friends also a guitar player, neither of whom are into western swing and country, to look at my instruments. When I pulled out Murph's Bigsby, he commented that it's like owning Ornette Coleman's sax.....

The guitar I made had regular legs, a Sho-Bud pedal board and 'birdcage" fingers. The top of the guitar was machined from a 1 1/2" block of wood, so the neck and the top plate are one piece. The end plates, the key head and the changer were all machined from billet. Sean Smith did the graphics.

[This message was edited by chas smith on 12 October 2003 at 08:53 PM.]

.............................................Marian Hall told me how she used to laugh at Joaquin detuning his guitar when he left the bandstand "Unquote Andy" ..I have to agree with Roy on this.
I met Joaquin a number of times at the Riverside Rancho and years before at the Santa Monica Ballroom.

Joaquin was in no way shape or form secretive
regarding his tunings,in fact he wrote each
note for note for me on a napkin which I still have. There have been many stories making Joaquin out to be eccentric,true he was a sensitive person and resented those who
tried to take advantage of his being a good guy.

Don Randall and Joaquin were golfing partners
and even though Randall was President of Fender and Joaquin was a Paul A. fan, they were good friends.

Roy Ayres said it as I saw it..beleive half of what you see and nothing of what you hear.

That comment was highly exaggerated..Sorry my friends but Joaquin was as much a gentleman as he was a great talent. His use
of profanity was when he had a few too many and then would apologize for his actions.

"You know for a while there, everybody was scheming on my tunings so on gigs, I’d have to detune it during intermission when I’d go have a drink or else all the other steel players would sneak up and write down my tunings. Those were trade secrets man! (Laughs)."

So, from his tone it seems it waas done somewhat humorously but it happened.
People are complex.

[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 14 October 2003 at 03:31 AM.]