oops actually that one's for Bond...James Bond...

[This message was edited by Greg Simmons on 23 November 2002 at 01:26 PM.]

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Jim Vogan Emmons Sd10
G.D. Walker Stereo Steel Combo
Bakelite Ric
Hilton volume pedal

This would probably bring it more into the main stream. I remember my old D8.

Gibson called it "Console Grande Guitar".

Can the "sweet talk" and lets put on the gloves.......That AIN'T no guitar no how as they might say below the Mason Dixon, or is it the Carl Dixon. Any resemblance between what is referred to as a PSG and a common guitar is as close as man is to ape. The only remaining commonality is strings, and not even the quantity or gauges. The shape is different, the materials, weight, construction, roller nuts, rotating bridges, position of playing, lack of raised frets (except as Gene Fields uses one neck). The underside looks like an Olivetti manual typewriter, the top looks like a cheese slicer, the whole thing looks like a deformed card table. The string count and pedals bring to mind the concert harp.

I like the name of "Horizontal electric concert harp" myself as it is more descriptive, ..Those below the Carl Dixon line would say that AIN'T "country" enough, but neither is country music "country" anymore, ..not even sure that it is "music" in the sense that us "old pharts" think of music.

Some "showoffs"(showmen?)play the thing with hard boiled eggs, blocks of wood, combs, and anything else that the audience wants to throw up to them. Then there was the plastic and bakelite coated, the plated and unplated brass bars, the round, flat, and other shapes and the powder coat bars of today, ..the finger picks have been steel, brass, plastic, and heaven knows what else.

The legs are microphone stands, the leg holders are relatives to pipe hangers (except for the Sierra approach), ..does "bell crank" sound like a guitar term? Then there are the gun cleaning rods, mechanical "stops", pedal racks, cross rods, knee levers, mechanical fingers, and on and on. Guitar?...one could question that name (and just did). How about two octave string bends (bar slides), try that on a "guitar". Even Roy Thomson thinks it is a bagpipe (think drone strings) on occasion, Doug Jernigan thought that it was a horizontal banjo at on time. Buddy Emmons has played it as the horns and/or woodwind section of the Big Band, Ralph Mooney makes believe that it is a hound dog and stomps on its tail to make it howl, Paul Franklin thinks that it is a machine gun on occasion, Bill Stafford uses it as the string section of a symphony orchestra (cello and upright bass included) Billy Easton makes it sound like a marimba on occasion, and the late great Jimmy Day used it as a "cryin' machine".

I think of it as the great portamento machine, ..it is not the note(s) that you are on, it is how you get there and leave there; Chord/harmony morphing possibilities far outstrip a "guitar". My position is, it ain't what you call it, it is what you do with it that is of value ("A Rose By Any Other Name" if I may quote a famous Scot), and like us people, if there is no infusion of genes from other family lines the line finaly will die out. Those that changed the body to aluminum from wood (machinists as opposed to cabinet makers as manufacturers, neither being luthiers), and now the "mold a body" folk must really present you a problem re what to name the animal.

With all that, you worry that changing a bar material from one of the various metals (not just steel) or plastics to a ceramic will present a problem re the name "steel guitar"? It must be those cold down east winters!!!

You might be surprised who uses one in the studios in Nashville (so he said) and wanted a second one for a backup after we stopped making them.

[This message was edited by ed packard on 01 January 2003 at 03:36 PM.]

Another post has me convinced I play a "Pedal Zither".

Smily Roberts has called it a "Mechnical Pitch Approximater", I like that.

And Roy, I made a bar out of a wooden broom handle to get fake banjo sounds. So I guess it's a "Wooden Guitar" when I use it.

Roy

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http://www.clictab.com/royt/tabmenu.htm

[This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 01 January 2003 at 02:56 PM.]

quote:

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I will not buy one.
A Steel guitar is a Steel Guitar because we use a Steel to play.

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This is why I want to change the name of our instrument to TIFKATSPG (The Instrument Formerly Known As The Pedal Streel Guitar.)

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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I

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Greg Simmons
Former custodian of the Unofficial Sho~Bud Pedal Steel Guitar Website

[This message was edited by Greg Simmons on 04 December 2004 at 01:15 PM.]

I still like it a lot but I do want to try a BJS 15/16ths.

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SUAS U' PHIOB
Geo

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D.S. Rigsby
Wilcox SD10 3&5

I guess this thread will settle to the bottom, like it did two years ago, then be brought back up in another few years.
I'll be waiting.

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Mullen D-10
Lexicon MPX 100
Fulltone Full-Drive II
Evans FET 500 -or-
Peavey Nashville 1000
Vox wah-wah pedal
My dog Toby sittin' on the floor listening

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Ron (Chippy) Wood
Emmons D10
Carter SD10

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Visit my Web Site at RoysFootprints.com
Browse my Photo Album and be sure to sign my Guest Book.

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I'd rather be opinionated, than apathetic!

I contacted an Engineering Ceramics company ...

And drew up a bullet bar ... Jerry Byrd size (2 3/4" x 3/4") with a thumb indent on the rear end.

I talked with the engineer several times ... explaining what these were, etc

I received a quote ...

Minimum 100 units @ $55 per unit.

250 units @ $45 per unit.

I was excited about it ... but my wife wasn't.

The quote is expired now ... but if anyone wants to look into it ... these folks know what steel guitar bars are now ...

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Aiello's House of Gauss

My wife and I don't think alike. She donates money to the homeless and I donate money to the topless! ... R. Dangerfield

[This message was edited by Rick Aiello on 29 July 2005 at 05:23 AM.]

I wouldn't trade my Zbar for anything. If
you decide to remanufacturer them, I'll buy a spare.

b0b,
I've noticed no tone change on my LDG between Eds bar and the BJS. How do they compare when no change/mods to tone/volum?