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Steel what?

I missed your original post, as I was on the cruise Hugh mentioned.

I was Pee Wee's steel man from 1946 through 1954. I was preceeded by Clel Summey and Don Davis and followed by Bob Koefer. I have heard that Roy Wiggins also played with Pee Wee while Eddie Arnold was his vocalist, but I can't personally attest to that. You can find more info in the following thread:
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum15/HTML/002959.html

Regards,

Roy Ayres

[This message was edited by Roy Ayres on 03 March 2003 at 08:10 AM.]

Roy???? Can you shed any light on this?

[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 03 March 2003 at 03:17 PM.]

Incidentally, I thought it interesting that Pee Wee recorded Steel Guitar Rag four times and, although I played steel with him longer than any other one person, I never played steel on one of his records of that tune.

[This message was edited by Roy Ayres on 03 March 2003 at 07:10 PM.]

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kd...and the beat goes on...

Will the REAL ROY AYRES Please Stand UP.

She said to Roy,,,,Roy,,kiss me Ayres

edited I mis spelled Roy,,Oh I forgot,,the girl spoke with an Irish brogue

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 08 March 2003 at 09:19 PM.]

I AM standing. (I'm just short.)

The real story on Tennessee Waltz:
To the best of my knowledge, Redd Stewart wrote it sitting at the piano in his living room in Nashville. I don't remember the address, but it was across the street from the rooming house run by Ma and Pa Upchurch, where a lot of the Opry pickers -- including myself -- called home. (As an aside, Redd played good piano, but only played the black keys, so everything he wrote at the piano was in the key of F#. But, although he was playing in F#, he wrote the lead sheets in C.)

Pee Wee told the "match book" story at every concert we ever played. It used to be a standard joke among the band members, including Pee Wee. Laurie and I spent a few days with Pee Wee and Lydia a couple of years before Pee Wee passed on. I mentioned the match book story in a half joking way, and Pee Wee picked up the conversation and told it again in detail. Sadly, his dementia had progressed to the point where he had told the story for so many years that he now believed it himself. That incident really touched me and saddened me. He finally reached the point where he didn't even recognize his own family before he finally gave up the spirit.

That's the way I remember the Tennessee Waltz story, although I guess it's possible that I, too, have reached the age where it is hard to separate fact from fiction. I think I'm still OK -- I just wish I could say as much for Jody. (Incidentally, Jody's spelling is so bad, he once paid $50 to spend the night in a WAREHOUSE!)

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Edited to add this note for Blake:
I'm quite sure that was Don Davis on the SGR record you mentioned. It was recorded before I joined Pee Wee in 1946 and re-released later on the album you referred to.

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Edited again to add a note for Ray Montee:
Copas did not have any part in writing Tennessee Waltz. He was the first to record it, however, on King Records just a few weeks before I came along. Redd signed an exclusive contract with Ernest Tub Publishing shortly after that to turn out two songs a week for E.T. for a flat weekly amount. In 1950 or '51, E.T. sued Redd and Pee Wee claiming that Redd had written the song while under the exclusive contract to E.T. Publishing. Pee Wee and Redd kept quiet avout the Copas recording until the case went to court in about October or November of 1951, where they produced a King Records executive (I think it was Bernie Pearlman) and the company records showing that the song was recorded prior to the E.T. contract. So, Pee Wee and Redd prevailed in the lawsuit.

If anyone is interested, The "big" royalty payoff for Pee Wee and Redd amounted to $35,000 to each of them for writer's royalties. The "big one" was Patti Page, with our record number two. but there were 14 or 15 other "cover" records released by various artists. Doesn't sound like a lot now-a-days, but remember that this was over 50 years ago.

[This message was edited by Roy Ayres on 06 March 2003 at 10:32 AM.]

Thia information came from a Roy Smeck historian. Roy Smeck was known as "The Wizard Of The Strings.

Just how old are you Roy Ayres?? Roy Ayres is the Wizard of Hiding His Age.

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 06 March 2003 at 09:31 PM.]

Hagstrom was digging into Fenders low priced market. The Duo Sonic was a three quarter size guitar and retailed at $164.50 case $35.00 and had dual pickups, The next one and least expensive was the MusicMaster guitar which retailed at $134.50 case $35.00

Both the Musicmaster and Duo Sonic were available with standard or 3/4 size necks.

The Bronco was available with standard neck and by far was one of my biggest sellers.

You may or many not know this,but each salesman was assigned a quota for his territory. I was assigned to sell $475.000 per month of Fender merchandise not including
Rogers Drums or Rhodes Pianos. Quite a high
quota,but I did it and more. I didnt win salesman of the year award for picking my nose. And that was for a period of Five (5)
years. Bragging???you bet and dammed proud of it. It was the salesman that did the job for Fender NOT the suits on the inside.
Did you know Don Randall?? Stan Compton? Jim Williams? Roger Rossmeisel??

FYI I sold more Bronco's than anyone in the USA. I never knew it was Roy Ayers who gave
the Bronco the start.

I had heard it was some Donkey that designed it and when I asked Paul Spranger he replied
that some Horses $ss had the idea.

Leo had a thing about Mustangs,Broncos, and Automobile names,,,such as the Sabre guitar at MusicMan and the Stingray guitar and Bass
taken from the Thunderbird auto models.His next and last guitar was going to be named
The Impala. Do you remember the "Marauder"?
The pickups (two) were under the pickguard and it looked weird,,but like everything else
Leo did,it sounded great but the strange appearance shot that down.

They should have given you a plaque for the Bronco as it earned me the reputation as being another "Horses $ass", that makes two of us.

All things said,those were great days CBS or not. It still had the Fender name and thats why it is still the best. I hope this convinces you that I am younger than you think I am ...and what difference does that make anyway..remember my friend.

We Dont Stop Playing Because We Get Old
We Get Old Because We Stop Playing.

Now go mount your Bronco and ride down the
Navajo Trail

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 07 March 2003 at 09:03 PM.]

then came over to Fender and once again the
mighty arm of CBS stepped in.

Roger passed away a number of years ago at the age
of 51. He had returned to Germany.Roger and myself had Attila Zoller a great jazz guitarist endorsing his semi acoustic guitars
in addition to "Toots Thielman" the well known harmonica jazz player.The Kingman was a great guitar,its only drawback was a pipe
going through the body into the heel of the neck. It didnt catch on but was a great idea.

We had a difficult time trying to convince dealers and customers that this feature was two fold,first off it gave the guitar rigidity and secondly a pickup could be attached to the "pipe" (rod) and the resonance was great.The guitar had a mellow sound and it cut very good as well. We had Tex Ritter endorsing it for us and I had Elton Britt useing one as well..They were starting to sell but again the "suits" made their presence known.

Roger was overlooked and underestimated he gave his all for Fender and CBS did him in.

But once more the "suits came in" and they fluffed it off as they did with the PS 210
Gene Fields steel guitar.

The sound had nothing to do with the lack of sales,,it had no eye appeal with those pickups and people called them KMart guitars.

DeArmond sound,,Gibson flat jazz sound and the sound of guitars such as those were what
Roger was seeking.The high bite sound was not
what Roger was looking for,,we were looking for the Gibson Market,we had the solid body
market why have a semi acoustic sound like a solid body when you can have a solid body guitar? in any Strat Tele etc.

You see,the pulse of the public came from the field and not from the factory. The pulse was weak and the Wildwood was no more.

Many people buy with their eyes as well as their ears...OK so its back to TOPIC..Im outta here.

Did you play a role in the development of the
Scorpio Solid State Series of Fender amps?

I know Paul Spranger played a major role,was
Dick Evans and yourself invloved in this project?. And if so, who was it that decided
to bring the Solid State amps into being?. I
know for certain it wasn't Leo or Don,do you know who presented this and why??

Paul Spranger was the impetus behind the solid-state amps. Dick supervised the young
engineer who did most of the design (I don't recall his name) but Dick had very little to do with actually pushing the idea. I recall that the young engineer built up the first Fender amp using an integrated circuit, which was a tiny element that may have added a half pound to the weight of the case. My old-school reaction was, "Damned thing can't be that good; it ain't heavy enough."

When I went on board, CBS had just taken over and Leo had signed a 2-year contract to stay on as a consultant. If fact, Leo was just in the process of getting his lab set up a block away from the Fender lab.

These facts are the best I can remember. Correct me if I'm off base in any way.
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By the way, you guys, Jody recently told me how great that Viagra is. I said "That sounds like great stuff. Can you get it over the counter?" Jody answered, "I can if I take two of them."

I`ve enjoyed all the stories . Thanks

Thanks for starting this thread. It gave me a chance to boast about my years with Pee Wee King’s Golden West Cowboys – and a chance to bug Jody Carver a little. I love that guy, even if he is uglier than me.

I’m no real authority on all of the steelers who played steel with Pee Wee over his many, many years in the business, but I can speak rather authoritatively about the years between 1946 and the point where Pee Wee dissolved the full-time band in the mid ‘60’s. He finally determined that his other enterprises such as his Ridgeway Publishing, his Pee Wee King Record Shop in Louisville, his package liquor store in Louisville, and other investments were carrying the financial weight of the band. He had reached the point where his music and records were no longer a viable business with regard to income, so he disbanded the Cowboys. Of course, Redd Stewart stayed with Pee Wee through the years until Pee Wee’s death. Pee Wee continued to book occasional big venues using a pick-up band – either musicians out of the Louisville vicinity or from the town where he was booked. By the time he totally retired I had spent 10 years in California and had been in the Dallas area for a few years. Sometime in the early 1970’s Pee Wee called me in Dallas to act as his local agent for the grand opening of the large, new “Town East” mall in Dallas. I coordinated the deal with the mall’s management, rented and set up a sound system, and hired a good 4-piece local band to play the gig. Pee Wee carried band uniforms with him, in which the local band was dressed, and he presented the band as the “Golden West Cowboys.” Redd and the Collins Sisters (one of which Redd was married to) did the show to a crowd of several thousand in the center of the mall. I am certain that most of the steel men reported above to have played with Pee Wee did exactly that, especially during the years following my tenure with the band.

Pee Wee King gave me my first truly professional job with a nationally known band and, therefore, kept my career from being one of local nightclubs and private parties. There was no way my playing could come up to that of greats like Don Davis (who preceeded me) and Bob Koefer (who followed me) but Pee Wee complimented me many times for my loyalty and my willingness to play the way he wanted me to play. Perhaps, if I were asked to give advice to young musicians now-a-days, that would be my best advice: Play the way your leader asks you to play: if he says “Play chords” then stay away from single-string rides; if he says “Stick to the melody then hold off on hot licks. And dedicate your full loyalty to the man who signs your paycheck. If you can’t do that and if you don’t look forward to every gig he uses you on – then look for another job where you and he can both be happier.

Thanks, again, Crowbear.