I couldn't stand country music in those days, but the things that Commander Cody, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Burrito Brothers, and the Byrds, etc were doing back then were very influential in creating my earliest exposure and interest in the pedal steel guitar.

I believe the first time I saw Buddy Cage, with NRPS, on television was on The Midnight Special. I just couldn't get enough of those guys.

Talk about being "pitchy". Listen to some of Jimmy Day's playing on some of Willie's albums from back then. The Shotgun Willie album comes to mind.

Ahhh. Such fond memories.

They're never satisfied with a stock amp, and seek endless modifications and part/tube replacements, substitutions, and tweaks, thinking that some "golden sweet, unique" tone that will make them the envy of every other steeler lies secretly buried in there...somewhere. Yet, when a close examination is made, they are still using the exact same amp settings they used in 1969. (Because that's the setting Lloyd used...on a different guitar and amp)

They want to know just what kind of modern equipment to use to try and capture an old sound. Of course, the old sounds are easily captured just by using old equipment. Still, they buy modern guitars, modern pickups, modern pedals, modern picks, modern bars, modern strings, modern processors, modern amps, and modern speakers, only to toil endlessly (and usually unsuccessfully) trying to make it all sound like Buddy playing an old guitar with a single-coil pickup and a pot pedal right into a tube amp.

Duh???

Whenever anything sounds not quite right, they immediately go into intensly examining every piece of equipment in minute detail, hardly ever considering that it might just be a lack of skill or poor technique that's making them sound so crappy.

And don't even get me started about the group that wonders how well an amplifier designed in 1957 for Jacques Cousteau to monitor shrimp sounds in the Artic would work as a steel guitar amplifier. (Duh??? Couldn't you just use a steel amplifier for a steel guitar??? Nah!!! That's too easy.)

So, I guess some people might hate the steel guitar because of it's whiney sound. Of course, some people might not be real crazy about it because of the all the whiney weirdos that play it...or try to play it?

Whaddya think?

Nah!!!

[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 24 May 2005 at 03:16 PM.]

BTW I think the CC tunes as kinda "sarcastic" and the stupid steel parts as intentional cliches.

I try to be in tune but Streched pianos and E.T. basses against everything else sometimes is pretty hard for my ears to pull pitch out of.

quote:

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So, I guess some people might hate the steel guitar because of it's whiney sound. Of course, some people might not be real crazy about it because of the all the whiney weirdos that play it...or try to play it?

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Donny, the listening audience can't tell from the recordings that we are all whiney weirdos!

Terry

I also have the same right to agree or disagree, and so I did. That's all. No problem.

I certainly agree that some steelers are lick players. No denying that. In fact, while listening to steelradio.com I hear one certain "speedpicking"-type lick used so often I'd like to pull out my already thinning hair and yell, "CAN'T YOU COME UP WITH SOMETHING ORIGINAL INSTEAD OF ALL DOING THAT SAME LICK JUST TO SOUND FAST AND FANCY???" The guilty shall remain anonymous...at least by me.....

But I would never say or agree that all steelers should be generalized and penalized for the lack of imagination of some.

In fact, as a steel player and regular guitar player, I've complained for years about how so many guitarists seem to repeat the same licks over and over again, which I realize is saying pretty much what Vern said, but about guitar players. The difference is I wouldn't generalize all guitarists that way. When I'd say this I'd be referring to the average bar band type guitar player, and I don't want to start something about that but the fact is I still feel that way. Again, I do not feel that way about guitarists in general, nor any other players of any particular instrument, in general.

With any instrument there are lick players, some who play the notes on the page like human robots with nothing of their own, and some players who are artists in every sense of the word.

I think steel is no different, it has all the above categories of players.

I consider myself to be an average player, but I do go out of my way not to be a lick player.

So Vern, I can agree with you to some degree, it's just the blanket generalization I take exception to.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 24 May 2005 at 08:07 PM.]