Bud Isaacs: Where did he get the idea?

Gary C. Dygert · From: Frankfort, NY, USA

We know steel guitars had pedals in the 30s & 40s for tuning changes and that Bud Isaacs was the first to record note-bending with pedal steel. Did he come up with this on his own, or were other players experimenting with the sound?

Or is it that various players were experimenting independently of each other, and Isaacs happened to be the first to record the style? (The only reason we call bluegrass ojnab "Scruggs style" is that Don Reno went into the service during the formative years of bluegrass.)

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Bud certainly gets credit for popularizing the "chord changing while playing" idea, and I feel his "E to A" change was what set the world on it's ear. The idea of moving tones and chords while playing, however, (using just the pedals) was not a new one. As to why it took so long after the advent of pedals for the simple technique to catch on is, I believe, one of the great unsolved mysteries of the instrument.

It had been my intention (before his death) to ask Alvino Rey about it, sometime.

Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

Ed Fulawka was experimenting with the I to IV pedal change in 1949 to 1950

David Doggett · Posted 14 Jan 2008 9:46 pm

Bud has said he was trying to get the sound of twin fiddles. So he had a very specific and characteristic country sound in mind that was different from the swing sounds of Alvino Rey and other early jazz and Hawaiian steelers. Bud worked with Bigsby to get the changes and action that he needed to get the sound he was after. He had been experimenting with it for awhile before Webb Pierce heard it and had the incite to request it on Slowly. It is said that the earlier steels with pedals had stiff, long-throw action that was not conducive to using while playing (never tried one myself). Al Marcus played jazz on early steels with pedals, and also country on later pedal steels, so he would be an authority on that. I think Bud Isaacs (and Bigsby) deserves all the credit for commercializing the moving harmony country pedal steel sound. Even if the mechanical ability existed previously, and jazz steelers had made some use of pedaled notes or chords, Bud had the unique country pedal steel sound in his head, figured out how to make the sound, and it turned out to be magical. Smile

Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

I think the orchestral harp had pedals on it before the steel guitar did. I wonder if they ever used them in that way.
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David Doggett · Posted 15 Jan 2008 12:30 am

Yes, pedal harpists do play the occasional pedal gliss. But it doesn't sound anything like the twang of country pedal steel. It's more like a slurred grace note.

Mike Cass · Posted 16 Jan 2008 9:29 am

There exists an old recording done in Nashville('48-'49 and possibly now re-released)of Johnny & Jack w/ Kitty Wells which features Shot Jackson on pedal(?)dobro. I cant recall the song right off but if Shot isnt using at least 1 pull hooked to his dobro(ala, part of the Isaccs changes)I'll eat my Bigsby ball cap.
The 2 note,split-pedal sound may or may not be on there but I definitely remember the I-IV change as being featured here & there throughout the song.
Cal Hand and myself had to lift the needle a number of times to confirm the use of this change on that recording,done in '48-'49 which pre-dates "Slowly". Its not steel guitar but it sure as heck is the I-IV change as we know it, but on a dobro.
btw, you can hear the clicking of the mechanism on the recording as well which would rule out the possibility that he was using his finger to pull the string(s)behind the bar to achieve the change(s).
This might be a job for Eddie Stubbs....

Michael Misetich · From: Irving, Texas, USA

I asked Bud Issacs at one of the St Louis conventions about his inspiration for the ground-breaking sound he used on his November 29, 1953 session with Webb Pierce. He said the two-part harmony note bending the Davis Sisters used on their recording of "I forgot more than you'll ever know" (released in the summer of 1953)was the source of the sound. In her autobiography, Skeeter Davis mentions that Nelson King, famous DJ of the era told her that Bud Issacs told him the same story.

I have a collection of Prince Albert Opry shows from the late 1940s and early 1950s. On a few shows from August and Setember 1953 you can hear Issacs just beginning to experiment with the sound.

Eddie Cunningham · From: Massachusetts, USA

Back in 47 or 48 Jerry Byrd used to play a lick on C-6th tuning, 1st and 3rd strings, slanting up two frets on the 1st string and then back. Used it several times on various songs with E.T. Was very effective then and still sounds good !! Maybe Bud Issacs picked it up from that ?? Eddie "C" ( the old Rickenbacher non-pedal geezer )

Eddie Cunningham · From: Massachusetts, USA

I remember hearing Shots pedal dobro , 1 to 4 change, on that record , forgot the song , but I thought it was later,in 1954, after Slowly ?? I remember the steel players talking about it !! Also I read somewhere that Pete Drake used that pedal dobro on some song also ?? Eddie "C" ( the old non-pedal geezer )

Mike Cass · Posted 17 Jan 2008 10:34 am

the recording date on the LP Cal and I listened to was either '48 or '49 and was recorded in Nashville. I wondered if the pedal sound couldve been overdubbed later, but we felt that the sound was too consistent with the rest of the track to be a dub. What is that tune, btw??

Don Barnhardt · From: North Carolina, USA

In the early 50's a lot of steel players got that sound by slanting the bar two frets in G or A tuning.

Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

Before Joaquin Murphy, Spade Cooley had a Steel Guitar player named Dick Roberts whom I beleive played a Muiltichord with pedals. I never could figure out how he played his style. I believe he was using his pedals to change chords with a melody line. If anyone had heard a record put out by Happy Perryman with the song "We Are Getting Farther
and Farther Apart" and "Jealous Heart", you could
hear what I am talking about. When I was 15 years old
I had the opportunity to Be a guest of Spade Cooley
at the Forman Phillips County Barn at Venice Pier, California (my parents took me}. However I was to shy to ask any questions. I beleive he was doing a form of what Bud Issacs finally accomplished.

Very Happy

a
are getting farther and Farther Apart", I think on OK Records, you could hear what I am talking about. This was back in about 1944.

Eddie Cunningham · From: Massachusetts, USA

Billy , I have an old western swing Columbia 78 record from the "40s by Happy "P" called "There's a Palace Down In Dallas " that features a very good steel with chord changes and I could never figure out what tuning was used !! Now it makes sense and was probably your boy , Dick Roberts, with a Multi-Kord !! Was very good playing !! Thanks for that info !!! Made my day !! Eddie "C" ( the old non-pedal geezer )

Michael Lee Allen · From: Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois

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robert kramer · From: Nashville TN

Mike, I think I found the song you’re looking for on the Johnnie & Jack (and the Tennessee Mountain Boys) Bear Family box set. According to Eddie Stubbs’ box set notes: on December 14, 1955 Johnnie & Jack recorded “I Want To Be Loved.” Stubbs writes:

The biggest technological innovation on this cut is Shot Jackson’s seven –string pedal dobro. Normally a six-stringed instrument, neither a seventh string nor a pedal had ever been used by anyone prior to this session. Jackson was an extremely gifted, mechanically minded individual said Johnnie. “The way he did it, he made the nut at the top wider and he had a wider tailpiece at the bottom. He added a smaller (in diameter and higher pitched) string and it was tuned just like an electric steel guitar. Webb Pierce had “Slowly”, the first record out in the country field, with a pedal steel guitar that made that pretty sound. Well, Shot got that on the dobro. Where you tune the guitar, he bored a hole in the peg head. Then he got a metal rod and cut a slot in the end of it with a hacksaw where it would fit through a through the hole and around the string.” The other end of the rod was attached to a pedal on the floor. “Then when you pushed the pedal down, it raised that rod up and it changed the string. He had it fixed where it only raised just one string (the seventh string) and you could play it more like a steel guitar, but still get that dobro effect. Shot had the dobro fit into a little rack that had legs on it. He had it mounted where it wouldn’t move and he played it standing up. He had this thing fixed way ahead of everybody.”

Mike, I will listen to the '48 & '49 sides to confirm the above and I will also try to get a copy of this song to you to confirm if this is, in fact, where you and Cal Hand first heard Shot’s pedal dobro. The song went to #13 Billboard.

Victor Eaton · From: England

HI ALL
The first time i realy heard a steel guitar was at the royal festival hall london was the slim whitman show must have been the late fifties or early sixties and i remember a comment in the papers saying it resembled howling cats two years back i saw slim again on his farewell show in cambridge and he was great WHO was the steel player?
regards vic uk.

Mike Cass · Posted 19 Jan 2008 3:17 pm

Bob k,
thanks for the info. We must've read the liner notes wrong or perhaps they were a misprint to begin with. However I remember both Cal and I looking at each other,open-mouthed,when we read the recording date of the cut in question:eek:
Look forward to hearing it again and seeing that date,but Id bet my money on Eddie's expertise so just ignore my previous post Wink

Thanks for the email as well,Bob.

Ted Solesky · From: Mineral Wells, Texas, USA

Just a story from Zane. Zane was in a band where the leader didn't like pedals and told Zane to take em off or else. Zane then, the genuis he is, put them under the guitar body where the guy couldn't see them. (knee pedals) The band leader didn't complain?!? So, I'm not sure who came up with the 'knee' pedal idea? I like Zane and am leaning towards Zane. 'He' did!

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Ted, the "Hawaiian Harmolin" (a 7-string acoustic Hawaiian guitar) had a couple rudimentary knee-operated levers back about 1930. That guitar even predates the venerable Multi-Kord, so I feel it's a pretty safe bet that knee levers actually came before floor pedals!

Shocked

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

The Shot Jackson with a 7-string dobro and a pedal.
http://www.contusion.com/ShoBudAcoustic/about.html

robert kramer · From: Nashville TN

John Billings, Great article on Shot & the history of Sho-Bud. It mentions Shot played a dobro with a pedal on the Johnnie & Jack song "Down South in New Orleans." I will check the session date to see if it predates "Slowly" and report back.

Ted Solesky · From: Mineral Wells, Texas, USA

Donny, You are probably right since I didn't listen to steel much in my younger days. Zane's story sort of caught my ear. Thanks for the info!

Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

robert kramer · From: Nashville TN

Just for the record: Johnnie & Jack recorded "South in New Orleans" twice: April 1, 1953 & July 23rd, 1958. Shot's on the '53 session but it sounds like a stock, non-pedal dobro to me. "Slowly" was recorded on November 29th, 1953.

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