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Topic: Dilemna ofChoice |
Bill Hanson
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 4 Mar 2009 10:53 am |
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| Hello to all. I am a 65 YO guitar player looking to start steel playing. I have perused this wonderful forum for weeks to glean all that I can swallow right now. I have crossed off a Carter Starter, looked at GFI student, seen great offerings from Bob Simmons (Genesis) and Doug Earnest (StageOne). I also have a gentleman who wants to sell me an 80s Excel that was double neck and was modded by Bob Simmons to single with pad. All are E9 ten strings, the Excel has 3+Franklin on the floor and all are about same price-wise. I feel like I am chasing a ghost now and would appreciate any input from the enlightened aboard here. Thanks Gents. |
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Brian Kurlychek
From:
Maine, USA
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Posted 4 Mar 2009 11:09 am
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Hi Bill, and welcome to the forum.
This is a tough question as a steel is very personal in choice depending on what one wants and what one likes.
I guess the questions you have to ask yourself are:
How much do you want to spend?
What type of music are you looking to play?
Do you want a Single neck (e9), A double neck E9 +C6, Or a Universal 12 with say extended e9th or something.
If you are looking for e9th at a minimum, make sure it has at least 4 but preferrably 5 knee levers, and at least 3 pedals for and SD10 model.
If you can afford a pro model, then buy one over a starter model because it will easily grow with you as you learn.
The brand doesn't matter so much. Some will say this brand is best, or that brand is best, but they are all well made instruments from what I have seen here on the forum.
So choose your price range, your type, and then look for a brand within those guidelines. That's my advice. Good luck, and have fun.
_________________
We live to play another day. |
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Stu Schulman
From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
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Posted 4 Mar 2009 11:10 am
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Bill,Don't forget to check out the new "Carp" Rains guitar.Stu 
_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952. |
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Joshua Grange
From:
Los Angeles, California
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Posted 4 Mar 2009 11:19 am
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My two cents here Bill,
Just get a guitar.
Any of the ones you listed sound great.
Go for the Excel. Great guitar, solid and reliable, great tone.
It's more important to start playing right away and get over the equipment quandary phase.
You won't go wrong with the Excel. |
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Stu Schulman
From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
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Posted 4 Mar 2009 12:49 pm
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You might want a new Desert Rose. 
_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952. |
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Randy Gilliam
From:
San Antonio, Texas, USA
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Posted 4 Mar 2009 5:17 pm MSA D 10 8and 4 Red Laquer
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| Beautiful Red Laquer MSA D 10 Looks great Sounds great and Plays great $1550.00 Shipped , You Wont Ever Need anouther Guitar Unless You Wanted 2. Wheeled Case Like New also Free Shipping Randy Gilliam . What else Do you need? |
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Ned McIntosh
From:
New South Wales, Australia
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Posted 4 Mar 2009 11:23 pm
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Hi Bill, and welcome,
The Excel with 3+Franklin on the floor sounds good. If it has 4 knee-levers (5 is even better) then you couldn't really go wrong with it. The good news is if it hasn't got 4 levers, then you can add them! It's a guitar you won't outgrow as you undertake your new musical adventure in "pedal-steel land".
_________________
The steel guitar is a hard mistress. She will obsess you, bemuse and bewitch you. She will dash your hopes on what seems to be whim, only to tease you into renewing the relationship once more so she can do it to you all over again...and yet, if you somehow manage to touch her in that certain magic way, she will yield up a sound which has so much soul, raw emotion and heartfelt depth to it that she will pierce you to the very core of your being. |
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Roual Ranes
From:
Atlanta, Texas, USA
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Posted 5 Mar 2009 4:51 am
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| Get that guitar from Randy Gilliam and learn both necks at the same time. Either neck has enough on it to keep you busy for a life time and you will never learn all there is on one neck. Have fun! It is very habit forming regardless of how much you accomplish. |
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Bill Hanson
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 5 Mar 2009 5:52 am Dilemna of Choice
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| Thanks to all those who chipped in here and in PM's, differing advice but all well taken and knowledgeable. |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 5 Mar 2009 10:58 am
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| if you're spending over a thousand bucks anyway, definitely go for randy's red msa. no question. |
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Bill Hanson
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 5 Mar 2009 11:10 am
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| I thought that was sold. Says sold after the ad on the forum. |
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Roual Ranes
From:
Atlanta, Texas, USA
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Posted 5 Mar 2009 3:58 pm
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| Keep checking the "Instruments For Sale" part. One will turn up. |
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Sonny Priddy
From:
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 5 Mar 2009 4:37 pm steel
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| You Won't Beat A GFI i've Played One Over three Years. SONNY. |
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Ron McLaren
From:
Buckinghamshire, UK
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Posted 6 Mar 2009 3:38 am
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Hi Bill
A couple of years ago when I was 66 and supposed to be in possesion of more sense, I decided I should try a pedal steel guitar, I bought a 'Carter Starter' but did'nt feel comfortable with it so I got myself a 'Emmons ST10' (black).
This machine has taken over my life, it has its own bedroom, into which, only the dog and I venture, my wife is convinced I lavish more attention on it than I do on her, I clean it more than I clean the car, it is completely addictive, and if I ever learn to play it correctly it will be nothing short of a miracle.
So welcome to the world of the pedalsteel and a complete change in your life.
Ron Mc
_________________
Homebuilt E9, Roland Cube amp, Telecaster |
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Brian Kurlychek
From:
Maine, USA
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Posted 6 Mar 2009 5:31 am
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If you do not subscribe to Bobbe Seymour's newsletter- you should,, as he wrote about this in the latest one. It really gives you something to think about when making your decision. It is something I would have liked to have read back when I was looking for a guitar.
_________________
We live to play another day. |
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Rick Winfield
From:
Pickin' beneath the Palmettos
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Posted 6 Mar 2009 6:43 am Simmons
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Bob Simmons has got a "looker" for sale right now, on the forum. Pro model Sd10 with 3x4, for a few bucks more than a used "student" model.
I'd check it out
Rick |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 6 Mar 2009 6:57 am
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| Roual Ranes wrote: |
| ...learn both necks at the same time. Either neck has enough on it to keep you busy for a life time and you will never learn all there is on one neck... |
What Roual says is absolutely right. If you don't have a C6 neck readily available you won't be inclined to set a C6 instrument up separately, especially if you're short of space. Personally, I play more on the C6 neck than E9, but then I don't earn my living playing. |
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Bill Hanson
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 6 Mar 2009 7:07 am
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| Thanks Rick but I don't see it in the classifieds. Is it elsewhere ? (Bob Simmons "looker") |
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Rick Winfield
From:
Pickin' beneath the Palmettos
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Posted 6 Mar 2009 11:44 am for sale: instruments
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It reads:
"sd 10 priced to stimulate"
maybe halfway down the page
good luck |
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