Cool Commercial with me playing Lap Steel

Terry VunCannon · From: Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Here is a Commercial being used here in NC with me playing the Lap at the first, and on guitar at the end doing a PSA. It is being used for the Homeless Project in different ways...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prWw-k0_LUU

Peter Jacobs · From: Northern Virginia

Nice playing and an outstanding cause, Terry. Thumbs way up!
_________________
Peter
---------
www.splinterville.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@splinterville6278/videos

Andy Volk · From: Boston, MA

Great project and way to use music to make a difference, Terry.
_________________
Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com

Terry VunCannon · From: Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Thanks you guys for the kind words. We played on one of the local news stations Fox8 this morning, and I played this song, and the news workers and staff went crazy over the Lap Steel...just spreading the word.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Way to go.

Frank Freniere · From: The First Coast

Nice job, Terry.

Whose autograph is that on the front of your steel?

Terry VunCannon · From: Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

On the front of this National Dynamic is autographs of Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi. It also has autographs of Tommy Castro, Aubrey Ghent, and Johnny Winter.
I also have a Green/White one that is the twin of the National that David Lindley plays, and it has DL's autograph on it.

David Stilley · From: Santa Cruz, California, USA

That's a meaty slide tone you got there Terry. It sounds really great with the over-driven amp sound. I have an old 8 string of the same model basically, with a couple of slight variations. Mine's in desperate need of a change of the tuning. What tuning are you using? I think I may set mine up for that wailing blues sound like you're getting.
_________________
GFI Ultra U-12 7+5 E9/B6, Roland Cube 80XL, Telonics FP-100 Volume pedal with TMRS remote sensor (courtesy of Dave Beaty and Telonics)

Terry VunCannon · From: Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Thanks David. I use a Mesa Boogie Express 25 watt, clean channel with a Fulltone Full-Drive 2 for that tone and cut the basic track with the bass & drums on lap. Then went back and overdubbed a lap lead track, then a guitar lead track. The steel is tuned in open E...E-B-G#-E-B-E high to low.
The finished track from that session came out like this...
http://www.reverbnation.com/lawyersgunsmoney/song/21498115-im-walkin

David Stilley · From: Santa Cruz, California, USA

No wonder it sounds great Terry. Good amp set-up for that sound on steel and 6-string. I'm going to try that tuning. I've been using mostly Open G or A for blues. I was reading that Elmore James used the open E tuning, also used a lot by Duane Allman to emulate Chicago style blues. I've always needed to explore the open E tuning but it's so easy to just drop tune strings 1, 5 and 6 and I used to not care for the increased tension required for open E on strings 3, 4 and 5 with a standard gauge set on 6 string. But It would probably not be a problem with the lap steel. Duane also used open G for a more Delta Blues style tunes and he also played slide in standard EADGBE which I've always had a hard time with. No chords to work with, and it's SO EASY to hit something wrong and sound really BAD.

I may need heavier strings on my national. It has a real twangy tone compared to yours. Mine also has a funny kind of tone control set-up. It sounds pretty thin and kind of "Brittle" if you don't totally rearrange your EQ on the amp compared to my 6 stringers and lap steels (mostly 50's Gibson BR6's and a Kalamazoo that I really love the pickup in). It does have some hair to it though, if you know what I mean.

But the 8 string National requires a whole resetting of the amp to get a good sound. Maybe the heavier strings would make the needed tonal difference. Does your tone control have a kind of funny arrangement too? Are you using a standard gauge set or did you put a heavy gauge custom set? Very David Lindley like tone you're getting. Thanks for the info on your playing setup Terry.
_________________
GFI Ultra U-12 7+5 E9/B6, Roland Cube 80XL, Telonics FP-100 Volume pedal with TMRS remote sensor (courtesy of Dave Beaty and Telonics)

Andy Henriksen · From: Michigan, USA

Super awesome! Smile

Jay Fagerlie · From: Lotus, California, USA

David-
"It sounds pretty thin and kind of "Brittle" "

You may have a partially shorted pickup or the magnet could need some attention.
Can you measure the resistance of the pickup?

I have a National from the same era, I'd never describe the sound as thin or brittle....you may have a problem there.

Terry VunCannon · From: Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

David, I agree with Jay...I would hardly ever call the tone of my Nationals as thin. I have owned half a dozen of them, to only keep the two players that I have. While these two sound the best of any of those, none really sounded thin. I string mine with 13 thru 52s which work well for open E or D, as well as G or A.

Terry VunCannon · From: Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

I also want to mention...did any of you notice at 1:27 into the video, that is Kristy Jackson, a songwriter & close friend that wrote "Take It Back" for Reba a few years back. She wrote a song for this project.
Also, my good friend and Blues Legend Bob Margolin plays some guitar on one of the tracks on the Healing Blues CD that will be out by October.

David Stilley · From: Santa Cruz, California, USA

The tone control is kind of wired funny in some of these 50's era Nationals from what I've read on some other threads here on the forum. I believe is was intended to mellow the tone without losing all the highs. When it's full open there's a high end emphasis that almost sounds like it's overdriving the pre-amp a bit (that's what I was trying to describe when I said "Brittle"). As you turn the tone control down it loses some highs but it just changes the spectrum a bit differently than most. The guy who had posted said a tech friend checked it out and said that they were trying some kind of innovations to set the guitar's tones apart from others. The tone control also only rotates about 1/4 turn where the volume control rotates the normal 80% or so. I can get it to sound good, I just have to radically change the EQ on my amp compared to my other lap steels.

I've seen some pictures of other Nationals from the same period that had a rotary switch just below the bridge that had 3 settings. I think it just did variations of caps and such that attached to the tone control because they only had 1 pickup I'm pretty sure.

By the way, I went to the reverb nation link and really enjoyed the song "I'm Walkin'" The singer has a real natural relaxed sound that I enjoyed. A real Blues singer, and good lyrics.
_________________
GFI Ultra U-12 7+5 E9/B6, Roland Cube 80XL, Telonics FP-100 Volume pedal with TMRS remote sensor (courtesy of Dave Beaty and Telonics)

Terry VunCannon · From: Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

Hey guys, here is an update on our homeless project as of today.
With 4 days left, the Indiegogo campaign has raised $4,315.00...we had raised $2000 before the recording began, and 2 weeks ago we had an anonymous donor pay $2000 to cover recording & CD costs. The CD will be out with a CD release Concert on Oct. 5th,and we will try to raise more money with the concert & CD sales after that.
I am really feeling good about this project and having a lot of fun, while making some music in the meantime.
So at this point, that's over $6000 plus to help the homeless, and growing we hope.

Forum Index > Steel Without Pedals		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: