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Topic: pedal steel |
Richard Lester
From:
Constable, New York, USA
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Posted 1 Dec 2004 6:23 am |
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| Can anyone tell me when,and who was the first steel player to use pedals on the steel and what make of guitar were they installed on? I've been asked to do a presentation of the pedal steel guitar at one of our local schools, wish me luck. |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Spicewood TX 78669
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Posted 1 Dec 2004 6:29 am
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My guess would be Alvino Rey in the late 30's, but I wasn't born until 1947 so my personal experience with it is lacking.  Al Marcus would know, fer sure. |
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Dr. Hugh Jeffreys
From:
Southaven, MS, USA
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Posted 1 Dec 2004 6:49 am
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| Alvino's first psg in on display at the Smithsonian Inst. (DC) encased in glass. It was fabricated by he and a machinist (named Mason?) That would be a good place to start,then follow the manufacturers like Gibson (Electraharp). ----j---- |
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Dave Potter
From:
Texas
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Posted 1 Dec 2004 8:03 am
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<< I've been asked to do a presentation of the pedal steel guitar at one of our local schools, wish me luck.
Absolutely, Good Luck!
I'm just so pleased there are still folks out there who *don't* know about our instrument, and actually might want to learn about it. |
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Brett Day
From:
Pickens, SC
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Posted 1 Dec 2004 11:04 am
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| In the 1950's, Webb Pierce recorded a song called "Slowly" featuring Bud Isaacs on pedal steel. The pedal steel became popular in the 50's. Bud Issacs was the first steel player to use pedals on a steel guitar. Brett, Emmons S-10, Morrell lapsteel |
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Rick Schmidt
From:
Prescott AZ, USA
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Posted 1 Dec 2004 12:01 pm
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Actually Brett and Richard...Bud Isaacs was the first on a recording to use the "bending" sound that we've all come to know as the pedal steel sound. There were steels with pedals before that, but they were used just to change the basic open tunings. This was originally an idea to expand the harmonic possibilities of the more limited lap steel.
They would mostly just press the pedal and hold it to get a different chord, not play phrases with pedaled moving notes. |
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Bill Ford
From:
Graniteville SC Aiken
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Posted 1 Dec 2004 2:39 pm
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The players with Hank Thompson were the first that I remember using pedal changes that you could hear,not the A/B pedal but the C6,or whatever tuning they used, also Alvino Rey,but I don't remember his style too much.
Bill |
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Al Marcus
From:
Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)
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Posted 1 Dec 2004 7:10 pm
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Richard Lester-Herb is right about Alvino Rey. Dr. Hugh Jefferys knows about Alvino too.
First he put 2 or 3 pedals on the right end of his Gibson Console Grande D9 guitar.
I saw him at a dance and watched him all night.I was 15 and he was 29.
He had the guitar on a Vibrophone stand with big wheels and had a metal cover that went over the whole thing for traveling.
The next time I saw him he was playing the 6 pedal Electra-Harp. After watching him play all those big chords with his band. I had to have one.
He actually helped develop the first viable pedal guitar with the commercial Gibson Electra_Harp with 6 pedala and 8 strings.
The pedals were on the left peghead side and you had to turn a little sideways to play it.
We used E6 tuning on it. It is true that pedals then were more or less used for chords, but we moved your C6 P7 in and out a lot and P5 and P6 in and out too so it was somewhat moveable. Just think this was like 62 years ago.
List price was $450. The changer was a wonderful idea.(
(Fender PS-210 came out in 1972 with the same changer,(( Gene Fields did a great job designing it,)) only the pedals were straight in front like now.))
Any tuning was possible with just moving a screw in a different tapped hole.
That means no tools were needed, you didn't need to send it away for a setup.
Any player could do it all from the top side.
There is a picture of it In an adv for it on my Website.
John Moore, Wilbur Marker and Alvino were the main figures responsible for Developing the guitar. These were the guys that I officailly met. I might have been introduced to others, but I don't remember who. A fascinating pedal steel story of the past.
Multi-Kord came out with pretty much the same changer, but not near the quality guitar of the original Electra-Harp in my opinion.
They had a Patent fight on the changer, but I don't know who won.
I played it for about 10 years and hundreds of jobs on mine , and for what was out there at the time, it was just fine.
I can't believe so much time has passed. Dec 10th is my birthday, and some of you know how old I am. But I'm still "Young in Heart"......al 
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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/
[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 01 December 2004 at 07:21 PM.] |
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Dr. Hugh Jeffreys
From:
Southaven, MS, USA
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Posted 1 Dec 2004 9:15 pm
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| For Al Marcus - Al you have a very nice and impressive website and an interesting musical history. Also---about Alvino--his promo material always referred to his "steel" as his CONSOLE GUITAR which obviously seperated him from the Hawaiian or Hillbilly music of the day. By the way, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville has much UNDOCUMENTED and ERRONEOUS information en re the PEDAL steel ----j---- |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 2 Dec 2004 5:27 pm
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| Quote: |
| Bud Isaacs was the first on a recording to use the "bending" sound that we've all come to know as the pedal steel sound. |
Yeah, that's what I'd always thought, too. But in looking at Al Marcus' web site, I noticed the old Gibson ad, and it states...
| Quote: |
| Whole phrases can be blended together without breaking the continuity of tone. You can pick the strings just once and the foot pedals will bring in chord changes and progressions that flow together like voices in a choir. |
Now, I'm thinking...this ad is from the early '40s, when Gibson introduced their Electraharp. So, since the pedals were clearly intended to create moving tones (at least, that's what the ad says), why didn't anyone do it (on a recording) before Bud Issacs did it on "Slowly" in 1954?
Enquiring minds would like to know!  |
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Dr. Hugh Jeffreys
From:
Southaven, MS, USA
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Posted 3 Dec 2004 3:11 pm
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| For Donny - I use pedals to change ENTIRE chord structures as I did with my MultiKord back in the early 50's. One pedal can change as many as 5 strings. Also I can expand chord progressions by engaging two knee levers and two pedals at the same time.Alvino uttilized the same concept, however, his chords were limited because he used a thumb pick to strum strings that were close to each other whereas I spread all 5 fingers to execute certain chord progressions. ----j---- |
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David Doggett
From:
Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
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Posted 3 Dec 2004 8:52 pm
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| The "moving tone" that Bud Isaacs first recorded so effectively on "Slowly" is technically referred to as a "pedal gliss." Believe it or not, pedal harp players have made occassional use of the pedal gliss long before steel guitars existed. I'm like Donny - why didn't steelers record a pedal gliss before Bud? If someone comes up with an early recording of a pedal gliss, it will be historically interesting, but I don't think it will seriously detract from the fact that Bud Isaacs was the first to use it on a big hit record and thus popularize it. Possibly it has to do with the use of a volume pedal to give the kind of steady sustain that makes the pedal gliss so effective. I'm not sure Alvino and the early pedal guitar players used a volume pedal in this way. Al Marcus can probably enlighten us on that. I know that before Bud, some lap steel players used a volume pedal for sustain, but not all of them. Obviously Bud did, and that was an integral part of his pedal gliss sound. If Bud had not been so effective with his pedal gliss and volume pedal control, the idea might not have caught on in the big way it did. When I listen to slowly and Bud's other early pedal steel hits with Webb Pierce, I still get goose bumps. It is hauntingly beautiful and unforgettable. |
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Al Marcus
From:
Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)
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Posted 4 Dec 2004 9:41 pm
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David-I alsways used a volume pedal on lap steel and D8 non pedal, but hardly ever used it on the 6 pedal Electra-Harp Console guitar.
But I did use it when bar crashing, When playing songs like "Idaho" , "St.Louis Blues" etc.and boo wah and making it talk, with the tone control , like" Mama Blues". But it is true that on the standard pop and jazz tunes, I had each foot cover two pedals.When Webb Pierce made that hit record"slowly", and Bud Isaacs did his new thing. I had a music store and sold like a ton of those records.Couldn't keep them in stock.
I didn't think much about it at the time, I never thought it would start a whole new way of playing and the birth of the legendary E9 tuning as we know it now. C6,A6,E6 was still the tunings of the day then. So I still kept to my E6-E13 at the time.
By the way, has anyone heard Dr.Hugh Jeffreys' CD. This is some fantaxtic unusual steel guitar. He is right about Alvino, using a thumb pick and strummed his chords,.He alternated between this Console Guitar and 6 string guitar that he had up on a stand so he could stand behine it and put his arms around it and play a few measures, then sit down on the steel and play steel parts. He did not change his pick , he didn't have time, so just used the guitar pick, sometimes a thumb pick for both guitars.He was a very talented musician and did you know he had a lot to do with designing the elctronic pickups used on the Gibson Les Paul guitar!...al
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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/
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