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Topic: Skywriting |
Greg Vincent
From:
Folsom, CA USA
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 9:47 am |
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Hi folks,
I would like to freakin' skywrite the following message:
"If you're not sure what it is, just call it a steel guitar."
I wish I had a nickel for every know-it-all soundman who has referred to my PSG as a "lap steel" or has called my lap steel a "pedal steel". Aaarghh! I don't mind someone asking "what's that?", but it drives me nuts when some hipster assumes he's seen everything and tries to get fancy with his steel lingo. What's wrong with the term steel guitar? It covers all the bases. I wish I could just explain to all these people that --if you're not sure-- you don't need to qualify the word "steel" with any supposedly "informed" terms like "lap" or "pedal" or (gasp) "slide".
So I'm taking up a collection to hire Bobbe Seymour to skywrite my message across the skies of major cities throughout the U.S. --STARTING with L.A. so these tattooed ex-long-hair ex-metal hipsters can get their ducks in a row.
-whew-
Anybody in?
-Exasperated in L.A.
(No offense to any ex-long-hair ex-metal steel players out there  )[This message was edited by Greg Vincent on 12 August 2004 at 10:49 AM.] [This message was edited by Greg Vincent on 12 August 2004 at 10:58 AM.] |
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Mark Herrick
From:
Bakersfield, CA
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 10:12 am
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Better make sure he can spell all the words first...
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Walter Stettner
From:
Vienna, Austria
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 10:18 am
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Greg,
You're right! I heard Cindy Cashdollar being announced on the Prairie Home Companion Shows several times as "fine Pedal Steel Player". 
Looks like they have no idea what they are talking about!
Kind Regards, Walter
www.lloydgreentribute.com
www.austriansteelguitar.at.tf
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Greg Vincent
From:
Folsom, CA USA
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 10:40 am
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Mark:
Walter:
EXACTLY what I'm talking about. And the folks at Prairie Home Companion should know!
I dig PHC but Cindy Cashdollar deserves to be announced correctly.
(I'm sure she just smiles that wonderful smile regardless of what people call her instrument, which is the right thing to do but I just can't seem to manage that.)
[This message was edited by Greg Vincent on 12 August 2004 at 11:41 AM.] |
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Rick Schmidt
From:
Prescott AZ, USA
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 10:45 am
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| It's a "steel pedal" isn't it? |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 10:50 am
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| I play pedal steel guitar with an acrylic plastic bar. Is that a "plastic guitar?" |
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Greg Vincent
From:
Folsom, CA USA
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 11:01 am
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Rick: YES YES YES! There's a bunch of people out there who think the word "steel" modifies the word "pedal" which leads to the mistake you mentioned AND to the cousin of that mistake: omitting the supposed qualifying word ("steel") and referring to the instrument simply as a "pedal" --as in "turn up the pedal track". WHAT??? WHAT???
WRONG WRONG WRONG!
The qualifying word is "pedal", which modifies the basic term "steel", meaning you can ditch that qualifying word ("pedal") and just call it a "STEEL".
But that's too hard to skywrite.
Oh well... I should stop complaining. There are people in the world with real problems I guess. -GV
[This message was edited by Greg Vincent on 12 August 2004 at 12:03 PM.] |
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Greg Vincent
From:
Folsom, CA USA
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 1:08 pm
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David:
While the name "plastic guitar" IS silly, at least there is a logic to it.
I'm not sure what your point is though. My suggestion is to simplify the nomenclature of our instrument as much as possible for the benefit of the layperson, not to complicate the situation. The term "steel guitar" might not be completely accurate in all instances, but it seems to me to be the ONE term that would be the most accurate most of the time. -GV
I have learned to use italics --can you tell? [This message was edited by Greg Vincent on 12 August 2004 at 02:16 PM.] [This message was edited by Greg Vincent on 12 August 2004 at 02:17 PM.] |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 2:00 pm
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"Wow!, a double-decker table-slide". 
"Was it a Show~Boat, or an Emmisen?" |
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Joey Ace
From:
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 12 Aug 2004 5:55 pm
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My D-10 PSG has been called a "Slide Guitar" recently by a house sound man.  |
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Terry VunCannon
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 13 Aug 2004 5:06 am
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| Let us call it a "Manual Pitch Approximater". |
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Matt Hutchinson
From:
London, UK
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Posted 13 Aug 2004 5:23 am
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| You can call it what you like, it still wouldn't have stopped the sound guy at the Cambridge Folk Festival a couple of weeks ago trying to mic up my pedal steel from underneath the body!! |
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Glyn Bone
From:
Halifax.Nova Scotia. Canada * R.I.P.
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Posted 13 Aug 2004 8:35 am
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Matt....PLEEESE Tell us that was a JOKE!!!!!! surely no-one could be that dumb.....could they ???!!!!!!
Glyndwr |
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Al Vescovo
From:
Van Nuys, CA, USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 13 Aug 2004 8:39 am
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| Ernest Bovine plays a Steel Guitar with 8 pedals and a Piano with 3 pedals. |
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Roger Shackelton
From:
MINNESOTA (deceased)
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Posted 13 Aug 2004 8:55 am
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When the Zirconia Tone Bars were first introduced, the steel guitar became a "Horizontal Harp." ??
Roger |
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Greg Vincent
From:
Folsom, CA USA
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Posted 13 Aug 2004 10:06 am
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The PSG's lineage can be traced directly back to the guitar family. Its resemblance to a pedal harp is purely superficial.
The two instruments ended up sharing some similarities, but they did not start from the same place at all.
So the steel is in no way a harp. |
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Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
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Posted 13 Aug 2004 10:29 am
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I've seen a couple of former "steel" guitar players playing "plastic" guitars... I think it's going to get confusing...
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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com
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James Morehead
From:
Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.
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Posted 15 Aug 2004 3:17 pm
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| Ya'll think you got it so bad-------How about being announced as playing the "ironing board" contraption! |
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Matt Hutchinson
From:
London, UK
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Posted 16 Aug 2004 12:43 am
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Hi Glyn,
Sadly not. I did explain it might sound slightly better if he miked the amp instead of the undercarriage. In the end, the bass drum shook the stage so much my reverb springs went off with every beat so maybe he should have miked it underneath after all! |
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 19 Aug 2004 5:05 pm
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Surprised not to have seen this nomenclature posted here already: many band mates over the years loved introducing me as "And featuring John McClung on electric cheese slicer!"
Worse, when a bar patron asks what it is, and I jokingly call it an electric cheese slicer, an amazing number of them reply, "Really? Wow! How's it work?" Sheesh. |
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Jim Thompson
From:
Washington, Pa. USA
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Posted 19 Aug 2004 6:25 pm
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I've heard it called a macaroni machine. I almost got in a fight one time with a hippie sound man that wanted to run me through a direct box right out of the guitar. They really know their stuff don't they.
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Zum U-12 8&6
John Hughey's biggest fan
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Jerry Erickson
From:
Atlanta,IL 61723
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Posted 19 Aug 2004 7:29 pm
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A girl once said to me: "You're the keyboard player!"
Uhh... yeah, I guess so. |
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Dan Tyack
From:
Olympia, WA USA
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Posted 19 Aug 2004 10:20 pm
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[URL]I almost got in a fight one time with a hippie sound man that wanted to run me through a direct box right out of the guitar.[/URL]
Ask the sound guy if he would run Jimmmy Page direct through the PA.... |
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