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Topic: Steel guitar thriving and doing well !! |
Ken Byng
From:
Southampton, England
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 7:17 am |
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Just to counteract some of the doom and gloom posts that are trying to sound the death knell of steel guitar.
Just think about this;
This forum has nearly 11,000 members and is maintaining its membership.
The British steel forum is increasing its membership with new players coming on board.
The Steel Guitar Network and the European Steel Guitar forum are both thriving.
A number of steel guitar manufacturers have orders on their books for at least 12 months. Steel guitar refurbishers and repairers also have done well over the past couple of years. Bobbe Seymour told me on my last visit to his store that he can't buy enough quality used guitars at the moment.
I think that steel guitar players will still be around in 25 years time, and technology will ensure that new guitars will be mechanically better than ever. It will always be a niche instrument, but its mystique is part of its attraction. It certainly is not dependant upon country music for its survival, although country does cycle in terms of its appeal.
I cannot understand the negativity and despondency by some on this forum.
_________________
Show Pro D10 - amber (8+6), MSA D10 Legend XL Signature - redburst (9+6), Sho-Bud Pro 111 Custom (8+6), Emmons black Push-Pull D10 (8+5), Zum D10 (8x8), Hudson pedal resonator. Telonics TCA-500, Webb 614-E, |
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Jim Hollingsworth
From:
Way out West
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 8:26 am
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Amen brother!!!
Jim |
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Andy Sandoval
From:
Bakersfield, California, USA
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 8:56 am
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Why did Doo-Wop have to die???  Just kiddin Ken, you took the words right oughta my mouth. |
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Joe Miraglia
From:
Jamestown N.Y.
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 10:16 am
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| Andy Sandoval wrote: |
| Why did Doo-Wop have to die??? Just kiddin Ken, you took the words right oughta my mouth. |
I always thought that there was a place for steel guitar ,that it would fit right in with Doo- Wop,but the steel was big in country music and didn't cross over. Joe
www.willowcreekband.com |
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Fred Shannon
From:
Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 10:28 am
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ken, thanks for the post. Warm beer, wet toilet paper, and folks who don't really know what's happening in the steel world will just have to cry on each other's shoulder, I refuse to join the funeral procession after 63 years of playing. So you folks just have at it. i don't care.  
ole phred
_________________
There are only two defining forces that have offered to die for you; Jesus Christ and the American GI!!
Think about it!! |
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Jaclyn Jones
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 10:35 am
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I draw the line a Hip Hop steel!
PSG is alive in Galeveston, Tx!
_________________
http://www.myspace.com/jaclynjones
http://www.youtube.com/user/jackiej1950
Lots of guitars, banjos, mandos and a Mullen G2-D10,PAC D10, 1966 Marlen D10,Line6 x3 Pro, Peavey Powerslide, Michael Kelly Dobro and a "Fox Vintage Amp" model 5F8A. Oh Yea, a very patient husband. |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 10:47 am
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| Steel guitar is like the Confederacy, once quite big and then it got beat down, leaving only a shadow of it's former popularity, but still having it's diehards today and gaining a few converts along the way. Wave your freak flag high! |
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CrowBear Schmitt
From:
Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 10:50 am
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Ken, when it comes to the European Steel Guitar forum, i find "thriving " to be quite exaggerated
unfortunately, considering 419 members, imo, it's a deadbeat forum - there's hardly anything goin' on there - very few members actually post
the admin & mods don't do very much to keep the joint jumpin'
whereas the individual European countries that have their own forums are much more active
otherwise i pretty much agree w: your topic Ken |
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Bent Romnes
From:
London,Ontario, Canada
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 11:12 am
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Let's not forget the Steel Guitar Builders' Forum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLLC11chLp0
With 360 members where the vast majority are active building a lap or pedal steel, or parts for same.
With that many members in just the building end of it, I assert that steel is neither dead nor dying but alive and well.
Then we have the steel guitar forums that have sprung up, not only in Britain, or the European one but also in small countries like France, Sweden - and Norway with its 111 members. Not bad for a country of 5 millon people.
Sure, interest for steel might have dropped off in your own little county but if we open our eyes to the big picture (the world) we will see that steel is alive and well.
As proof to what I am talking about... in 6 weeks I will be taking my newly-built steel with me to deliver in Norway. I will be attending "Kvalsvik Days" one weekend. This is taking place on a collection of small islands in the North Sea. The main attraction for this county's celebration is , yes you guessed it: The Pedal Steel Guitar! with David Hartley, Fran Allum and John Stannard as the featured artists.
Steel Guitar dying?? Not on your life!
_________________
BenRom Pedal Steel Guitars
https://www.facebook.com/groups/212050572323614/ |
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Paul Sutherland
From:
Placerville, California
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 11:26 am
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| Accordions and banjos haven't died out, but they are certainly not main-stream instruments. It seems to me that steel guitar has somewhat similar status. We don't get much respect, but we do have our fans. |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 11:36 am
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Kudos, Ken...
One ofthe best things the PEDAL steel guitar does have is it's mystique.
I'm always mystiqued by it; even after playing 36 years.
That's the way it should be, IMHO. Never show all your cards. I'm glad, in a way, that the steel is as hard an instrument to play as it is; and play well. 
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 4:33 pm
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| No instrument ever dies out. As new ones come along they supplement those already around. One of the things that sustains interest is the growing population. For instance, if there are four times as many people on Earth as there were fifty years ago, there only needs to be a quarter the percentage of population liking the steel guitar to maintain the same number of appreciators as there were then. |
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William Beverly
From:
California, USA
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 5:43 pm
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| Where is this funeral dirge comming from? Out here in the Far West I see growth in players and interest. More alternative artists, blues players, folk and country bands are incorporating pedal steel. My son works for a record company in Holywood and he is always forwarding me new videos of younger artists using pedal in nontraditional ways. Chleck out ALO (Big Appetite) and Jack Johnson. Also both Jack White and his sister (together formerly White Stripes) have pedals in their new groups. The trouble out here has been finding players, so "Teach Your Children". And Kudos to the Southwest Steel Guitar Assoc. for offering free lessons to anyone under 30. |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 6:26 pm
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Well, it's easy to go online and spend six, eight, twenty hours finding evermore examples of steel guitar being used in evermore interesting ways; it's equally easy to venture out among the great unwashed and find that huge swaths of people have no idea what one even is. There would appear to be a great lack of actual statistical fact to support either end of the assertion. But I know I'm right.  |
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Clete Ritta
From:
San Antonio, Texas
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Posted 18 Jun 2011 10:16 pm Re: Steel guitar thriving and doing well !!
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| Ken Byng wrote: |
| ...I think that steel guitar players will still be around in 25 years time... |
I just got started, but I am having too much fun to stop now. I figure by 2036 I'll be pretty good at this thing. Hows that for a long term goal?
Clete |
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Ken Byng
From:
Southampton, England
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Posted 19 Jun 2011 1:10 am
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Clete - there will be you and many others to prove the doom mongers incorrect. The trouble is that many of them (plus myself) won't be around to see it. 
| William Beverly wrote: |
| Where is this funeral dirge comming from? |
William - just check out some recent threads on the subject in this forum. Your post is refreshing, especially the piece on lessons for the younger players. Just what is needed.
_________________
Show Pro D10 - amber (8+6), MSA D10 Legend XL Signature - redburst (9+6), Sho-Bud Pro 111 Custom (8+6), Emmons black Push-Pull D10 (8+5), Zum D10 (8x8), Hudson pedal resonator. Telonics TCA-500, Webb 614-E,
Last edited by Ken Byng on 19 Jun 2011 1:17 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 19 Jun 2011 1:14 am
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David Mason...
Hiya Dave,
Gosh, I always look forward to reading your proponents and/or replies. They are usually right-on.
Gotta say, tho, your previous reply left me hangin'.
Really don't know where you're comin' from.  
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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Roual Ranes
From:
Atlanta, Texas, USA
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Posted 19 Jun 2011 5:49 am
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| Although I am not what I call a pro, I never thought of the pedal steel as "just country". Every group that I have ever been in played anything they could. I hear a lot about "just plain country"...never saw it survive as a week-end group....too much of a mix of people in the fraternal, military and private clubs. |
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Dave Hopping
From:
Aurora, Colorado
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Posted 19 Jun 2011 8:01 am
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| Yup.People just love steel when they hear it live.Of course,they're not likely to hear steel outside of a country song,which genre seems impossibly declasse to the truly hip.Their choice,their loss. |
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Bob Russell
From:
Virginia, USA
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Posted 19 Jun 2011 8:20 am Re: Steel guitar thriving and doing well !!
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| Ken Byng wrote: |
I think that steel guitar players will still be around in 25 years time, and technology will ensure that new guitars will be mechanically better than ever. It will always be a niche instrument, but its mystique is part of its attraction. It certainly is not dependant upon country music for its survival, although country does cycle in terms of its appeal.
I cannot understand the negativity and despondency by some on this forum. |
My personal position: as long as I'm breathing, it ain't gonna die. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 19 Jun 2011 9:10 am
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The Steel Guitar is much more available now. As a youth in England I could only hear them on records; I'd never seen one in the flesh. In fact all my lap steels were home made, and since I didn't have a machine shop I didn't have a pedal steel. It wasn't until I moved to California in 1980 that I was able to actual get my hands on one, and I couldn't afford one until about 2000.
In Britain, Australia and New Zealand, trade restrictions prevented the import of American instruments. I remember reading somewhere that by 1980 there were only three pedal steel guitars in the whole of New Zealand.
Nowadays, as long as you have the money, you can buy almost any obscure instrument from anywhere in the world. |
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Bo Legg
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Posted 19 Jun 2011 10:07 am
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Some equate pointing out a problem or challenging conventional wisdom as negativism.
The not-too-subtle message from these same forum guardians against high expectations is as always accentuate the positivism and eliminate the negativism, cross your fingers, keep your hopes up, attitude alone will slowly change things for the better and we’ll all feel like a basket full of fuzzy warm kittens in the process.
In fact, this piece of conventional wisdom is historically wrong.
History shows that real change is possible, but only if people are informed and engaged. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 19 Jun 2011 10:17 am
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| Quote: |
Some equate pointing out a problem or challenging conventional wisdom as negativism.
The not-too-subtle message from these same forum guardians against high expectations is as always accentuate the positivism and eliminate the negativism, cross your fingers, keep your hopes up, attitude alone will slowly change things for the better and we’ll all feel like a basket full of fuzzy warm kittens in the process.
In fact, this piece of conventional wisdom is historically wrong. |
Oddly enough, I agree with Bo on this one, even though I still like fuzzy, warm kittens. |
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Ken Byng
From:
Southampton, England
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Posted 19 Jun 2011 10:38 am
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| Bo Legg wrote: |
Some equate pointing out a problem or challenging conventional wisdom as negativism.
The not-too-subtle message from these same forum guardians against high expectations is as always accentuate the positivism and eliminate the negativism, cross your fingers, keep your hopes up, attitude alone will slowly change things for the better and we’ll all feel like a basket full of fuzzy warm kittens in the process.
In fact, this piece of conventional wisdom is historically wrong.
History shows that real change is possible, but only if people are informed and engaged. |
My fingers are firmly uncrossed, My hopes are always set at a realistic level as is my attitude. Some of the nonsense that gets spouted here from so-called researchers about the death of steel guitar caused by country music is almost laughable. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and this thread is merely taking an anti pessimistic view.
Thanks to those forumites who have sent very articulate and balanced PM's to me on this subject.
_________________
Show Pro D10 - amber (8+6), MSA D10 Legend XL Signature - redburst (9+6), Sho-Bud Pro 111 Custom (8+6), Emmons black Push-Pull D10 (8+5), Zum D10 (8x8), Hudson pedal resonator. Telonics TCA-500, Webb 614-E, |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 20 Jun 2011 9:04 am
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I've never thought the steel guitar was ever in any danger.  |
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