I Hate The Steel Guitar....

Zane King · From: Nashville, TN

I also love it. Very Happy

However, let me have a candid moment here with you my friends. I can't tell you how many times through the years that I simply look over at my steel (doesn't matter which one...it's not a brand thing) and think I think I'm going to come over there and cut the strings off and then I'm going to take an ax (not the musical kind) and cut you in you half. Then, I'm going to take you outside and light you on fire and stand there and grin. Whoa!

I guess that would be considered like murdering my steel guitar right. HA.

Now many of you are already saying, "why wouldn't you just sell it". Oh and get the blame for putting someone else through the same misery? I think not. LOL.

The truth is I'm telling you the truth here. I have a love/hate relationship with this thing called Pedal Steel Guitar. I get frustrated with the way it sounds. I mean one day I absolutely can't get enough and then the next I sit down to it and I can't even make sense of the sound. Getting these musical bicycles in tune is literally some sort of mathematical equation that evidently I haven't figured out in 35 years of playing it. I mean how many times can I twist and turn on these things. And let's talk for a moment about the actual playing the thing. I mean for real folks. It hurts me to play it. When I play a lot, I physically hurt most of the time from it. I can't hardly ever remember playing for one hour that didn't turn into aches and pains. I'm not joking. It's hard work. I feel like I would hurt less chomping firewood sometimes. Then don't get me started on all of the variations of the steel guitar. Are you kidding me? 10 string, 20 string, 12 string, 3 pedals, 30 pedals, knee levers, etc. You get my point! This darn thing is complicated. And even though I've settled in on my "version" of those strings, pedals and knee levers.....well guess what....I'm never happy. Ever time I play it, I think....ooh wah lah - what if I did this? or what if I did that? Never content. I'm convinced it's some sort of sickness that all of us steelies are diseased with. We are a crazy bunch I say.

So there you go! That's my uplifting and inspiring thought for the day. Laughing

I'd love to hear about your love/hate relationship with your steel guitar. Go.....
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Zane King
Email: zaneking@me.com

Jason Putnam · From: Tennessee, USA

Yes and you are one of the best players!! So guess how aggravating it is when you have these problems and you suck at playing!! It's even worse!!!
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Allen Hutchison · From: Kilcoy, Qld, Australia

Absolutely agree 100% Zane! Oh Well

Every single "new" tune I learn IS a painful process, but I still come back for more.
Then you get really really ill & start collecting the darn things! Laughing

Cheers from Oz.

Mike Archer · From: church hill tn

yeap
been there done that
it can be a great joy or a nightmare
we all have those days........
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John Butler · From: Warrior River, Alabama, USA

I have to agree, Zane. But I also have to agree with Jason and Allen. Every day I go through the same thing, and I don't play nearly as well as you.But I love playing more than anything I can think of. It truly is physical work to keep it sounding and playing well.(if it ever does) Add in the fact that I'm not young and strong any more, and that makes packing-up to go play somewhere, quite a chore. I tell folks, "it's like moving 2 rooms of furniture". But then I try to think of my life without it. No thanks! Be thankful that you can play so very well. And don't hack your guitar, hug it! John

John Coffman · From: Wharton,Texas USA

We are sick individuals who love pain and small pleasure. I just realized after 10 years I can finally tune this dang thing. Playing is in the ear of the listeners. To much bass to much treble. not enough tone. On and on. But I am extremely sick person so I try and try to make a joyful sound. I find it works best in the off position but on and on I play. God bless the boys who make the noise.
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Brett Day · From: Pickens, SC

I can usually tell if there is a difference in my playing because I feel that when my fingernails are sharp, my picks don't feel too comfortable, but after my fingernails are short again, my playing goes back to normal. I never worry about how fast or slow my pickin' is. The only time I get frustrated with my sound is when for some reason my amp appears to be on different settings other than the setting I use-on my amp, I use the Clean Steel setting with no reverb.

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Terry Winter · From: Saskatchewan, Canada

Boy I can really relate.....One time I'll be playing and it seems I only have about two intros and a small group of fills and phrases then another time It seems I can play anything(almost) that is thrown at me even being aggressive and clean with my C6th. All settings etc are the same, I guess it is the acoustics and my attitude eh?

Wally Taylor · From: Hardin, Kentucky, USA

Heck, I wish I could play well enough to have a love/hate with the thing!!

Randy Beavers · From: Lebanon,TN 37090

Me thinks this illness you refer to happens when you first change the strings on this beast. One of them will always "bite" you and inject its posion, like a viper. (Is there really a way to change strings and NOT draw blood?) And of course from there we are all under its spell. Like moths to a flame, hypnotized by the Vampire... We're doomed by the "Prince of $####xxx Darkness!"

But then maybe this disease is but blood poisioning brought on by metal allergies. We all have the "track" marks left on the most sensitive parts of our fingers. How many of you have left blood splatter liken to a crime sceen after changing that .011 in the heat of battle. CSI could do a whole show based on my guitar. Where's the luminol?

But Zane our mentor, Zane Beck made the guitar submit to his will. Kinda like the movie, "I brought you into this world and I can take you out! Then I'll make another one looks just like you. Any questions?"

Time to go to bed. I can't look at my guitar any more tonight. Ah, but in the morning, new ideas there for the taking...

Zane King · From: Nashville, TN

Randy my friend you nailed it! That's exactly what's happening. When you first change a string and it bites you as it so often doesâ€¦.BAM! You are infected. I'll be re-reading your postâ€¦.a few times! Very Happy

Mike P - you crack me ol' friend.

Fun stuff guys! And some honesty too. LOL.

ZK
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Lyle Dent · From: Little Rock ,Arkansas

Zane:
Auditory response is a funny thing. Everyone hears very differently. The ultra trained ear thinks it's terrible when the lay person thinks it's great. I think sound evolves in a player from all his or her experience. Do you think Perlman wanted to sound like Grappelli or Emmons like Mooney or Chet like Les. Obviously you and Randy were trained by the best and each have you own styles that you have perfected over the years. I'm sure both have fans that did not enjoy some of the early stuff but now are buying every CD. Most of us just try to reproduce the sound but players like you create. So I think it was just Monday and by the end of the week a new blessing will appear .
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Lyle Dent · From: Little Rock ,Arkansas

Zane:
Auditory response is a funny thing. Everyone hears very differently. The ultra trained ear thinks it's terrible when the lay person thinks it's great. I think sound evolves in a player from all his or her experience. Do you think Perlman wanted to sound like Grappelli or Emmons like Mooney or Chet like Les. Obviously you and Randy were trained by the best and each have you own styles that you have perfected over the years. I'm sure both have fans that did not enjoy some of the early stuff but now are buying every CD. Most of us just try to reproduce the sound but players like you create. So I think it was just Monday and by the end of the week a new blessing will appear .
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Clark Doughty · From: KANSAS

Hi Zane,
I can't believe that someone who can play as well as you do can say the things you are saying, but I guess I have to because I know you don't lie.
I have been at this effort of learning the steel for four yearsand have gotten so frustrated that I've sold almost everything I had relating to steel because when it gets to be more frustrating than some minuseule amount of pleasure it's time to go on to something else.
Tommy Dodd's T shirt sums it up....You can't fake this sound!
So I hope you continue your love/hate relationship so the rest of us can enjoy your masterful playing........ Very Happy

Jim Lindsey (Louisiana) · From: Greenwell Springs, Louisiana (deceased)

Since my stroke a few months ago, typing is a slow and difficult process for me, so I'm not as quick as I used to be to jump into a thread and participate, but this is such a fun one, I couldn't resist.

Where do I even begin with my steel love/hate relationship? I can't say I've ever been tempted to cut my strings off, hack my guitar into firewood or light it ablaze (such a thought is going to make me have nightmares when I go to sleep tonight) ... but ... I have been tempted to turn my back and give my steel the cold shoulder from time to time.

First, there's always that elusive sound you hear in the back of your mind that, no matter what, seems to always escape ... oh, I get close to it at times, but never seem to achieve my quest for that perfect sound I hear deep inside. Even more frustrating is when I hear someone else play and just happen to hear that very elusive sound I'm looking for ... and end up thinking, "Now, why can't I get that sound?"

The blood-letting during string changing is something I take as an axiom ... it seems to always happen. Then there are the aches & pains after playing awhile ... oh, yeah, I know that feeling all too well. Then there are those horrible moments when (and I know I'm not the only one this has ever happened to) where you're happily playing along and suddenly, when you press a knee lever (either right knee left, or left knee right) you're immediately in a panic not to mess up your licks while blinding pain makes you dizzy as it surges through your body because, somehow in the process of pushing that knee lever, you've managed to mash one of the family jewels ... OUCH!

How about the mysterious paradox where you feel tired or generally like crap, but you go in and play, the night gets recorded and you dread hearing the tape, but find a pleasant surprise ... everything is right on and sounds great ... BUT ... you also have that night when the reverse is true; you feel great, energetic, full of vim-n-vigor and you're ready to play, you do the gig (which is also recorded), you can't wait to hear the tape later ... then you do and have the shock of finding that, while you thought you'd played your butt off that night, the tape says you couldn't play your way out of a paper bag! Oh, no! Perception can be a tricky, sometimes kind, sometimes cruel, thing.

Oh, and that new-string syndrome ... how many times have any of us changed our strings and couldn't wait to play on them only to find the A/C system at the venue decided to cycle every five minutes ... one moment it's blazing hot, the next it's freezing cold and back-n-forth; the new strings doing anything but holding tune, feeling more like barbed wire than anything and it feels you're consigned to spend more time tuning on the fly than actually playing?

Then, if you're like me, there's the "add another knee lever or pedal" thing ... always feeling that another strategically placed pedal or knee lever will help to achieve more out of your steel ... you end up with 10 floor pedals, 10 knee levers, your guitar weighs in like an aircraft carrier, you find after playing this 10 & 10 contraption that you've become quite the contortionist, there's only so much room for expansion on a steel and still the thirst for more pulls creeps up ... hmmmn, I wonder what adding a wrist lever would do for me? OMG! Whoa!

Is there no end? LOL Over the years I've learned to be content with an 8 & 7 setup, but I have to admit that the idea of a fully loaded guitar still intrigues and entices me.

I think, for me, the love/hate relationship really kicks in where personal injuries are concerned. Years ago I suffered an injury that caused permanent severe radial and ulnar nerve damage in my right hand/arm. It all but destroyed me as a steel player, but I began overcoming it ... it took from 2009 until 2013 to do it, but I'd gotten to where regular tempo songs and ballads were no issue to play, and had even begun to get a little speed picking back in my playing as well ... then I had that stroke in February of this year.

My left arm & leg became as useless as a couple of rubber hoses. I've been recovering from that, but still cannot play. I can't get my left foot to go to the E9th pedals, so the plan is to have the C6th neck on my guitar converted to E9th so I can use pedals 5, 6 & 8 as the E9th A, B & C pedals. Pedal 4 will become a Franklin pedal and I'm still trying to come up with an idea for pedal 8. I was going to try doing the conversion myself, but my left hand doesn't want to cooperate in working on my guitar, so I'm going to have to get someone like Mickey Adams to do it for me.

In the meantime, steel for me is like having an itch that cannot presently be scratched. I dug out all my old recordings and I fill my days listening to them (playing this invisible steel in my head) so that I don't forget all the old licks and phrases and such.

There's more I could example, Zane, as far as my loves of steel and frustrations with it as well, but my left hand is wearing out; gotta stop. I've never previously thought of it as a love/hate relationship, but you're right, Zane. It really is in many ways.
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Chris Grotewohl · From: Kansas City (Roeland Park)

In my humble opinion, The PSG is a pain in the A, at least in mine. Love/hate?. Always been in love with the thing, the PSG has never felt mutual however. Been at it for 30 yrs now. Feeling like a accomplished musician at times, sit down at the steel, I find that I'm not. I can hold my own on other stringed instruments, the steel, no. I'm on my 7th and last steel right now, a 2013 Rittenberry 4 by 5 and it has inspired me to keep on. I know I will never master this thing like some. At the same time, it is just the coolest, most challenging instrument out there and most folks who don't play steel, are clueless on its complexity. Most folks, including musicians who don't play steel, seem to associate this to country bumpkin stuff and are just ignorant, Sorry, I'm a banjo dude by trade... My 2 cents on this great thread Zane.

Bo Legg · Posted 9 Sep 2014 6:40 pm

The love hate reaction is synonymous with self loathing when you encounter occasional short periods of poor performance.
With the realization if it is not addressed, what folks use to 'expect' of your playing will become something to 'inspect'.
They will be nice and condone it but you understand the dirty little secret the word â€œcondoneâ€ really means â€œcondemnâ€ and that is the driving force behind the momentary anger.
Bo Legg "Love or hate my playing they still pay me!
That's the only kind of Love Hate I care about."

Niels Andrews · From: Salinas, California, USA

That is why I call it the "Humiliator ". If you don't know what I mean, you haven't been there or you are really gifted or ?
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John De Maille · From: On a Mountain in Upstate Halcottsville, N.Y.

The Pedal Steel Guitar !!!!!! I just, no bones about it, love this thing to death! Besides my wife, it is the most treasured thing to my heart. Several times, that, I thought I'd never play again brought a form of mental depression to me. Three times I've been physically ill and one time was a bad accident. I thought it was over for me. But, I believe that, the desire to play again helped me through it all. Then, there are times, when, nothing I play makes me happy and I want to pack it in, but, I come to the conclusion that, it's the surroundings or the mood I'm in. It can be affected by your surroundings and certainly can be affected by your mood. I've never hated it, though. I've hated the fact that, I've been hampered by my lack of expertise on it and that, I just can't get that damn phrase I want to play. I always think that there's some mystical, magical trick I can't find and hopefully I'll stumble on it. It's An Extremely Difficult Instrument to play at times. Just when I think I've got it all together, it all falls apart. Jeez this thing can be frustrating! But, I have to tell you, that, it one of the best things that ever happened to me, learning to play the Steel Guitar and still learning to this day after 39 years. Whew! What a ride! So many ups and downs. I've also come to the conclusion, that, we're all just a little nuts to commit to this thing so adamantly. But, I've been told that, there a fine line between insanity and genius. Ha! Ha!
So. I'm going to continue to torture myself everyday and play the steel until I drop dead. It's definitely a love- hate situation that plays tricks on your mind. Oh well, I've got to return my crayons now. Good luck all you maniacs!

james sluder · From: Tennessee, USA

Mark van Allen · From: Watkinsville, Ga. USA

I've always been fascinated how, when I'm playing as well as I'm able, and having a night when I'm at the top of my game, no one says anything to me, but when I'm clamming left and right and just not in synch with the muse, that's when I'm getting compliments left and right, and the band thinks "that's the best you've ever sounded!"
Many years ago I almost quit playing over frustration that I just couldn't do this beautiful instrument justice, and I'm glad I didn't. I don't worry any more about how good I am or am not, I just enjoy the journey and the joys of playing on a good session or a night when the band is hittin' it. Being able to play music in an ensemble of talented friends is a real gift from the universe.
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Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

Zane, I like your playing. You squeeze emotion out of each passage. Like any other instrument, you have to walk away from it for a while to come back fresh. It helps to play other instruments as well, keep the nervous system balanced out. I can hear steel licks in my head. Now getting them out of the guitar is a whole 'nudder algorithm.
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Jana Lockaby · From: Kaufman, TX

If you weren't a drinker before you started, you will wish you were not long after.
What about the effects on your family? My husband is very supportive, but even he had a limit, after about three hours of "The Steel Guitar Rag", over, and over, and over, well, now I know how to get him out of the house. lol
Can someone, please, explain, why strings that were at least 10 years old, could sound so much better than a brand new set? Hmm, must be why they kept telling me, "don't change them until they break.", and I thought it was just because they didn't want to change them for me.
Oh, yes, I love it when someone tells me something I played sounded good, and I immediately think,seriously? They, apparently, did not hear what I just heard. Glad it isn't just me. I've come to the conclusion, that I'm, just, never going to be satisfied with what I hear myself playing. There is, however, the exception, when you are at home, with no one around, and, oh, yes, just knock it out of the park, play it perfect, and have no one but the cat to witness the greatest moment of your playing life. sheesh, not even a meow in appreciation.

Zanex anyone, tequila? Kidding, I love it so much, I think I'll just go practice. Maybe, just torcher the cat a little with my beautiful tone and touch. . That's what she gets for her lack of enthusiasm. Thanks for the encouragement, and motivation to keep at it.

Rich Peterson · From: Moorhead, MN

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