The Accidental Non-pedal Steel Guitarist

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

We had a unexpected visitor at last night's Beats Walkin' performance at 118 North in Wayne, PA who played NON-pedal steel all night. It was ME!
As I unpacked my steel, I must have turned totally white in horror as I discovered that my pedal rack was not in the case, nor in my car, but undoubtedly still at home where I last left it. Our fiddler, Michael Salsburg, standing next to me, lost count of the number of times I exclaimed "OH. MY. GOD!" shaking my head in panic and wondering how the hell I was gonna get through a whole gig with no pedals. 😱😱😱

Mind you, the original western swingers all did it with no pedals. Lucky Oceans and Cindy Cashdollar play Texas swing sans pedals, as do many others. But I'm not one who has ever really invested the time to learn and master the techniques of the nonpedal players (forward and reverse bar slants, partial and rootless chord positions, altered tunings, etc.), preferring what I call "the lazy man's instrument", that gets all those voicings with pre-tuned pedals. So the prospect of playing without my crutches/pedals was daunting and I had no idea how I was gonna get through this gig.

Then it dawned on me -- hey I still have my KNEE LEVERS! For those who don't know, these hang down from the undercarriage of the instrument and function like extra pedals, but are actuated by moving your knees left, right, or upward. Since I play almost all C6 tuning with BW, my first important realization was that I had a left-knee-vertical that lowers my middle E (6th string) a whole step and if I backed off the tuner so it lowered it only a half step, it would function like my missing pedal 6 (except wouldn't raise the 2nd string too - so I'd have to avoid hitting that string in the wrong context. But it would at least give me a IV7 or IV9 without changing frets). That one change made the whole gig possible for me. I could also raise and lower my C's so that was helpful for the 3-above dominant 7 position and other nice moves, and I have knee levers to raise and lower my 4th & 8th string A's to Bb, so I had another open dom7 position available.

So I definitely had to stay alert and be mindful of what I could and could not do, and I couldn't just rely on muscle memory.

I must confess that, on a few occasions, I took advantage of the "bandleader's prerogative" and tossed the solo to another player when I just wasn't confident I could pull that section off myself. But most of the time, I just went for it and actually ended up having fun challenging myself to make acceptable music on the remaining half of the instrument I had remembered to bring along. 😁

I don't look forward to ever having to do that again on such short notice, but it was a great learning experience and good to know that I could do it, if I ever really needed to. Just don't ask me to play dobro when the electricity goes out! 😳😳😳
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Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

Such tales of heroism impress me but also give me nightmares.

From now on I shall wear my pedal rack on a string round my neck.
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Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Jeff Garden · From: Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA

Well done, Jimbeaux! I would have either had the big one and dropped dead on the spot or...hurriedly called the band together maintaining extra safe social distancing and told them I'd just received a call from my doctor and was told to quarantine immediately because I just came up positive on a COVID test. Then you hope nobody else in the band or in the crowd can fill in on steel and asks if they can borrow yours.

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Well, the rest of the story is that we did have our guitarist, Jim Fogarty, set up with a Fender Deluxe D8 to play on a few tunes. So, while we didn't play on the same tunes (I crossed over to underarm guitar), we did have two non-pedal steelers in the band last night!
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Larry Dering · From: Missouri, USA

What a crazy nightmare that had to be. My panic would have prevented me from functioning even with those available changes. You braved the odds and handled it in a professional manner. My hat's off to you Jim.

Skip Edwards · From: LA,CA

Don't feel too bad, Jim... Peter Freiberger showed up at a gig last week without his bar.
Sorry, Peter....

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Don R Brown · From: Rochester, New York, USA

Jim Fogarty · From: Phila, Pa, USA

I was on the gig with Jim, and I have to tell you in all honestly, only another steeler (like me) could tell he was missing anything. Jim has a pretty chord heavy style, and he couldn't quite do that as much, but his single note lines and solos were on the mark. I was seriously impressed.

He was also generous enough to have me play my Fender D-8 non-pedal on some things, while he played guitar, and I think those tunes sounded real good, as well.

All in all, it was a night that could've been rough (for multiple reasons), that we and the audience all had a blast at. That's what it's all about, right??

Well, that.......AND the groupies!! Devil

Larry Dering · From: Missouri, USA

Don, no video but it happened to me too. Lucky for a tool box and deep sockets. It works but not to my liking.

Floyd Lowery · From: Deland, Florida, USA

I showed up without my bar one night and was able to use a miniature whiskey bottle. It got me by, but I made sure I had my bar after that.
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Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Good survival story, Jim!

Couple years ago I showed up to an outdoor gig without my boots. I was wearing sandals cuz it was 9000° degrees out, finished setting up, and realized my footwear was missing. I’d never played in anything but cowboy boots, even practicing. Serious anxiety, but I eventually settled in to the fact there was no choice but to buck up and try to have a good time, which I did. But...BIG difference playing in Birkenstocks instead of Justins!

Gene Tani · From: Pac NW

Bob Womack · From: Virginia, USA

I showed up for a recording session with a regular electric guitar and was told they wanted lap steel. I laid the guitar across my lap and used a ceramic coffee mug as a bar! I found that both the smooth glazed sides and the unfinished non-slip ring on the bottom yielded different but usable sounds.

Necessity is the mother of strange bedfellows!

Bob
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Chris Templeton · From: The Green Mountain State

When I played dobro for Dan Hicks, I tuned it in C6th.
What I did often was just lower the bar to get the basic chord grips of pedals 5 & 6 and using the round nose of the bar to keep the upper strings in tune.
Pedal 5 chord grip with slant: 6th string lower with upper two strings- 2,3 & 5(lower)
Pedal 6 chord grip with slant: 6th string lower with upper two strings- 3, 4 & 6(lower)
After having these basics, the knee lever are frosting to me.
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Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Nice job, Jim! You're now a member of the non-pedal club. Smile

I've never forgotten my pedal rack, but I did forget my bar once and I had to use a beer bottle all night. Another time, I drove up to New Hampshire to play a regular guitar gig and I forgot my guitar! The singer kindly loaned me her acoustic/electric for the night and it sounded pretty good through my amp. Experiences like this build character! 😆
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Harry Teachman · From: South Dartmouth,Massachusetts, USA

Yep, did that few months ago !!!!
I have split cases and left the case with the pedal rack, pedal rods AND legs home. As the gig was an hour and a quarter one way from home, going back was out of the question. Luckily, there was an old piano stand in the back of the band trailer, so, that solved that problem. BUT, the stand did not allow using the knee levers, LOADS OF FUN !!!!!! Hey, it was an experience!

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

When I first got my Mullen SD10 (E9), I set up a lift kit on it the day of a gig, and decided to take it to the gig that night. But I left my pedal rods at home - I just forgot to put them back in the case. No way to go back and get them in time, so I just re-tuned strings 3, 5, 6, 9, and 10 to give a root-on-bottom 8-string A6 and played the gig.

Since then, I've done quite a few gigs with just a lap or console steel. These days, I generally take my 8-string Clinesmith cast aluminum and use it on some tunes. It's such a great sounding guitar - it definitely pushes me in some different directions.

Two weeks ago, the string 6 return spring on my pedal steel came loose between songs. I didn't know it until I started playing the next song. The spring actually fell off - I guess it had gradually worked itself loose over time - and the stage was too dark for me to even find it, much less fix it. So I played the rest of the gig on the Clinesmith - except for Gerry Rafferty's Right Down the Line, for which I had just learned the BJ Cole parts for pedal steel, and we were playing it out for the first time. I could not figure out how to translate that to non-pedal on-the-fly, so I just played it on guitar. Talk about a freakout, the sweat was pouring out of me.

Per Berner · From: Skovde, Sweden

...very amusing horror stories that I really don't want to experience myself. But luckily 99 times out of a hundred, no one in the audience will have a clue that something is wrong.

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