Lance Rogers
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 25 Dec 2021 8:48 pm |
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Please help. I would love to add foot pedals and knee levers to my 80’S MSA Classic red wood psg. 39 years ago today my daddy got it from Reece and gave it to me as my Christmas present. I want the Travis Toy setup because of the broad range. I’m not in a place to purchase another instrument right now, but I have a 16 yo son who has expressed interest in learning. I’m not afraid trying to do this myself. Please PLEASE anyone have advice, videos, or maybe independently wealthy and wants to gift an instrument to a minister. Lol. Just kidding. All seriousness I am not scared of a challenge to bring my baby to her former glory with new bells and whistles. In all the years I have had her, Bud Carter is the only man to ever do anything with her.
Thank you. My contact number is 94zero two zero 7 1 one three 5
Thanks Lance[img] here a picture from around 10 years ago when my son was “playing”
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Dave Magram
From:
San Jose, California, USA
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Posted 27 Dec 2021 10:17 pm
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Lance,
I think that it is wonderful that your 16-year old son is interested in playing pedal steel guitar.
Are you open to a suggestion to help him achieve that with little financial cost?
I agree that Travis Toy is a fantastic player—but it is not because his steel guitar has a couple more pedals and knee levers than your MSA has.
Travis is a great player because he has mastered the picking and blocking techniques, has great intonation, has a mastery of the neck and where the musical “pockets” are hiding, is extremely knowledgeable on chord progressions and chord construction, and much, much more-- in his head.
●It is not about the number of pedals and knee levers he has—it is about how much time he was willing to spend—hundreds, maybe thousands of hours—practicing and learning “licks off of records”.
You do not need a lot of pedals and knee levers to play great music on a pedal steel:
●Tom Bumley’s legendary solo and fills in Buck Owens’ “Together Again” was played with just two pedals—pedals A and B shown in the diagram below.
●There are hundreds of examples of great players playing great solos and fills with just those two pedals.
●There are many hundreds of examples of great players playing great solos and fills with just those two pedals and one knee lever.
Check out this video:
Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms - Travis Toy - SWSGA Show 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTwpY3BBScc
From 0:42 to 1:40 minutes, it looks like Travis is only using his A and B pedals and two knee levers: LKL and LKR.
But boy oh boy, has Travis mastered his guitar neck and his picking & blocking techniques!
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The MSA guitar in your photo appears to have three pedals and three knee levers.
I would not be surprised if Travis started with a guitar that had fewer pedals and knee levers than your MSA does.
The basic “standard” 3-pedal, 3-knee lever setup that has been used by hundreds of excellent steel players for many years, including master players such as Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Lloyd Green, Doug Jernigan, Tom Brumley, etc. looks like this…
I would suggest that your son start with that setup—it should keep him busy for many, many years.
Just buy a new set of strings for about $10 or $12 from the SGF, give your son two fingerpicks and a thumbpick, and sign him up for Paul Franklin’s basic course, which I think is just $99 a year.
He may decide that pedal steel is just too difficult (as many, many excellent musicians have decided) and switch to another instrument.
If so, you’ve only spent about $115.
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On the other hand, maybe he will love it, and keep practicing the hundreds of hours needed to play reasonably well.
If so, once your son has mastered the many difficult techniques of playing a pedal steel (which often takes a year or more to do), has learned to play well enough to join a band (and make tens of dollars a year), he can save up a few hundred dollars and buy a couple more pedals and knee levers—if he really wants to.
Compare Travis’ set up chart below with the basic setup above—not that different, is it?
Here’s what Travis added (in RED)...
https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=323132&sid=5926f815df253340d952bbc704eeceae
- Dave |
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