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Topic: Can a guy play a reasonable copy of this on a lap steel? |
Mike McBride
From:
Indiana
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 8:12 am |
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Can a guy play a reasonable copy of this on a lap steel?
I'm a novice but would love to play this crying style at the local country jam session on my $200 rig which is very easy to haul. It consists of an Epiphone guitar with a raised nut in open E, a 40-year-old Peavey Backstage 30 watt amp with Saturation and Reverb. I also have a variety of effects pedals and a volume pedal.
So far I am mostly playing David Lindley-style solos from his Jackson Browne days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWJ2ur1tPWE |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 9:00 am
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| No. |
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Noah Miller
From:
Rocky Hill, CT
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 9:05 am
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| I'd have to say no as well, at least without some kind of pitch bending mechanism. And while I haven't played all of the pitch benders out there, none of the palm-driven devices I have tried would give you that level of fluidity. |
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Glenn Wilde
From:
California, USA
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 10:57 am
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| Maybe you want a pedal guitar, that had every pedal'ism available in it. No lap steel does that really, even with benders imo. |
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Mike McBride
From:
Indiana
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 11:07 am
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My general thought is:
If a line can be hummed, it can be played using single notes rather than chords of 2 or more strings. |
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Noah Miller
From:
Rocky Hill, CT
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 11:49 am
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| Sure that's true... but I wouldn't consider a single-note melody to be a "reasonable copy" of what she plays in that video. It would be a complete rearrangement and simplification. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 1:04 pm
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With slants and string pulls you can effectively imitate some pedal steel sounds. With benders and a volume pedal, you can even more effectively imitate some common E9th pedal changes. All that said, there are limits to what you can do on lap steel to credibly imitate complex pedal sounds. I'd agree that for what Sarah is doing, you need a pedal steel.
_________________
Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Tommy Martin Young
From:
Sacramento-California, USA
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 2:13 pm
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I used to teach harmonica and one of my go to mantras was "Just because every song in the world can be played on the kazoo, doesn't mean it should." Having said that - I'd always say "Go for it! If you "hear it and it's in you...it's bound to come out!" (but always record yourself and make sure you're actually hearing what you think you hear)
_________________
The One & Lonely Tommy Young
"Now is the time for drinking;
now the time to beat the earth with unfettered foot."
-Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 B.C.) |
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Carl Gallagher
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 3:04 pm
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| That video is what inspired me to take up lap steel.She is an incredible talent.I had and have no ambitions of getting anything near that.My son plays some pedal steel and I've monkeyed around with it and came to the conclusion that at my age, there aint enough years left in me to become proficient in pedal steel so I went with the lap steel.If you havent already done so, check out Sarah's version of Crying.I always hated that song by Orbison, but she blows it away. |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 20 Feb 2022 3:06 pm
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Pedal steel and lap steel are really different instruments - to the extent that not only can't you really play pedal style on a lab, but lap style never sounds quite right on a pedal steel either, to my ears at least.
But you can get a flavour of pedal steel on a lap with behind the bar bends. This is probably as close as you can get without pedals...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtsJ773XpAo |
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Dan Mahoney
From:
North Carolina, USA
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Posted 21 Feb 2022 6:26 am
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| Probably not, but thanks for posting one of my favorite Sarah Jory videos. Three pedals and one knee - a lot less hardware than on modern steels and still getting it done. There are simpler versions of City Lights that could be played on lap, though. |
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Brian Cheetham
From:
Maryland, USA
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Mike McBride
From:
Indiana
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Posted 21 Feb 2022 6:54 pm Re: I mean…
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| Brian Cheetham wrote: |
https://youtu.be/btR1n5F185
Kinda gets at a similar vibe |
Youtube says video not available. Can you tell us who it was? |
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Brian Cheetham
From:
Maryland, USA
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Mike McBride
From:
Indiana
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Posted 22 Feb 2022 4:32 am
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| Thanks Brian. Great example! |
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HowardR
From:
N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville
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Posted 27 Feb 2022 10:18 pm
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Here's another good example......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLOOmtvC9Hc
I think that between Steve Cunningham's and Luke Cyrus Goetze's examples......this may probably be the closest that can be gotten on a lap steel....it's kind of a hybrid sound... |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 28 Feb 2022 7:49 am
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Luke does beautiful, tasteful stuff with the benders.
_________________
Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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