Entertainment For Lively Minds
Lap steel help required
Posted by adze thuggery on 21 December 2008 - 10:56am.
My grown-up daughter is interested in learning to play the lap steel guitar. My main sources of examples from my own collection have been David Lindley and Ry Cooder. Can worthies of the Massive suggest others?
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Check out
The Last Town Chorus.
Loose Music release them in the UK
My personal favourire...
Freddie Roulette.
..and Junior Browns..
..Frankensteel.
Try this
This is an excellent resource
http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html
This is great too - although he's playing it on a pedal steel he's not using the pedals - he's playing it like a lap steel.
"Fine line" by Radney Foster has a fine rocking lap steel solo on it. And of course You Tube is full of useful stuff.
Pedal or lap?
I'm not sure that is a pedal steel Mr Gilmour is playing there, even though he calls it one. Doesn't seem to have any pedals or knee levers. My guess is it's a Fender Stringmaster lap steel.
In my experience, as a pedal steel player myself, people often say lap steel when they mean pedal steel and vice versa. So, Adze, is it definitely lap steel your daughter wants to learn? Because lap and pedal are whole different ball games…
Good point
I have seen pictures of it and I always thought it was a pedal steel but without any pedals, and he plays it like a lap (partly because it is a double neck isn't it?), though you'd know better than me. I play lap and dobro, but as you say a pedal is another ball game - isn't it considered to be one of the hardest instruments to learn, what with pedals, volume pedal, knee levers, right and picking and the bar.....
Incidentally I had a right laugh at Steve Cradock playing lap with Paul Weller in the beeb - using a bottleneck not a bar, and a plectrum oh how we laughed.
It's all here
Things are never simple
http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=69
He uses both!
Absentee are a wonderful current band,
well worth catching live
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absentee_(band)
...and don't forget Al Perkins' tearstained work on Gram Parsons' best tunes too...
Thanks
Thanks, guys, that's moved it on a fair bit. What a variety of styles in there. The Freddie Roulette one touched a nerve. In the 60s I worked part-time at Tesco (then the equivalent of Lidl now). The muzak was Hawaiian guitar versions of standards, and then at Christmas .... aagh, still have nightmares. One of the constants in my kids' upbringing has been the music of Gram solo and the FBB.
Further to my comment above…
On all Gram Parsons/Burritos records it'll be pedal steel you're hearing (Mostly Sneaky Pete, Buddy Emmons and the aforementioned Al Perkins). If that IS what you/she are after, email me and I'll try to give you some useful pointers…
Thanks again
Yes, David, the query here is lap steel. Exposure to my music collection has included pedal steel, as you note here, and lap steel, and my daughter was also impressed by a recent concert featuring dobro. I have tried to steer her towards the dulcimer, as per Joni Mitchell on 'Blue'. Don't know where it will all end .... (I hope not with a ukulele, which is where I am currently).
Hello
Hi all, it's the aforementioned daughter here.
Wow, not just one dad, but a whole community of them to pick the brains of!
Having played the diverse instrumental lineup of recorder, cello and steel pan in my youth, I'm fancying a return to music. I'm very into that sweet country music sound and have always fancied pedal/lap steel.
My early-morning Wikipedia research today gave me the basics of what is what. I'm guessing that lap steel is easier to learn, given that it doesn't involve pedals?
If so, that would be good - plus, after years lugging the cello on the bus to orchestra practice, I suppose I was thinking that some degree of portability would be a novelty. And saw some lovely vintage examples online...
So, I thought it would be good to hunt out some tunes with identifiable lap steel on them, so I can distinguish the sound and take it from there. Thanks for all your suggestions, sounds like my dad needs a Freddie Roulette CD for xmas. Saw a Swedish duo called Wildbird & Peacedrums at a festival last year - combining lap steel (I think!) with yelping and mad drums. Great!
Oh, and... there's lots of time for this research, as I've decided that this instrument would be the appropriate item to mark my 30th birthday, coming up.... in December 2009.
A whole can o' worms
Hi T J,
Happy to add my two penn'orth (again) with a few extra bits of advice:
• Lap steels are far less versatile, but they're also far lighter, cheaper and, yes, a lot easier to learn than a pedal steel. And you can achieve some great sounds with it. I'd second the Last Town Chorus recommendation. Megan Hickey has used the instrument brilliantly to create her own musical 'voice'. But also if you dig that Hank Williams/1950s country sound, a lap steel will do you fine (but DO get an 8-string one – preferably a double-neck 8-string – rather than a 6-string).
• If what you're really after is that 'sweet country music sound' as heard from the mid 1960s onwards, then the bad news is what you'll NEED is a pedal steel. This is an instrument that messes with your head in all sorts of ways, is way heavier than a cello (not to mention the hefty amp you'll need plus all sorts of other paraphernalia) and takes a good while to master. On the other hand, once you start to crack it, it's incredibly and endlessly satisfying, people swoon at the sound of it and (in the UK at least) you'll be a member of a very exclusive club.
More, more!
David, more advice please - aren't there different levels of pedal complexity though - presumably fewer pedals is easier to get started? I'd like a bit more flexibility thank my plain old Rickenbacker lovely though it is...
...is there like an entry level one? Two pedals or whatever?
BTW Thuggerys, I have seen nice home build lap steels - there are plans/kits on the net and there is little luthery involved - it's been on my to do list for ages. Just a thort.
ooh lappie porn..
I have an (Aussie) Moody (not nicked, that's the brand name) that looks a little similar, only with an unfortunate sandblasted rabbit finish.
Thanks
Thanks, Twang, will investigate. My daughter is skilled with her hands, but my own skills are limited (very!).
Loving this thread
I have a pedal steel that only has 3 pedals and no 'knee things' (technical term, nothing to be afraid of). This is most likely because it's a cheap Japanese Guyatone model though.
I used to delude myself that if I ever bought a pedal steel I would give up work and just play it all day. Instead, I had kids shortly after buying it and it is now consigned to a cupboard (with very occasional outings) along with a few other instruments.
No entry level to hell…
I'd say if you're going to go down the pedal steel route, the minimum you want is a 3-pedal, 4-knee-lever E9 model. Anything less and as soon as you start to get the hang of it you'll just get frustrated at the licks you CAN"T play due to the instrument's limitations. The good news is that you can play pretty much any classic country steel licks on a 3+4 (less so the Western swing style - that's what the other, C6 neck on a double-neck pedal steel is used for). That's what I play and there's probably enough there to last me a lifetime of learning…
Thanks
Beautifully summarised, David - thanks.
Food for thought!
The late lamented Phillip Lithman
My first exposure to this instrument was via the excellent Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, which the above later Resident played. A good example of the "difference" between lap and pedal is in track 2, side 1 of Bongos over Balham, their, um, meisterwork, where the first solo is lap steel and the second pedal steel, played by a guesting Red Rhodes. All together now, "We get alohalohalong, oh we get along......."
Marvellous!
Mr. Gilmour also plays with a pick...
..and not that well either. (But not as badly as when he tries to tackle the Weissenborn)
We get along indeed!
Thanks for the tip, Retro. If anyone wants to listen here's a link.
http://www.we7.com/#/artist/Chilli-Willi--The-Red-Hot-Peppers?artistId=1...