Where and when did you buy your first Pedal Steel

[Tony Russell Davis]

. . . and a Fender Artist D10, which I couldn't afford . . .

Was that the one Dougie Stevenson got?

[bob adams]

Ha! You got your's fifty quid cheaper than me Roy! I paid Eric £300 for mine and had to get a bank loan to do it! Wages were buttons back then.

Drove overnight to get it, arrived Maidstone early doors, went into first cafe that opened for some sustenance, guy serving said ' where are you from lads? I said Anniesland, he said, ' I'm from Hyndland... about three minutes down the road from me back then! ..... Small world or wot!

My first attempt at a steel sound was as a kid 11 or 12... tightening guitar strings between bolts I had fixed to a plank and trying to use the face of my watch as the tone bar! using an old Philips real to real mic to amplify it! No amp back then ( I was only wee!) Wot a Rodney! (True story) ... Funny I bought one of those old Philips tape recorders not so long ago at a market, so I could play a couple of old tapes that turned up, bit of singing round the organ with the old guy, recorded probably 1960..

As for steel I guess it has always been in the blood!

[SteelieAJK]

Although I really dug some tracks with steel way back, notably Sneaky Pete on Zappa & Little Feat tracks, I had never considered playing steel. On a vacation in USA in the fall 2003 I happened on a music store in Alamogordo NM and saw a few knitting machine affairs. Although I knew they were pedal steels I had zero knowledge and talked to the sales guy. On a whim, figuring I fancied a new hobby, I purchased what the sales guy said was the best starter, a Carter Starter. How little one knows. When I got it home, I dabbled with it for a day or two, did not know how to start & gave up and put it in a cupboard. In May 2004 I went to my first, but sadly the last Steel Guitar Festival in Newbury. Impressed with the steelin' I'd seen I resolved to give pedal steel another shot and in June went to Hogans Music spoke with Gerry and bought a couple of Jeff Newman courses. This time I began to learn in earnest. To be fair the Carter Starter served me well for nearly a year. By then I knew I was hooked and purchased my first professional steel, my GFI Ultra, from Ted in April 2005. Still knew very little, chose it because it was black. My GFI & I have had and are continuing a great journey. Just wished I'd started 30 years earlier.

Hello everybody, my name is Allan, I am also a pedal steel addict.

[Jif]

Great stories guys, and they say nostalgia ain't what it used to be

Keep em' coming, really enjoying reading them. Interesting for us newbies to get a bit of the history.

I watched a guy on YouTube who had gone from 6 string guitar to pedal steel explaining the leap into the unknown, one thing he said made me laugh out loud,

It takes 2 years on the pedal steel to sound crap.

[Will C]

Only 2 years? I've been at it nearer 8 and I still sound crap!

[Ken Byng]

I can do crap, and I've been at it over 40 years!!!

[Malcolm]

Tony, believe Dougie had his Fender way before the one in Cuthbertsons was for sale.

[Willie Gamble]

Yep, you are dead right Malcolm, by the time you and I were purchasing, Dougie was already playing with Legend, and I'll have you know Mr Noble,It has taken me almost 35 years to be crap, but then again I'm a slow learner

Hey Geoff, is that not a doozie of a tune for next Tuesday............Misery and Gin

Asleep at the steel

[Jif]

Yep, you are dead right Malcolm, by the time you and I were purchasing, Dougie was already playing with Legend, and I'll have you know Mr Noble,It has taken me almost 35 years to be crap, but then again I'm a slow learner

Hey Geoff, is that not a doozie of a tune for next Tuesday............Misery and Gin

Asleep at the steel

Well, I've heard you playing Willie, and you're not as good as that

Haven't tried it yet but watched a guy doing the steel solo for this on Youtube, if I can get it to sound vaguely like that I'll be doing well, it's enough to drive a man to drink. Not too sure about the other one either

I'll be giving them a go tonight

Although I really dug some tracks with steel way back, notably Sneaky Pete on Zappa & Little Feat tracks.... Just wished I'd started 30 years earlier.

Ditto on all that Allan, the Sneaky Pete solo on - It might just be a one shot deal

Guess a lot of people started on a "challenged" pedal steel, but if you can drive an old banger,

[coolsteel]

I bought my first pedal steel in 1964 which was a Fender 400 in Edmonton, Alberta where I was living at the time.