The British Steelies Society

Hey People, I play guitar but wanted to try lap steel to see if I got on with it, so I bought a Harley Benton lap steel from Thomann about 4 weeks ago, I've gotta say that they're incredibly good value at around £60 including shipping. The only problems for me were that the scale is a little too short for me, so the frets are too close together when you get up to around the 15th fret, and the tone control doesn't do much. I thought it was a fault with the instrument so I sent it back. They sent me a new one and it was exactly the same. That said, I'd recommend them to anybody starting out.

Anyhow, as luck would have it, a steel guitar came up on ebay a couple of days ago and as I'm a little on the impulsive side, I am now the proud owner of 1958 Gibson BR-6.





I currently play 2nd guitar and sing lead vocals in a rockabilly band with a leaning toward Western Swing so the lap steel will be perfect to augment our sound, if I can just learn to play the thing.

I've restrung it with 15 - 36 guage strings and tuned it to C6. It sounds great!

The thing is, a lot of that old rockabilly stuff has loads of Boo Wah stuff going on, which sounds great but how the hell do you do it? I always understood that it's done with the tone control but I can't get anything like it.

I'd welcome any advice

....Doesn't your camera have a viewfinder......???

Blueguitar wrote:The thing is, a lot of that old rockabilly stuff has loads of Boo Wah stuff going on, which sounds great but how the hell do you do it? I always understood that it's done with the tone control but I can't get anything like it.

I'd welcome any advice

Hi there. Some of the guitars made in those days have a spring loaded "push-for-on" button that switches in a capacitor to give a massive treble cut, just like suddenly turning the tone control to full bass position. Let it up and it goes back to the tone set by the control, so you "stab" at it to get that repeated boo-wah sound . Certain guitarists managed to get the effect by actually turning the tone control with the inside of a curled little finger - the way some rock guitarists do that so-called "violining" effect with the volume knob.
You might get it with the likes of those old Fender pedals with the volume on a rocker and tone on side-to-side rotation. That might work too slow to sound right, but I bet you can make an external tone control with a defeat button that will do it.
Whereabouts do you live? I've got an old twin-8 with that button (red button - between the knobs, see below) and you're welcome to come see and have a go.

(click to enlarge)
Also, if you can catch Rod King playing at any of the steel guitar meetings, he can do loads of those steel guitar tricks; boo-wah, slamming the bar, tipping the bar etc.etc. on his Rickenbacker S-8. He's just been up to the NESGF and showed those skills.

tonewheelkev wrote:....Doesn't your camera have a viewfinder......???

I used the link from the eBay listing. For some reason it cut the pics in half

Tony Russell Davis wrote:

Blueguitar wrote:The thing is, a lot of that old rockabilly stuff has loads of Boo Wah stuff going on, which sounds great but how the hell do you do it? I always understood that it's done with the tone control but I can't get anything like it.

I'd welcome any advice

Hi there. Some of the guitars made in those days have a spring loaded "push-for-on" button that switches in a capacitor to give a massive treble cut, just like suddenly turning the tone control to full bass position. Let it up and it goes back to the tone set by the control, so you "stab" at it to get that repeated boo-wah sound . Certain guitarists managed to get the effect by actually turning the tone control with the inside of a curled little finger - the way some rock guitarists do that so-called "violining" effect with the volume knob.
You might get it with the likes of those old Fender pedals with the volume on a rocker and tone on side-to-side rotation. That might work too slow to sound right, but I bet you can make an external tone control with a defeat button that will do it.
Whereabouts do you live? I've got an old twin-8 with that button (red button - between the knobs, see below) and you're welcome to come see and have a go.

Boo-wah button.jpg

(click to enlarge)
Also, if you can catch Rod King playing at any of the steel guitar meetings, he can do loads of those steel guitar tricks; boo-wah, slamming the bar, tipping the bar etc.etc. on his Rickenbacker S-8. He's just been up to the NESGF and showed those skills.

Hi Tony,
I know the spring loaded tone control that you mean. I came across it when I searched Google to try and find how to do the technique. It was on the Harlin Brothers Multi-Kord. I didn't realise that other manufacturers did them as well though.

I've been trying violining but don't think it'll work for me because the tone controll is too far away.
I appreciate the offer of trying yours. I'm in Hatfield, Herts, but it's a fairly big country.

As for the slamming and tipping, you just said a lot of stuff that I ain't heard of. So it's back to Google for me
I haven't heard about the steel guitar meetings either. Are they to do with The British Steelies?

SteelieAJK wrote:

THAT'S IT!!!
Thanks a whole bunch Steelie AJK. I'll be trying that tonight

Blueguitar wrote:

tonewheelkev wrote:....Doesn't your camera have a viewfinder......???

I used the link from the eBay listing. For some reason it cut the pics in half

That's because the pictures are too large, 700 wide is optimum.

MOST of us use each others names on this forum, it's customary, probably even mandatory to include you real name in your profile. If you notice, our real names are displayed to the right next to our avatars.


Some of us also include our locale, just for clarities sake..
BTW, The volume used to get the 'Boo Wah" effect is usually much higher than the volume used when playing regularly, SO, it helps to use a foot volume pedal anyway.. Notice the man said, "put the pedal to the metal" i.e. FULL on..
Basil

Basil Henriques wrote:
MOST of us use each others names on this forum, it's customary, probably even mandatory to include you real name in your profile. If you notice, our real names are displayed to the right next to our avatars.


Some of us also include our locale, just for clarities sake..
BTW, The volume used to get the 'Boo Wah" effect is usually much higher than the volume used when playing regularly, SO, it helps to use a foot volume pedal anyway.. Notice the man said, "put the pedal to the metal" i.e. FULL on..
Basil

Thanks Basil. I hadn't noticed that. I've added my details to my profile, so hopefully they'll show from now on.

I was a little confused be "pedal to the metal". Thanks for the tip. As luck would have it I've got an old volume pedal. I'll dig it out

Blueguitar wrote:I was a little confused be "pedal to the metal". Thanks for the tip. As luck would have it I've got an old volume pedal. I'll dig it out

Thanks Mick, Trucker's phraseology = accelerator pedal down 'till it touches the metal = FULL ON !!
A bit like I am sometimes Lol.