Mick Hearn - Remington Ride

[mick hearn]

I just love getting in the shed and playing about to see what happens. And before anyone says it I do mean on steel guitar. I strung up my old ZB to C6 only with a high G and D. I've got used to the high G and the D is handy as well. I can't see myself using that really low note on the 10th string.

Anyway I thought I'd have a go at Remington Ride - Yeah I know everyone has done it but it's fun to play.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Great job Mick! When I visited Herbie I was trying to play that on one of his newly finished planks...I did'ent "Nail it" like you

[Dave Nutt]

Nice version Mick, well played.
Who played fiddle?

[mick hearn]

If only I could say it was me playing the fiddle - but that would be cheating.

In fact I was cheating - it was courtesy of Band in a Box Real Tracks. It's a great prog for making up your backing tracks - but if you are lucky you might find a decent solo artist in there. It makes it up from a vault of pre-recorded bits each one bar long. I was lucky it put together a useable medley. I have tried it with the Paul Franklin samples and it was rubbish. It's good though to give you some ideas from the various licks that are there.

[Tony Russell Davis]

........ I strung up my old ZB to C6 only with a high G and D. I've got used to the high G and the D is handy as well........

Great idea Mick. For me, that high G was the answer to understanding C6th, but nearly all the training material use a D on top. Last year I got hold of a D-11 and that meant I've got both G on second and D on first string without losing the bottom C.

[Ken Byng]

Really good job Mick.

[saddletramp]

Really great playing, Mick. I don't play C6 on PSG, but I love the sound of it. Do you think it would be possible to play this tune on C6 8-string lap steel?

[mick hearn]

Yes definitely. I didn't use the D string. In fact you can play it on 6 string. I don't use pedals. That's for Dunny. The earliest lap steels were 6 string. Not sure what Herb Remington used when he recorded it. It was later that people started to see the benefit of the extra high and low string, and then I think it was the Big E that swapped the high G for a D - the equivalent to the F# on the E9 neck. This is played in the key of D so that you can get the bounce between the open string and second fret. Give it a try and see what you can come up with - you will be surprised at how quick you will pick it up.

OK - back to work. I'm looking at Four Wheel Drive at the moment and it's a Bas####d to play. How the hell did a 16 year old come up with what he did. One thing for certain is that I won't get it like Buddy but hey that's the fun of it. That's the biggest lesson for me - go into the shed, grab a steel and have some fun with it. That's what I did with Remington Ride. Didn't even have a plan as to what to do in the second section - it just happened ad lib.

[Tony Russell Davis]

My 8-string planks are tuned C6th with G on top, but when I next change the strings I am going to try moving the top 7 strings down one "slot" so the G is 2nd, and add D as the 1st. I don't reckon to miss the 8th string, now tuned variously A or Bb.

[Dave Nutt]

If only I could say it was me playing the fiddle - but that would be cheating.

In fact I was cheating - it was courtesy of Band in a Box Real Tracks. It's a great prog for making up your backing tracks - but if you are lucky you might find a decent solo artist in there. It makes it up from a vault of pre-recorded bits each one bar long. I was lucky it put together a useable medley. I have tried it with the Paul Franklin samples and it was rubbish. It's good though to give you some ideas from the various licks that are there.

Mick, I think I need to explore Band in a Box a bit more, had it a couple of years and hardly used it.
Well put tigether backing track.