I mentioned that I was looking into a pedal steel, and Rick said, "Listen to this! It was an amazing sound. It was all I needed to push me over the edge. I figured I could make some sense of it. Then Steve bought me the "Sho-Bud Instruction Record"-- a bunch of intros and turn-arounds played and explained "put the bar on the third fret, pick the 5th string and mash the A pedal" by Neil Flanz. Hard to follow along without an instrument! It was a Sho-Bud model a rack-and barrel-single neck with 3 pedals and one knee lever.
I knew that I was going to need more knee levers, so I ordered the parts from Sho-Bud. About 40 miles from my house, in West Grove, PA, was Sunset Park-- one of the oldest country music parks still extant. I used to drive down from NYC to see the bluegrass shows. Now I was going out to see the country shows. The first professional steel player I met was Dale Wagner.
He was playing with Jim and Jessie. I had a talk with him and he told me I certainly was going to need more knee levers than the one which was on the instrument. And two weeks after that was my awakening. I saw John Hughey with Conway Twitty. I was blown away by his playing. I asked him after the show what his knee levers did, and he was kind enough to chart it out for me. I wish I remember what I did, but I came home, and switched some rods around on my steel.
I got a call from Bill Keith. I took a weekend and went to see him in Woodstock, NY. By that time he had bought a single from Sho-Bud. It was an older "fingertip" model , and although it sounded great, it was no end of problems. The vertical knee was so stiff that you lifted the whole steel off the ground before it began to activate. The other knees were little better.
But with all its problems, I started to think about the possibilities of an extended E9th tuning as a single Bill went back to his Emmons D shortly thereafter.
I had been playing for about two months when Rosalie Sorrels showed up in Philadelphia. Rosalie is a grand songwriter and folksinger who knows more songs than anyone. She heard that there was "a pedal steel in town" and asked to be introduced.
She invited me to play at her gig the next night. What a trip! Rosalie used a lot of passing chords, and many relative minors. What a struggle figuring out where she was! And when she said, "Take it," it was like diving into a molasses swamp. But when she came back to Philly to play the Folk Festival two months later, I could figure it out a bit more.
I continued to play with Rosalie at those times she came to the east coast until I moved to New Zealand. She always served as a good measure of how much I had learned since the last time I saw her. She always kept me on my toes. We once did a show at the Folklore Center in NYC where she announced, "I'm going to do a bunch of songs tonight that Winnie's never heard.
It took a few months of playing before I decided I wanted to build my own steel even though Tom Bradshaw, who was writing a "steel" column in Guitar Player magazine, advised against doing so. I had met George Sell on one of my trips to Sunset Park. George lived nearby and had built some steel guitars for a number of the local players. I visited him and he was willing to guide me in my quest.
He provided me with the changer unit for the guitar, and I took it from there. George's steels at the time did not have a full end-plate; he used four separate angle corners to hold the legs. I had already decided that I wanted to build a single I wanted a full end-plate. I made a mahogany pattern which I took to a local casting facility.
I then did the final machining of the parts at the shop I had at school. The first try at the body was a failure. It didn't glue up well, and when I tried fixing it, it got worse. I really screwed it up. I cut my losses and started again. When I went to see George about obtaining the bell cranks, he begged off. Maybe he simply saw that I was a fairly competent machinist.
You just need to make a bunch of these," he said, handing me a bell crank. So I did. I was assisted in much of the process by Jim Rickard, an old friend who was the head of research and development at Ovation Guitars.
The end castings were finished with the same black epoxy finish as the bowls of the Ovation guitars, and the body was sprayed with the finish they used on the necks.
Any mechanical issues John is the guy you need to see! He's a good guy! James: New York City? Or New York state? Thank you for the replies so far! Find Skip Krevens. He's on the Island. I don't remember what town. Crackerjack player and last I knew, a few years ago, he was teaching. You can turn him up with a FB search. He took lesson from John Widgren. Timothy Kelly is his name. Contact him here on the forum with a PM. He may not call himself a teacher but he could show you some tips.
Tim brought a Black SD Rains from me some time back. Sent me a clip or two of his playing and it knocked my socks off. And he had just started. Good Luck, J. Nothing else.
Thank you all for the great recommendations!
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