If I Wanted To Get Rich Building Pedal Steel Guitars

Steve Knight · From: NC

That would be a good plan if demand is there. I don't think you can get "rich" unless you can get people on this list to start playing steel in public.

http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2016/pop-songs

So much of music on the radio today is just created with a mic, keyboard, computer and a MIDI sampler. They don't even use a real guitar, bass or drums on some music, much less steel. Even if there was steel in the mix, I think you'd need a "star" playing it on camera to draw any attention to it.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Ross Shafer · From: Petaluma, California

"Flooding the market with low cost pedal steels is pointless"....Amen

Having designed, manufactured, marketed and sold "enthusiast" consumer products all my adult life I find this thread somewhat entertaining.

Unless super reliable, easy to work on, light and durable a really low cost pedal steel could do as much to sink the instrument even further into obscurity as it could to promote it.

Carter tried this in the modern era with the Starter and if I recall correctly discontinued it well before John Fabian passed. They wouldn't have discontinued it if it were making money for them.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

What you are proposing is akin to what Ford tried with the Edsel and we know how far that went. Whoa!

Thomas Edison's philosophy and success was due to the fact that he never invented anything that there was not demand for.
I believe it would be humiliating to take a business plan for building a low cost pedal steel to a banker and hear his reaction!

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

Whether or not it would work to make a lot of money for the person who invested in such a project, I question if it would be a good thing for the instrument.

Does it benefit the six-string guitar's role in music that hundreds of thousands of young people buy them and fill the air of every Guitar Center with weedly-weedly "shredding" every day? In the past, some gifted guitarists actually got their playing noticed by the general listening public. Now guitar playing is so commonplace that nobody notices it--it's like wallpaper.

I like that pedal steel is rare and special, and only pursued by people with unusual dedication.

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

Okay. Keep pedal steel a highly guarded secret to a small select group of people. Fine with me. I don't need to work anymore. Sorry I bothered you all.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

The idiot brought Donald Trump into the discussion and I'm deleting any contribution I may have made.

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

You can close this thread up Bob. Thanks!

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

David,
You don't need our blessing, just go ahead and do it. Very Happy

Ross Shafer · From: Petaluma, California

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

Forum members I value your opinions greatly. This is my main source of steel guitar information and I do agree that as the situation stands it would be a rough road to hoe. I noticed some great steel guitar builders joined in this discussion so let me add a few other thoughts.
I guess I failed to make my point. It wasn't about building cheap steels in China and Mexico it was about creating an assembly line steel and I'm talking about one that moves on a conveyor belt and under a time limit. I would much rather this plant be in America to give jobs to Americans if they are willing to work for what the Mexicans work for. We can't get the price down paying $40.00 to $60.00 an hour in labor. After I graduated from high school I spent 5 years working on an assembly line at General Electric Co. building airconditioners on a moving assembly line. Lots of metal and screws and we worked fast. We could spit a few hundered a day out from small home units to huge commercial units. Everyone had a job to do and there was no time for Bull until the whistle blew. Everyone made good money but nobody got rich either.
There is no way one or even five guys can build a pedal steel as fast and as cheap as a specialized moving assembly line. Can you imagine how long it would take and how many cars one guy could produce by himself in Detroit? Why did Detroit shut down? They shut down because America's car manufactors could build them cheaper elsewhere. My General Electric plant shutdown and moved to Japan for the same reason. The last year I worked for them I was giving Japanese executives factory tours. We had about 1800 employees.
Why did Peavy move their main bread and butter to China?
That's why I can't understand people fight the only person we got in America trying to bring jobs back to the USA. His name is Donald Trump. A whole bunch of people hate him. They want to dissolve America into a global system.
I won't get into politics but the fact is you have to get labor cost down in order to mass produce and that often means Mexican labor in America.
Natural born Americans ain't gonna work on no assembly lines. Will the quality be a lot worse than what is built right now? No not when a fast model is designed. The EMCI or GFI frame comes to mind for speed. In the aluminum frame everything is pretty much there all you do is start slapping the rest of the parts on.
Will it kill the business of present steel makers. No! It won't kill the business of high quality handmade pedal steels any more than Epiphones kill Gibson or Squiers kill Fender.
No more than mass produced Chinese violins kill handmade Italian violins. Hard to break tradition I know but someone will get around to doing it someday. Pedal Steel guitars are only about 70 years old compared to 6 string spanish guitars, pianos and violins which have been around for a few centuries so you have to give it time. I don't see the market in pedal steels shrinking at all. I never saw so many young people with a pedal steel in my life till I got on the internet. I'm to old and decrepid to start a business but I've always by the grace of God been able to peer into the future. Not sure if that's a good thing however.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Mass production "assembly line" for a product that has no demand? The problem is low demand, not low supply. Building more of something that average people don't care about and don't understand is a waste of time and money. The instrument is too complicated for most people. They're just not interested. Believe me, I know after 45 years of playing steel.

Comparing it to cars built in Detroit is ridiculous. People need and want cars. There is always high demand for cars. People don't need and want pedal steel guitars.
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Jeff Garden · From: Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA

I often wear pedal steel T-shirts just to show the flag and maybe stir up some interest for a great instrument. I realize Doug B and I live in a steel void here in New England but over the past 20 years or so I seldom if ever find anyone that says "pedal steel - cool instrument!" or "I play steel too!". If anyone even mentions the shirt, more often than not they stare quizzically, ask "what is a steel guitar?" (even if there's a picture of one on the shirt), you do your best to explain it and answer their questions and the conversation is over. Disappointing.

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

So you say there is no demand. Why is that? I searched the "Guitar Player" magazine website yesterday and there was 40 references to pedal steel guitars. There was a good article on Robert Randolph but absolutely no pedal steel guitar builders have ever run an ad in that magazine in the last 40 years that I can tell. I recall Emmons ran an ad in it when it first came out nearly 50 years ago. Almost every music store carries that magazine. It's worldwide. I started out a 6 string guitar player and took up steel about 10 years later when I got out of high school and had the money to buy one. Price too much for my parents to pay. Every builder seems to target present steel guitar players but no one targets a guitar player that might take up pedal steel guitar. A huge untapped market in my opinion. Shot Jackson sold me my first steel guitar which was a new Maverick and he said "Son as good as you play that guitar you need a pedal steel guitar." He sold me one. I was hooked.
I know there will be some builders chime in and say "We did run ads but no response." How many times have you seen Coke and Pepsi ads shoved in your face? They are two of the largest companies in the world so why do they keep advertising? They know a little saying that most companies don't. "Out of sight, out of mind." I'm hypothyroid so I take levothyroxin. If I don't keep the pill bottle on my computer keyboard which is the first place I sit every morning I will forget to take it. I tried keeping it hid in the desk drawer but that didn't work.

Jim Fogarty · From: Phila, Pa, USA

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

Jim I'm sure 99.9 percent in this group don't have the money to buy 60 million dollar bizjet and that's what it would take to accomplish the feat. However there is always one somewhere that has the money to seize the opportunity. My dad was from Texas and in the early 1950's he ate some pizza while in Boston. He married my mother about that time who lived in Boston. He loved it so much he asked my mother to go to Texas with him and make pizza's. Her reply was "Who in Texas is gonna buy a pizza." She killed his idea. There wasn't any pizza in Texas at that time. Later a mom and pop pizza restaurant was built in Tyler. A few years later Pizza Hut or Pizza Inn can't remember came into being. Now there is pizza on every corner. Something there was no demand for. I don't intend to own or invest in anymore businesses just giving a little food for thought. Take it or disgregard it as you may. Thanks for listening and responding to all!

Rick Barnhart · From: Arizona, USA

Why not start small, maybe with a magazine featuring steel guitarists? Wink

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Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Jim Fogarty · From: Phila, Pa, USA

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

The steel guitar ads and articles need to be right in the big middle of 6 string guitar publications just like 4 string basses and 12 string guitars. I mean a pedal steel is not related to a 6 string guitar like a bowling ball is to a TV set. To prove hit a big E chord on your 6 string spanish guitar then go strike strings 3,4, 5 and 6 on the E9th neck of your 10 string steel. For the life of me I can't see how pedal steel is so disconnected from 6 string guitars and players.

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

Let's back up and take a look at the words "Steel Guitar". What's that last word say? Guitar? Hmmm. It has strings, frets, tuners and you pluck it with picks so I say a pedal steel IS a "Guitar". Let's start associating with 6 string players instead of having a closed club. Might sell more steels. A lead guitar player friend just two months ago asked for my advice when buying his first steel. I play steel, keyboards, 6 string spanish guitars, dobros and use a drum machine and computer for rhythm and strings and make wonderful records. A pedal steel is just another tool in my bag of tricks. As young musicians I see become more and more multi talented I see them all one in the same. How about Sarah Jory's guitar work?
How about guys like Bobby Flores, girls like Barbara Mandrell? My friend Walter Haynes? Milo Deering and Junior night? They never leave home without a six string and dobro. It's all good, all guitars. No racism with guitars and pedal steels. Don't feel quizzy running an ad about a D-10 in the Strat and Tele group. You might be surprised at the praise and adoration you receive.

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