Pedal Steel Guitarist that have turned to lead-guitar?

[Ray Montee (RIP)]

How many steel players have decided it would be more fun and glamorous to give up playing steel in order to pursue a musical career as a carefree, out-going,
center-stage kinda lead guitar player, a position that would allow you to play all of the steel guitar pedal licks ever invented at full volume and with all the treble you can demand, cranked-in PLUS, being able to have a dozen or so of those fabulous foot stomp boxes at your disposal?

I think there is a tremendous opportunity here to level the playing field, so to speak, while putting some serious bucks in your pocket after selling off all of that HEAVEY, complicated, technical steel guitar equipment.

[Dave Mudgett]

Well, I'm not about to give up steel guitar. I even like to mash them pedals sometimes - I know that this is in terrible form, and "real men" don't use pedals, right? But I admit to weakness, and like pedals on my steel guitars.

But I do turn to my guitars sometimes. I still like to play the guitar, as I have for about 40 years now. I have electric solid bodies, acoustic and electric archtops and flat tops, a resonator or two, even one with 7 strings and a 6-string bass guitar. I even own a few stomp boxes, and some amps. There are times when I even bring just a guitar to a gig - if that's what they want, that's what I do. I know this probably makes me less of a "real man", but I'll live with it.

How many steel players have decided it would be more fun and glamorous to give up playing steel in order to pursue a musical career as a carefree, out-going, center-stage kinda lead guitar player, a position that would allow you to play all of the steel guitar pedal licks ever invented at full volume and with all the treble you can demand, cranked-in PLUS, being able to have a dozen or so of those fabulous foot stomp boxes at your disposal?

Have you read the Oxford Dictionary entry for the word "stereotype" - http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/stereotype - ?

BTW - good guitar players can interchange both rhythm and lead parts. Some of the very best can do both at the same time. Oh, but I forgot - as you rightly point out, guitar players are completely hung up on ear-splitting treble, distortion, and really focused on steel-guitar-envy. Couldn't be any "real" musicians among them.

[Tony Prior]

but what if we started on Guitar, went to Steel, then back ? OR do both ? OR sometimes gig only on Steel or sometimes gig only on Guitar ?

Curious minds need to know this stuff..

[Eric West]

I'm getting the idea that Ray here doesn't approve of the changes that have taken place in the music industry in the last 75 years....

Let's try this:

Yeah, I canned all that fancy crap for a 12 volt face radio amplifier that came out of my grandpa's barn, I figured out how to play an electric guitar through it, and I'm bound and determined to find a band that has 5 watt amps and no drums that I can play with...

Then of course the complaint would be against "guys that use too many fingers, or do ear splitting lightning machine-gun type hammer-ons and -pull offs not REALLY PICKING the notes in a malodorous calcophony of nonsense.."

Myselfs, I got tired of using my left hand to wiggle a glorified butterknife around, and the fanciest I ever got was to "slant it"...

I played guitar for 40 years before I decided I wanted to be able to say I play "Lead".

It took practicing many hours a day, for a couple YEARS, rain or shine, and getting OUT there and playing REAL GIGS, before I could say that.

I'm not the best one around, but I get jobs that all I have to have is a guitar in one hand, an amp in the other, and my PODxtLive hanging from what's left of my teeth..




EJL

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

Hey Eric, your Pod XT live (unlike the regular POD XT) will interact with a Variax and automatically change setting when change patches on the guitar.

Maybe you should look into a getting a Variax. (I wish Ravenwest would make a Variax compatible guitar, but the owner is resisting the idea.)

[Eric West]

Well Mike I have too many squiers in the face of a trying year to get any more gear. The Xt3Live has the ultimate config like two separate instruments with two separate settings. I think the xt3 can do that but you have to adapt one through an XLR.

In an "I-Ching" analogy loosely translated, "There are holes in the boat. Fortunately there are lots of rags to plug them with.."



EJL

[James Jacoby]

Hi Dave! Your instrument line-up sounds a lot like mine! I also play all kinds of guitars, including one 7-string, and have and play 4-5,and a 6string bass! I used to have a Guild-electric resonator guitar, but I could never catch on to it, so I gave it to one of my good -steel playing friends, who made better use 0f it. I have been playing lead guitar for most of my life, and only started learning steel about 12years ago. Those guys who always play ear splitting treble all the time are, in my opinion, too one dimentional, leaving no room for dynamics, or tone! For effects, I tried several kinds of sound procesors, but went back to stomp boxes.(much easier to manage in an on-stage-gig environment) And yes, I would not give up a single one of my instruments! (Way too much fun!!!!)

[Rick Winfield]

I went from Lead guitar to PSG. a friend of mines wife couldn't understand why would someone give up standing in the front, and rockin away, for a sit down background spot.
I still play both-
BUT :
if i gotta explain- you wouldn't understand
rick

[Jim Robbins]

If I could play them both at once, I would. But only if someone else would carry my steel ...

[Ken Lang]

I had a Fender 4 pedal in the early 60's. Learned to play it enough to sit in when a friend had to take a night off. Then I went to college and had to sell the steel to pay Uncle Sam, so it was on to the lead guitar.

Got interested in it again 40 years later. Still can't play as well as I did.

[David L. Donald]

I suspect for many playing guitar came before playing steel.
I got no problem playing both and mandolin in the same gig.
As long as the bass player doesn't make me cringe.

[Tracy Sheehan]

Ray, and don't ask me why but before pedals most Texas steel players could and did sound more like a lead guitar than a steel.I never knew why we did this,we just did.Played lots of single string.I don't even remember learning how we blocked to kill the sound going up and down the neck.Did the same on chords.
Years later being able to do this really paid off when working states that didn't care for country or steel.I started using a leslie to get the organ sound and playing with what we called a dead bar (i don't recall where this term came from either.)
Most Texas steelers i knew lived in a little world all thier own and didn't copy any one.lol.
Took me a lomg time to get used to working with a lead player when not playing twin when i started working with bands that had a lead player.But you have to keep in mind we went for sound back in those days,not volume.I am talking abou50 years or so ago.LOL.Tracy

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

Like so many others I also played guitar first. (Mandolin too.) But I've lost interest in both. I just want to play the steel from now on.

[Ben Jones]

Real steelers tend to say things like "I tried guitar once, it hurt my fingers".

Im just a lowly dime a dozen guitarist aspiring for a promotion to pedal steel. Y'all can hate on that all you want, I dont care. Im doing it anyway.

[Dan Tyack]

I tried playing guitar once, but it hurt my fingers.

All that rock and blues guitar stuff sounds better on a steel, anyway.

[Dan Tyack]

Wow, you beat me to it Ben.

[Rick Schmidt]

I've played guitar years before and the entire time I've played steel. I love it as much as I ever did. Kept me gigging in many different situations for years too. Now my fingers are getting a little stiffer on my left hand, so steel seems more natural as the go-to axe when I need a personal music fix to get me all lathered up. Last night though I played a guitar-only jazz gig and had a blast. Great moments that I wouldn't have had if I only played steel!

More and more I see that the big secret to musical enlightenment on any string instrument is to try and understand the common ground that one string, on any axe, can reveal. Totally transferable knowledge.

BTW, I still find it's hard to think of the pedal steel as a guitar....but that's just me.

[Jeremy Threlfall]

A telecaster is easier to swing around in a bar-room brawl than a sho-bud

[Henry Nagle]

I like playing guitar! It's fun. I like playing pedal steel too. That is also fun. When I first hear a song that I am to play on, I try and decide if it would benefit more from guitar or steel, and then I play one or the other (or not).

I do have a bunch of pedals and I do like to make crazy feedback noises sometimes, but I always try very hard to not be too trebly. That's kind of a peeve of mine.

Or were you asking me?

[steve takacs]

Sorry, double post.....

[steve takacs]

I began with 6 string guitar first but was not a lead player, prefering to fingerpick old blues tunes and play rhythm. With our new rock cover band, I've had to play lead by default as we have a a lead singer who plays rhythm acoustic guitar only. Luckily, our piano player is a decent lead player too.

It's been a challenge but also real trip, & I do enjoy lea, though I have a long way to go. Still, I prefer to play rhythm in the Memphis Stax Volt, classic rock, & mellow jazz styles. I enjoy trying to complement our female singer with rhythm & little hooks here and there.

Over the next few months, we intend to work in some pedal steel for five or six tunes. l also get to play bass so it never gets boring. I will stop at hand stands though! steve t

[Gary Stevenson]

Steve do you have any recordings of your band on cd or dare I say cassette lol