Porter Wagoner's guitar player Buck

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » 2 Mar 2009 3:58 am

I was watchng an old episode and caught Porter's guitar player playing the electric banjo. He was playing a song called "Poppin Corn", and bending some strings that would have turned Clarence White's head. Looks like he used a pick-up and maybe played through an old Standel. He was also bending some strings on the Mosrite. Does anybody have any information on him? Did he do any solo albums?
Goo stuff. I have to watch that show, The Wilburn Brothers and Marty Stuart show on the RFD channel.
The real country music in my opinion.
Lefty

Bob Knight · Post by **Bob Knight** » 2 Mar 2009 5:11 am

You can probably find out more than you want to know about ol' Buck right here.

www.bucktrent.com

Bob

Walter Stettner · Post by **Walter Stettner** » 2 Mar 2009 9:11 am

I know that Buck recorded one or two albums with Roy Clark, also (I think) at least one solo album in the 1970s.

Kind Regards, Walter

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 2 Mar 2009 10:16 am

...Buck's album"Give Me Five"has"Poppin'Corn"on it...on Boone Records...I found one at Lawrence Brothers on Broadway in Nashville about 25 years ago...Albert Lee mentioned it in a Guitar Player interview around that time...good enough for me.

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 2 Mar 2009 10:36 am

Buck and Roy did a banjo album together,not sure but thing it was called A Pair of Aces,don't think Buck played his electric banjo on any of the cuts. DYKBC.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 2 Mar 2009 12:47 pm

Lefty, that electric banjo of Bucks had a wooden head in it instead of the regular banjo head. I think it was a hard maple ply type and had a single P-90 type of guitar pickup in it. He also had a set of benders on it which were large "buttons" that he pushed with the heel of his right hand "into" the banjo to activate them. I remember seeing him in an interview once where he said that Shot Jackson of ShoBud had made the changer system for him. He also had (and used) four of the Keith/Scruggs tuners on the headstock for various changes along with the benders. He was the epitome of a "bender" player and preceded Clarence White by a number of years.

What was always puzzling to me was that he was a pretty fair guitar picker too, yet I never saw him use any benders on a standard guitar. I think he could have done some serious damage to some bender players ego if he had..........JH in Va.

Bari Smith · Post by **Bari Smith** » 2 Mar 2009 1:45 pm

And he was a good old Spartanburg boy too.Actually from a little community called"Arcadia",took banjo lessons from a gentleman named Manual Ward which actually made the first"Scruggs"type tuner here at Mayfair Mills from a ball bearing used in textile machinery drilled off center to act as a cam and was mounted in the headstock between the tuning pegs as to press against the strings and release the string as need be.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 2 Mar 2009 2:25 pm

Here's a link showing Buck using those "heel levers" and "Scruggs Pegs"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GorLVsgO ... re=related

And here's a link that lets you hear Buck using them alongside a good pedal steel (this shows how similar his technique is to ours)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rNbqmZK ... re=related

GOOD STUFF!

Steve Alonzo Walker · Post by **Steve Alonzo Walker** » 2 Mar 2009 6:05 pm

My Dad and Buck used to pick together here in Spartanburg. He had some great stories and told me about his string-bending rig. They weren't exactly sure how to apply it with the music at the time. I'm glad he figured it out! Way to go Buck!!!

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 2 Mar 2009 8:41 pm

I enjoyed Buck and his B**jo. My most memorable song is Porter Wagoner's Carroll County Accident. There, a few notes were bent.
Bent

Andy Greatrix · Post by **Andy Greatrix** » 3 Mar 2009 8:21 am

[quote="Jerry Hayes"]Lefty, that electric banjo of Bucks had a wooden head in it instead of the regular banjo head. I think it was a hard maple ply type and had a single P-90 type of guitar pickup in it. He also had a set of benders on it which were large "buttons" that he pushed with the heel of his right hand "into" the banjo to activate them.

I often wondered what Buck's set up would sound like with a five-string neck on a Tele and his benders set-up.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 4 Mar 2009 12:50 pm

Andy, it actually sounds pretty cool, or at least as close as I could get it. I once had an Ibanez Artist solid body guitar set up with six Keith/Scruggs banjo tuners and a set of Bigsby Palm pedals on it. I found that I could get his stuff with that set up. I had every string lowering a whole tone with the pegs except for the 3rd string which only lowered a half tone. The biggest problem with it (at least to me) was getting it in tune and then, keeping it in tune. With the pegs I could get an open G, open D, dropped D, double dropped D and DADGAD tunings. I also used to lower the 4th string to C and the 5th to G and use them for "drone notes" while doing the melodies on the first three strings. I really miss having that set up so I think I'll just get off the computer and get my Les Paul with the Bigsby Palm Pedal and put six Keith/Scruggs tuners on it, I still have 'em in a drawer in my work shop.........JH in Va.

Andy Greatrix · Post by **Andy Greatrix** » 4 Mar 2009 1:27 pm

Another thing you could do, if you have banjo chops, is to put a D string on your 6th string and put a railroad spike on the 5th fret, which would give you a G ring string. tune it to an open G
D
B
G
D
G
D tuned the same as the 1st string.

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Porter Wagoner's guitar player Buck

Porter Wagoner's guitar player Buck

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