Mylie Cirus Steel Player?

[Stu Schulman]

I'm watching Mylie Cyrus on the Today Show and besides her awesome vocals she has a wonderful steel guitarist?

[Barry Blackwood]

Should be a relatively easy ID - not too many southpaw steelers out there...

[Stu Schulman]

Barry,He was lefty wasn't he?

[Dan Rollans]

I'm not sure who was playing, but I sure liked the seat he was sitting on. Steelers Choice if I'm not mistaken. I'm kinda fond of those Steelers Choice seats myself . HaHa!

[Doug Earnest]

Matt Beck (Matchbox 20, Rob Thomas, Dweezil Zappa, Rod Stewart, many more) playing his left handed ZumSteel Encore.
The guitar was mainly a creation of Russ Wever. Matt is a ridiculously talented multi-instrumentalist.

[Joachim Kettner]

Her and steel guitar. Just the thought of it annoys me!

[ajm]

Joachim: Did you watch any of it?
You might be surprised.

Left handed? Well, I don't know what videos or show you guys watched, but that steel player sure looked like a "normal" right handed player to me. (Today Show 26 May 2017.)

For "Jolene" I expected a few fleeting shots of him, it being a country song and all. Guess what? Yep, nada. Either the camera was not pointed at him, or there was a wall of singers in front of him.

However, a little ways into "Malibu", there are some pretty good shots of him. Whoever he is.

Also, look at the 00:04 mark during the "Ariana comment" segment. Probably the best shot.

[Doug Earnest]

Mr ajm, if you watch the video of Jolene closely you can see Matt using the bar with his right hand.
The pedals remain on the left side of the instrument from the players perspective and the bass strings are on the front of the instrument.

[ajm]

Doug: I'll take your word for it. I did look and couldn't really tell.

[Jerry Overstreet]

Thanks for the alert Stu. It's up on youtube now. Hard to get a good look at Matt, but he sounded just fine.

Always a plus for me anytime I see a steel on stage in any venue and in any music style. Way to go Matt.

[Mark Greenway]

Here is one of the videos taken that day. You can see the tuning keys on his right hand side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HhRNH2KyF8

[Damir Besic]

that is wonderful, Miley looking gorgeous, nice song, and singing.... very nice ... and as far as steel player goes, anyone still thinks you need $5000 steel to work a gig with a major artist???

[Walter Stettner]

Cool to see steel with one of the big ones in today's Pop scene!

Kind Regards, Walter

[Stu Schulman]

Doug,That's a great sounding guitar that you built!

[Bob Carlucci]

Sorry, can't buy the Miley thing.. She sounds to me like a generic, cookie cutter 2017"pop" vocalist, but the steel guitar was a welcome touch... Not sure Malibu was the perfect song for it, but whatever...

[Fred Treece]

Mr ajm, if you watch the video of Jolene closely you can see Matt using the bar with his right hand.
The pedals remain on the left side of the instrument from the players perspective and the bass strings are on the front of the instrument.

That is interesting, that the pedals are still on the left just like a right-handed guitar. Does anyone make a righty guitar with the pedals on the right? I don't think I would ever want the strings reversed like that, but pedals on the right seems to make sense for someone who was a right-footed kicker in football and soccer.

[Joachim Kettner]

Joachim: Did you watch any of it?
You might be surprised.

Mr. ajm since you asked. I've run across this vid because I was looking for information on the Manchester disaster. I didn't watch it till the end. If she wants to be a better person than she was before, I sincerely hope she succeeds.

[Russ Wever]

The version of Left-handedness that Matts pedal steel is, if you were to pick up the top of a steel, turned it 'head for toe' (180 degrees) then set it back down.
In other words, the 'under the cabinet' stuff, pedals, knees, etc are the same as a right-hander but the 'stuff on top', strings, tuning keys, changer, neck, etc. are 'flipped'. This puts the low B (our 10th) string the farther away from Matt and the 'dubiously-named' 'chromatic' strings (G# & D#) are the nearest to Matt.

I first met Matt when we toured together back in 1994, him on guitar. Matt plays guitar left-handed but uses a right-handed guitar strung right-handed which means that his highest pitched string is nearest the ceiling while his low E is nearest the floor. Matt impressed me early on when I was playing a Tom Morrell cassette on my Walkman (after all, this was the last century!) which had guitarist Clint Strong playing a hot solo on a brisk tune. Matt asked if I would rewind the solo as he got a sheet of manuscript paper out of his bag. As it replayed, Matt began writing notation about as quick as Clint was playing. He asked me to play it once more to get a couple notes that he missed the first time. Then when we got to sound-check, Matt tunes up his guitar, pulls out the paper and proceeds to rip off Clints solo - amazing!

Anyhow, several years later Matt got curious about lap steel and got an old Gibson six-string, turned it head-for-toe and began learning it. Then when he called with an interest in pedal steel, I did my darndest to convince him to go right-handed, thinking mostly of what would, or, more to the point, would not, be available for him as far as instrument selection. He was firm in that he had to have this certain version of a lefty steel, so I took a Carter Starter and performed a 'leftoctomy' to it. Several years ago Matt wanted to have a second lefty steel, and with a higher build-quality. My having worked with both Bruce Zumsteg and Doug Earnest on the Encore steel, it became the 'prime candidate.
I approached Doug with the idea and he, with his schedule more than full with his regular orders, sent me home with an unfinished, bare-bones cabinet and a box of undercarriage parts where I 'bread-boarded' the design, then returned it to him for cabinet work and final assembly.

Y'all shoulda seen Doug and I tuning it up after assembly: It took the two of us - One of us on one side to push the appropriate pedal or knee lever while the other guy's on the other side turning the tuning key or nylon tuner!

The old Carter Starter is still in his touring gear for when he goes out with Matchbox Twenty and/or Rob Thomas and the Encore stays in NYC for recording and live dates such as the recent Today Show appearance.
~Rw

Doug rendering a tune on Matt's new lefty . . .
"Volume Pedal ? We don't need no stinkin' volume pedal !"

[Tony Oresteen]

Here is one of the videos taken that day. You can see the tuning keys on his right hand side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HhRNH2KyF8

Mark, that video came up as locked for me. Here's another one that I was able to find. And yes, you can see the flipped tuners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aliQ8hpOKxo

[Russ Wever]

That is interesting, that the pedals are still on the left just like a right-handed guitar.

Matts Encore is 'Left-Handed' . . . not 'Left-Footed.
~Rw

[Fred Treece]

Matts Encore is 'Left-Handed' . . . not 'Left-Footed.
~Rw

Yeah, and the strings reversed to boot. That picture of Doug is hilarious, but says it all too. I thought I had gotten over being intimidated by lefties when I stopped playing baseball as a youth, but here it is all flooding back again...

"Leftoctomy"

[Russ Wever]

[Doug Earnest]

The sad thing is that I could play that guitar about as well as I do any other.

It was sort of a fun project as I always enjoy working with Russ. He is much more patient and detail oriented than I am!