Vance Terry tunings

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

According to legend, Vance played the triple neck Bigsby on the Brisbane Bop recordings.

Is it known if he favored one tuning or just played them all equally?

Thanks!
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Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps

Cody Farwell · From: Sunland, CA

I believe he played a Wright Custom on the Brisbane Bop recordings. A lot of it sounds like 10 string C6 tuning to my ears, though I could be mistaken.

The Bob Wills Dance-O-Rama songs definitely have him playing the Bigsby & most of what I've transcribed is using Boggs E13 with the split pedals.

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

Scott Thomas · Posted 23 May 2022 2:45 pm

Dave, here is a comment I cut and pasted from a similar discussion I posted to years ago. In it, I linked to yet another thread which Vance Terry contributed to via Mike Black's forum account:

Vance wasn't using the Bigsby by the time of the Brisbane Bop recordings, it was a Chuck Wright built double 11 with 19 pedals.

"When I was with Jimmy Rivers I used a Wright Custom. I had 19 pedals and three knee levers. I tuned one neck to C6 and the other neck to E13."

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/000816.html

Scott Thomas · Posted 23 May 2022 2:50 pm

This is the first thread I mentioned above. You will find it interesting because it has pics of the Wright custom and other goodies:

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=211425&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

Awesome! A lot of those voicings don’t sound like (dare I say) standard C6 5 pedal, so that makes sense, but I am not a C6 expert, or any tuning really. A D-11 with 19 pedals!
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Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps

Daniel Baston · From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

This photo of Vance and Rivers is from around the same time as well, playing a different Wright Custom that probably came before the 19 pedal beast. I cannot remember where, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that Vance said that he played E13 more than C6. If that is true, then it seems to me that he used the 'two frets up position' an awful lot.

For example, in 8 string 'Boggs' E13, say you are playing in the key of D. The 10th fret would be the 'home' position. If you go up two frets to the 12th fret and raise the 3rd string G# to A, you now have a DMaj7 chord from strings 2 to 5 at the 12th fret. Lowering the 2nd string C# to B would yield a D6th chord on the same strings. Who knows what setup he may have had on a pre-19 pedal Wright, but assuming that he may have had the pedals split in the same way as the Bigsby, he could engage both 'A' and 'B' pedals to yield the 6th chord and release his 'A' pedal to get that raise up to the Maj7.

E13 - D6th chord at the 12th (or 2nd) fret, with 3rd string raised to A and 2nd string lowered to B. Raising the 2nd string to C# gets you a DMaj 7 chord. You can also add the 9 on the 1st string of course.
E
B > C# (Vance goes between 6th and Maj7 a lot)
A > ('B' pedal engaged to raise G# string)
F#
D
B
G#
E

That sound of raising the 6th up to the Maj 7th is something that Vance really uses a lot. I guess it is hard to tell whether he is doing what I describe above, or playing a 6th tuning and raising 6th up to a Maj 7th like the 7th pedal in a modern C6 setup. The end result sounds a lot like C6. Maybe there is a lot of both tunings?

Did that make any sense??

I don't even really know how to start to understand the 19 pedal setup! If that is what he used for all of Brisbane Bop, then I am at at a loss!! For what it's worth, if you do a Google image search for "1961 Wright Custom steel guitar", it turns up guitars that look like the above pic of Vance. The 19 pedal guitar looks more like the 1963/1964 Sierra/Wright guitars. The changer looks quite different and is placed differently on the body than the earlier ones. Brisbane Bop is 1961-1964, according to the liner notes, so it seems to me that it possible (likely?) that there were at least two different Wright Customs.

Edit: I have have this picture that I downloaded from somewhere too. This is yet another guitar, this one looks like a D10 and it has 12 pedals. The screws on the front and end plates are different than the 19 pedal guitar. But it looks like the '63/64 ish Sierra/Wright guitars.

Joe Krumel · From: Hermitage, Tn.

Vance Terry, what a monster he was. Wow!

David Wright · From: Pilot Point ,Tx USA.

My Dad built Vance a few different guitars... this is the 19 pedal monster...on A Brades Rack...I do believe it was the last one he built Vance..

Daniel Baston · From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

So cool! There's just enough space left for his volume pedal! Do you know what year your Dad built that guitar David?

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I saw a picture of a pedal steel where there were pedals operated by the heel of the shoe in addition to the toe.
Was that Vance Terry or some other steeler?
Erv

David Wright · From: Pilot Point ,Tx USA.

Daniel, thinking mid 60's

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

Dave,
Thanks!
Very interesting. Very Happy

Erv

Daniel Baston · From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Here is a different angle of the first pic. Almost looks like a triple? Not sure though. Looks like 6 pedals.

Cartwright Thompson · Posted 27 May 2022 11:35 am

Vance told me that there are three different Wright Customs on the Brisbane Bop recordings. He said he could easily tell them all apart.

Rick Abbott · From: Indiana, USA

With ears as keen as his were, he could probably tell what brand of strings were on each neck!

I just started listening to him a couple years ago. He really blows my mind. It's such a shame he didn't have a long career like Big E, or some of the other greats. What a great musician.
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RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Wakarusa 5e3 clone
1953 Stromberg-Carlson AU-35

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

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