He Stopped Loving Her Today (2005 version) - Question

[Brian Spratt]

George Jones re-recorded his classic hit He Stopped Loving Her Today in 2005. The album credits Brent Mason on guitar and Paul Franklin on pedal steel.

I'm trying to listen very critically to the first half of the first verse. It's either a Phil Baugh type electric guitar played by Brent bending with pedals or its Paul mimicking the Phil Baugh sound on pedal steel (hitting a low Ab below the typical E9th 10th string B). I don't think Paul's E9th copedent drops to Ab (only to A) but that would be fairly easy to work around in a studio environment.

Here's the audio. What do you hear?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABy0LMvhuPI

And here's Paul's copedent for reference: https://b0b.com/wp/copedents/paul-frank ... -copedent/

And since someone always chimes in on these threads with advice like 'I just play it my own way' or 'don’t copy, find your own voice,' consider this my pre-emptive thanks for that wise insight. No need to post it here.

[Franklin]

Its Brent on the first verse...I believe he detuned his signature tele down for those parts... Brent is just bending strings. He has a B bender on that guitar that raises, I do know that much.

[Brian Spratt]

Paul, thanks so much for clarifying that! Your participation on the forum is incredibly valuable to all of us - much appreciated.

[Ron Funk]

That entire album needs to be in everyone's collection...excellent musicianship - and the singer is pretty good too.