Steel Guitar "Aliases"

Kenny Brown · Post by **Kenny Brown** » 25 Jul 2006 7:24 pm

"The Electric Table"--as heard on a Hot Rize/Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers show I have.

Emmett Roch · Post by **Emmett Roch** » 25 Jul 2006 8:24 pm

For Mike Shefrin: I lived in Spain for three years, and I encountered what you mentioned in some places, but in most of the larger cities I played in, there was usually at least one person in the crowd who knew enough about PSG to ask intelligent questions.

I had six students (who all owned their own PSG's) within a 40 mile radius of my house, which was about 25 miles north of Barcelona.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 25 Jul 2006 8:55 pm

There are a lot of humorous names that musicians give to steel guitar, but I like the misnomers that serious listeners give to our instrument.

A listener once told me that I play really good "Iron Guitar", and he was dead serious! Other things I've heard from listeners over the years: "you play a nice string guitar". And "you play good slide". One time at the end of a show some guy said he liked the keyboard. His drunken friend said "you idiot, that's a synthesizer"!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 25 Jul 2006 8:59 pm

...speaking of recording studios... one time a recording engineer hung a microphone over my strings!!! I guess he though my PSG was an acoustic instrument. I’ll bet that guy didn’t have a very long recording career!

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 25 Jul 2006 9:53 pm

I still think the problem is that 3 words is to many for the general public. They want instruments to have one word names like flute or cello.

This is why I want to change the name to TIFKATPSG. The Instrument Formally Known As The Pedal Steel Guitar

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Warning: I have a telecaster and I'm not afraid to use it.
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My web site

[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 26 July 2006 at 04:20 AM.]

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 26 Jul 2006 4:49 am

I like Pedal Science Theater.

Altho the pedal sewing machine is good.
I play something, people say "Sew?"

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 26 Jul 2006 8:07 am

Some years back I had a girlfriend whose young daughter used to love to listen to me play my "Ziddle".
I've always loved that one.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 26 Jul 2006 8:26 am

To answer your original Question. Mine has been called -"Electric Consol", "Electra-Harp", and usually "Hammond Organ", which was popular in those days.

At times, I have called it a few other different names. *%$#..LOL....al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 26 Jul 2006 12:33 pm

"...speaking of recording studios... one time a recording engineer hung a microphone over my strings!!! I guess he though my PSG was an acoustic instrument. I’ll bet that guy didn’t have a very long recording career! "

-I am guessing he was trying to get some of the natural string sound to mix in there along with your amplified sound (he DID mic the amp right?). Ive also heard of some engineers micing the pedals...thats a little harder for me to get my head around. actually both are kinda useless, you dont mic a regular electric guitars strings, but I'll bet this was what he was thinkin???

My wife calls it the "steel pedal". Well she's sorta close at least, I guess.... [This message was edited by Ben Jones on 26 July 2006 at 01:37 PM.]

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 26 Jul 2006 12:47 pm

I dunno but your "ZIDDLE" sounds obscene.

[This message was edited by Jack Francis on 26 July 2006 at 01:48 PM.]

Dave White · Post by **Dave White** » 26 Jul 2006 1:19 pm

As a newbie who spends a lot of hours practicing, I call mine a "Time Sponge." My wife calls it "that machine you play."

Smokey Fennell · Post by **Smokey Fennell** » 26 Jul 2006 1:25 pm

My all time favorite is "Horizontal Pitch Approximator". I think this sums up the instrument quite nicely.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 27 Jul 2006 7:01 am

Jack, some people think it sounds obscene when I play it...

I got the impression from the post on miking the steel fromm above that the engineer might have thought it was acoustic... the concept of miking the strings of an electric guitar, along with an amp track, has been around for a long time. It lends some intimacy and immediacy to electric tracks. Lots of engineers do it.

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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 27 Jul 2006 7:24 am

Hi Emmett Roch,
I just now read your post about living and playing in Spain which I found most interesting. Barcelona sure is one big, beautiful city loaded with culture.I lived in Spain for ten years(1981-1991) in a remote small fishing village called Deya in the mountains of the island Mallorca where things were a bit more primitive. I actually lived there for ten years without a television or a telephone if you can believe that(used my girlfriend's phone or pay phones alot back in those days) I did however have a car! I played guitar and steel in a rock band with the sons of the poet Robert Graves(Juan and Tomas)and also played alot with Kevin Ayers.I sure miss those days in Spain.(Sorry,didn't mean to get off the topic)[This message was edited by Mike Shefrin on 10 August 2006 at 01:33 PM.]

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 27 Jul 2006 12:06 pm

Well I get one today right out of the morning paper. In a reference to Ben Keith playing with CSNY last night, the writer terms it the "steel-pedal" as in, "steel-pedal player Ben Keith."

Willis Vanderberg · Post by **Willis Vanderberg** » 27 Jul 2006 12:38 pm

I still like horn or axe.
Ferlin Husky always referred to the C-6th neck as " You ain't gonna play on that barb wire neck are you ? ".
I had a very elderly lady at a church where we were setting up ,stare intently at the underside of my guitar when I finally set the guitar out of the case and on to the floor.She said " I was trying to figure out how you were going to play that other side..
go figure...

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 28 Jul 2006 7:21 am

I saw this one a day ago-"electric steel guitar"
(as opposed to acoustic steel guitar?I guess that's when your steel isnt plugged in)

Donald Dunlavey · Post by **Donald Dunlavey** » 30 Jul 2006 9:33 am

I have heard it called and Electric Horizontal Tone Machine, Which I think is a great description of Steel, wish I had come up with it but I didn't.

Dan Haas · Post by **Dan Haas** » 31 Jul 2006 3:56 am

I played out for the first time last night. When it was all done I was very suprised at how many people didn't know what a pedal steel guitar was! I found more people were asking if it was a dulcimer. Some of them had to ask several time what do call that thing again...

Gerald Menke · Post by **Gerald Menke** » 1 Aug 2006 10:51 am

This is definitely one of the funnier threads to come along in a while. Living in NYC, most people don't have a clue what the PSG is. My wife refers to it as the "cheese grater", "walker" and occasionally as the "sweater drier". I can think of at least three times when engineers pointed microphones at the steel itself, in the studio and on stage, I hope the smile on my face looked good-natured. I have to say "horizontal pitch approximator" had me laughing out loud, too funny!

But in all seriousness, it does drive me nuts when people refer to it as a "slide guitar", but I rarely correct anybody, unless they seem to actually care...

Don E. Curtis · Post by **Don E. Curtis** » 1 Aug 2006 11:23 am

The Germans call it an, "Egg Slicer"

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 1 Aug 2006 11:30 am

"Cheese Straightener?"

frank rogers · Post by **frank rogers** » 1 Aug 2006 12:12 pm

I once had a guy tell me that his buddy had a much nicer one than mine,it was, "a triple table with flipper dippers and push rods". Personally though, I like, simply, Steel Guitar, with no reference to pedals or not, ie. Pedal,Lap, Non pedal, etc.

Don Powalka · Post by **Don Powalka** » 1 Aug 2006 12:42 pm

When my friends up here talk about my talents, they say " He plays steel." I like that. Reason being that I play Dobro, pedal steel, and the dreaded "SLIDE GUITAR". I guess it never really annoyed me when my steel was referred to as a slide guitar because many more of my friends are familiar with that style of playing. I do try to show these folks the similarities and differences between the two types of playing.

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Fender Strat Fender Tele Gibson Les Paul ShoBud U12 Genuine Dobro Washburn B16 banjo for aggravation

Max Stuckey · Post by **Max Stuckey** » 4 Aug 2006 6:10 pm

I call my JCH "Harry" because when I bought it from Harry he said "It won't stay in tune.