The Steel Guitar Forum Store 

Post new topic A pedal steel banjo? Really???
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Reply to topic
Author Topic:  A pedal steel banjo? Really???
David Shepack

 

From:
New Jersey, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 4:37 am    
Reply with quote

View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

David Shepack

 

From:
New Jersey, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 5:49 am     No replies????
Reply with quote

I half expected someone to YELL at me for wasting their time
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Steve Perry


From:
Elizabethtown Ky, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 7:26 am    
Reply with quote

Looks like another case of "just because you can, doesn't mean you should". Laughing
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Mike Wheeler


From:
Delaware, Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 8:00 am    
Reply with quote

Innovative. I like the idea. Pedal dobro was done, why not pedal banjo?

Can you post some sound clips showing what it sounds like?
_________________
Best regards,
Mike
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Dick Sexton


From:
Greenville, Ohio
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 8:07 am     Wow...
Reply with quote

A pedaled console Banjo? Wonder if they make a light weight fly model.

Notice the wheeled apparatus in the back to his left. I suspect that is what it takes to move it.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Daniel McKee

 

From:
Corinth Mississippi
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 9:14 am    
Reply with quote

I bet all that is heavy. I would also like to hear what it sounds like. I always have liked Buck Trents style of playing where he would try to get pedal steel sounds out of his banjo and he had to turn tuning keys and I think he had some sort of palm pedal but it looks like this one has several floor pedals so I imagine its a lot easier to get those sounds this way
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Roger Miller


From:
Cedar Falls, Ia.
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 9:34 am    
Reply with quote

Back in the 70;s in a music store on Gallitan Rd. there was a banjo with pedals on a frame and the name on the banjo was ShoBud. This was in the experimental stage and the store tried to sell it, nobody wanted it. Pretty weird looking.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

chris ivey


From:
california (deceased)
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 9:44 am    
Reply with quote

idle hands are the devil's workshop.
View user's profile Send private message

Richard Sinkler


From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 9:50 am    
Reply with quote

I'd love to see the case for that thing.
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, NV400, NV112 . Playing for 54 years and still counting.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Clyde Mattocks

 

From:
Kinston, North Carolina, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 10:18 am    
Reply with quote

I saw this thing and actually sat down to it at IBMA in Raleigh. It is made by the guy that makes the Fultz banjo tailpiece. It has six floor pedals and four knee levers plus hand levers that determine whether a raise or lower is a half or whole step. Twenty possible changes on four strings (none on the fifth string). He had a book there with photos showing every step of the building process. Lots of gears and cams, everything brass, looks like the inside of an old German clock. As was mentioned in posts above, I believe he built it just to show that he could.
_________________
LeGrande II, Nash. 112, Harlow Dobro
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 10:32 am     Dnt Undrstnd
Reply with quote

Why Lord, why? Confused
_________________
-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website

Richard Sinkler


From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 11:29 am    
Reply with quote

B0B, take a valium and lay down for a while. It will be OK.
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, NV400, NV112 . Playing for 54 years and still counting.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Greg Cutshaw


From:
Corry, PA, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 11:58 am    
Reply with quote

One Valium just won't be enough!
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website Yahoo Messenger

Matthew Jackson


From:
Tennessee, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 1:49 pm     i give up
Reply with quote

ok I am pretty sure that wins the weird hands down.
I just have to wonder
_________________
telejo, la 400, a few wonderfull TG banjos, a red tele made from what ever parts I could find, a few dobros and my beat up/butt ugly Pitzfer aluminum upright bass.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Damir Besic


From:
Nashville,TN.
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 2:06 pm    
Reply with quote

"Foggy mind breakdown"... was the first instrumental played on that thing..I would imagine ...

Db
_________________
https://steelguitarsonline.com/
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Alan Brookes


From:
Brummy living in Southern California
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 3:25 pm    
Reply with quote

My first reaction was that there must be a way to connect pedals to a banjo without such a heavy console.
I'd love to hear what it sounds like.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

David Shepack

 

From:
New Jersey, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 4:09 pm     Alan
Reply with quote

I bet someone had similar thoughts about the piano at first. I would love to play it. or better yet, record it. Imagine the poor banjo players trying to recreate the sound.
Then there was the guy who puts fender bass neck on a bass drum, to make an acoustic bass.
I did sound at an Indian show. A guy had a violin with a horn coming out of it.
Maybe one of us will engineer an acoustic pedal steel
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Chris Lucker

 

From:
Los Angeles, California USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 5:17 pm    
Reply with quote

How does Buck Trent's banjo work? He sure makes pedal steel sounds on all those old Porter Wagoner songs.
_________________
Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 5:26 pm    
Reply with quote

I played with a guy once who had an electric banjo with two pedals, connected with bicycle cables like Phil Baugh's pedal bar contraption. I've heard better sounds from a lawn mower.
_________________
-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website

Jerry Hayes


From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 6:36 pm    
Reply with quote

Hey Chris. Buck Trent's banjo had a "wooden" head instead of the usual type which had a ShoBud steel guitar pickup mounted in it. It had a bender mechanism inside of it which was put together by Shot Jackson at ShoBud. There were two round metal pads above the strings that pushed down into the body which operated separately and raised the 1st string D to E and the 2nd string B to C. This would give him a I to IV chord change for some good steel guitar licks. The pads that pushed into the body were right under the heel of his hand so you couldn't see them when he was playing. He also used the banjo de-tuners which lowered the 2nd string to A and the 3rd string G to F#. He was/is a master at this instrument and I love his playing a lot. One of my favorites of his is the intro and backup on Porter Wagoner's "Carroll Country Accident".. You can pull it up on YouTube and you'll see what I mean..........JH in Va.
_________________
Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Chris Lucker

 

From:
Los Angeles, California USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 7:09 pm    
Reply with quote

Thank you for the explanation I appreciate it.
I urge everyone to listen to the Carroll County Accident or Cold Hard Facts of Life right now for cool banjo.
_________________
Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Alan Brookes


From:
Brummy living in Southern California
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 8:11 pm     Re: Alan
Reply with quote

David Shepack wrote:
I bet someone had similar thoughts about the piano at first...

Well the piano was a development of the cimbalom, which was already quite a massive instrument, being an orchestral version of the hammer dulcimer, to which a keyboard was added, which did make for an instrument which was too heavy to be moved around very much.
I was thinking more in lines of the attachment which was made by Maurice Anderson, which was touched on in the following thread:-
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=128005&highlight=cable+frame
There's a YouTube demo of it somewhere. I'll have to look for it. In the meantime I would love to hear a demo of the unit which is shown in your photo. Cool
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Alvin Blaine


From:
Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA
Post  Posted 29 Sep 2013 9:59 pm    
Reply with quote

I thought it was kind of cool. Like having multiple Kieth tuners on every string. The idea of it that I liked, is that I use about four different tunings on banjo so just holding down a couple of pedals, or knee levers, I could have all kinds of tunings. Also that you can bend a string while fretting, something you can't do with Keith/Scruggs tuners.
It was fun to play with, here is a pic of me trying it out.

_________________
http://www.oldbluesound.com/about.htm
http://www.facebook.com/cowboytwang
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Scott Shipley


From:
The Ozark Mountains
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2013 12:10 am    
Reply with quote

The palm pedal on my '69 raised neck "The Maverick Custom" was made by Shot for one of Buck's banjos but never got installed. Harry Jackson installed it on my Sho-Bud a few years ago.
_________________
Scott Shipley Facebook
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Peter Harris

 

From:
South Australia, Australia
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2013 2:42 am    
Reply with quote

I guess the one good thing about it being so heavy is that it doesn't get around too much...... Rolling Eyes
_________________
If my wife is reading this, I don't have much stuff....really!
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail


All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Jump to:  

Our Online Catalog
Strings, CDs, instruction,
steel guitars & accessories

www.SteelGuitarShopper.com

Please review our Forum Rules and Policies

Steel Guitar Forum LLC
PO Box 237
Mount Horeb, WI 53572 USA


Click Here to Send a Donation

Email admin@steelguitarforum.com for technical support.


BIAB Styles
Ray Price Shuffles for
Band-in-a-Box

by Jim Baron
HTTP