When young people would currently visit a pop concert of a band using a lap steel guitar, probably none of them would ever think that the instrument ever started as "Hawaiian" steel guitar. Although many lap steel players still play the instrument the traditional way, most of them even performing mainly traditional tunes, over the past decades a whole new generation of players stood up using the instrument in all kinds of music. It seems that such a development is only a matter of time.

If the lap steel had been still used exclusively in Hawaiian music, its popularity would certainly have gone up and down with that of the Hawaiian music itself. Fortunately, as many steel fans know, the lap steel got used more and more in country and jazz in the 1930's. It is mainly the jazz (actually mainly western swing) repertoire that led to the need for more chords. Under this influence the classic straight A-tuning was changed to A6th, the E- and C#m-tuning kind of melted together to E6th and the E7th- and C#m-tuning to E13th. This had the advantage of having both straight and 6th-chords on the A6th-tuning and straight, 6th-, 7th and 13th-chords on the E13th-tuning. A really important advantage was that minor-chords could be played also on tunings on which it had not been possible previously. Further the tone intervals between certain strings became smaller in the new tunings, which made it easier for a player to make rapid single note solos. To keep the same bass and treble potential as before it was natural that the number of strings sooner or later would increase from 6 to 8. When a few Hawaiian steel guitar players started using so called "split string bar slants" to change chords in build three-part harmony, it suddenly became possible to play 7th- and 9th-chords on the 6th-tuning.

ALVINO REY AND THE GIBSON "ELECTRAHARP"

As many players wanted to have both the A6th- and the E13th-tuning available constantly, it did not take long before the double neck steel guitar was "born". This was around 1937. As with many inventions it is obscure what exactly led to the idea of using pedals on the steel guitar. Some people think that it was just a solution for the need of constantly changing the tuning of the lap steel for using the instrument in various types of music. This way the steel guitar with pedals would just be an alternative for the double neck non pedal instrument and maybe this is exactly how it went. Both the double neck (non pedal) steel guitar and the steel guitar with pedals were developed around the same time (late 1930's). However, a few steel guitar brands had levers, buttons or barrels to enable quick changing of the tuning much earlier. Steel player and multi-instrumentalist Alvino Rey had put manually operated levers on the bridge of his steel guitar already in 1935. However, he preferred the use of pedals, as changing the tuning with his feet had the advantage of having both hands free to play continuously. So already in the late 1930's he went to Gibson and asked if they could put one pedal to his steel guitar to at least enlarge its chord potential. The first real steel guitar with pedals was a development originally started by John Moore, a machinist from Winstead, Connecticut. Alvino Rey had met him and suggested that he would show his idea to the Gibson people. With the help of Gibson's Wilbur Marker the first Gibson pedal steel was built and prepared for production. Gibson baptized the first (and also some post war) series of pedal steel guitars "Electraharp", because, as the story goes, the classic harp also had pedals to change the tuning of certain strings. Commercially spoken this may have been a not too smart step, as steel players of that time could be misled by "harp" as it did not exactly make one think of a steel guitar...

Later on the Harlin Bros., manufacturers of the Multikord pedal steel guitar that became fairly well known later on, claimed to have developed a steel guitar with pedals much earlier than Gibson. Remarkable is that the "changer" mechanisms (and the use of hinging covers at both ends of the instrument's top deck) of the Gibson and the Multikord had pretty much in common. It must have been World War II that spoiled the game for the pedal instrument. The first models built by Gibson kind of looked like an organ and were not as easy to transport as a simple lap steel, so it would be doubtful if many steel guitarists of that time would have gone for the heavy weighing and ungainly pedal guitar. Alvino Rey, who contributed to a lot of steel guitar developments, was one of the few exceptions. Being a bandleader and an arranger too he wanted a steel guitar that could enable many chords. The first Electraharp had six pedals at the left front corner of the instrument and was limited compared to many pedal steel guitars that would be played by Rey later on, but the chord possibilities of the Gibson were quite a step ahead. Alvino Rey would always stick to his idea to play melodies in full chords, as is shown by several recordings. He never used the pedals to build melodic lines.

BIGSBY

Although Alvino Rey got some recognition for his early use of the pedal steel guitar, the instrument never caused a big break through. That changed a lot when Paul Bigsby of Downey, California, came out with his steel guitars. Although some non pedal steel players of that time placed their steel guitar on a stand instead of playing it on their lap, a double or triple neck instrument could be played much more comfortable when provided with 3 or 4 foldable or removable legs. This execution was called "console" steel guitar. Of course a pedal steel guitar always had legs, except for the first Electraharp. Anyway, around 1947 Paul Bigsby started building the finest looking steel guitars on legs of that time. The use of nice grain birdseye maple and several nicely polished aluminium parts set the style for many pedal steel guitar brands to come. It was Speedy West, who ordered a multi-neck steel guitar from Bigsby with a pedal mechanism on one neck enabling to change the tuning of it during playing. Speedy got his Bigsby in February 1948. It had the pedals on a rack between the front legs of the instrument, while the post war Electraharp and the Multikord pedal steel had the pedals connected to the left legs. Speedy had a large wooden board with his name on it between the front legs of his guitar, probably on purpose "hiding" his pedals. When later on he switched to playing a Fender pedal steel, he still used a similar board. Everyone who is familiar with Speedy's career knows that he became famous for his virtuous playing. During the early 1950's he recorded quite a few albums, most of which were duet albums with Jimmy Bryant who became famous as well for his unique and virtuous guitar playing. Although many of these recordings show Speedy's musical abilities, his playing became outdated sooner or later as the "gimmick" element played a major role in it. It would take a lot of painstaking listening to Speedy's early recordings to find out if Speedy sometimes used some of his pedals to build melodic lines before 1953.

Currently there is a lot of historic material available. Reissues of old recordings and reprintings of old pictures show up now and then, even reissues of videotapes of the mid and late 1950's, and they tell quite a story. Many pictures and video's show both non pedal and pedal steel guitars, the latter ones mostly being a Bigsby. The funny thing is that many steel players of that time were still playing non pedal steel while the pedal guitar had been around for more than a decade! It was Leo Fender and his staff who introduced a series of non pedal steel guitar models in the late 1940's that became quite popular. Many steel guitarists used these instruments. In a later version Fender's multi neck steel guitars became known as the "Stringmaster" series with 2, 3 or sometimes even 4 necks.

In the late 1930's Jerry Byrd, a steel player originally from Lima, Ohio, featured the C6th tuning that would become one of the main non pedal steel guitar tunings and would eventually even become, in extended form, the standard tuning of the "second" neck of the pedal steel guitar. Byrd, although heavily influenced by Hawaiian players, developed an attractive style of his own and would influence many steel guitarists. Jerry would later on play with many famous singers and would also record many instrumental albums. Oddly enough two other steel guitarists, Don Helms and Little Roy Wiggins, who played an E6th-tuning (or E13th in Wiggins' case) with a high G# as their first string, a tuning actually 2 notes higher than C6th, gained enormous popularity, although their musical abilities were not as good as Jerry Byrd's. Somehow their crisp, tinkling sounds had much appeal on country music fans. Obviously the impact of the playing of Jerry Byrd, Little Roy Wiggins and Don Helms was large enough to keep the non pedal steel guitar popular for a long time. It would have been interesting to see how the story would have gone if not a player by the name of Bud Isaacs had come along. Isaacs had been asked to do a recording session with famous country singer Webb Pierce. Pierce had cut a song called "Slowly" before, but was looking for something special when he re-recorded it in 1953.

Bud Isaacs, who had a Bigsby pedal steel with 2 pedals that could change the treble and bass end of his E9th-tuning separately, had been using the first pedal of his instrument to play melodic lines already one or two years before Pierce hired him. Isaacs filled the spot perfectly. When steel players heard Isaacs use the effect that later became baptized "country pedals", it struck many of them like a bold from the blue. As the Bud Isaacs chord change could not be imitated by slanting the steel bar, some players immediately started modifying their non pedal guitars as soon as they found out how Isaacs made the wonderful effect. Most of these players simply drilled a hole right through the tuning key end of their steel guitar body and connected two strings to some kind of homemade pulling device. From then on the steel guitar with pedals, or pedal steel guitar, became in demand increasingly. Sonny Burnette became Webb Pierce’s regular player. He also played a Bigsby steel, that he had obtained through steel guitar player John Siebert. Bud Isaacs pulled his B and G# string simultaneously with one pedal. Sonny Burnette's guitar had "split" pedals, which means that the B and G# string were be pulled by 2 separate pedals. This was an important step forward as Sonny could make the Isaacs pedal effect and, when using the pedal that raised the B-string, build minor chords as well, although he hardly used that at first. Pedal steel guitars still had only 8 strings at that time and the 1st string of the E9th tuning was still E. Soon other players, most of them still on their Bigsby's, would adapt the country pedal effect. When looking at the pictures and videotapes of that period, one can see several steel guitarists, including Buddy Emmons, play a double or triple neck Bigsby with pedals. Buddy had ordered his Bigsby already in 1952, but first got it 2 years later. Just before Paul Bigsby shipped it, Buddy asked him to put the "Isaacs tuning" on the instrument. In 1956 Buddy also "split" the first "Isaacs" pedal.

In the meantime the pedal steel guitar had also entered the world of western swing. Old pictures of Hank Thompson's western swing band "The Brazos Valley Boys" show players using a Bigsby steel guitar. One period Hank even had twin steels in the band. Bob White was the first one to play a pedal steel in Hank's band. Remarkably he played the instrument standing up. Bob used a B6th-tuning rather than C6th, probably because of the use of the horns in the band. What later on became a standard pedal, raising the high C and A string of the C6th-tuning, was Bob White's invention.

ROCK AND ROLL

In 1954 singer Elvis Presley shook the world. Although the early signs of rock & roll date from even before his first hit "Alright mama", Elvis (and others) caused a revolution in the musical world. And all of a sudden many kinds of music, including country music, were exposed to the hardest competition ever. Funny thing is that Elvis sang at the Louisiana Hayride with steel player Jimmy Day in the staff band and that even rock & roll legend Bill Haley had a regular steel player in his band "The Comets". The exciting electric guitar solos of Scotty Moore (with Elvis), Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry, however, would soon make most common people forget that there ever was something like a steel guitar. At the time that Elvis still recorded for Sun Records, his music, a fusion between country and black music, was called "rockabilly". A lot of singers adapted Elvis’style, many times still having a steel player in the band. Currently there are many "retrobilly" bands still playing the old style, sometimes using a non pedal steel guitar.

In 1956, Ray Price a singer originally from Texas, who had followed up Hank Williams after Hank's untimely death, recorded a hit record called "Crazy arms" (co-written by steel player Ralph Mooney). That record literally "saved" country music from the decline caused by the upcoming rock & roll. Price used a shuffle beat that would influence country music since then. He also used drums, which until then, with an exception of western swing, were "not done" in country music. Pedal steel guitar player Jimmy Day played a major role in "Crazy arms". While in the mid 1950's Day still used a multi-neck non pedal guitar, to which Zane Beck (later known as the manufacturer of ZB and BMI pedal steel guitars) had added 4 knee levers lowering 4 individual strings on the C6th-tuning, he had switched to a real pedal guitar not long before playing with Ray Price. Jimmy had also "split" the pedals of his guitar. He also started using a pedal raising the high E string of the E9th-tuning a whole tone. He had this function on his first pedal and had the "split" pedals on the second and third pedal (which is a mirror set up, compared to what became the standard set up later on). During that time some other players also came to the idea of raising their high E string a whole tone. Probably they simply tried to find a replacement for the slants they had to make on the steel guitar previously when playing two-tone scales in sixths. Jimmy Day is credited to be the first to put a low (or middle) E-string between the D- and F#-string, which was neither in Isaacs' tuning nor in the E13th non pedal tuning.

Jimmy Day became very famous later on. He has contributed a lot to the development of the E9th pedal guitar tuning and set up. Jimmy was a true stylist and developed many "licks". In the meantime steel player Walter Haynes had become the most demanded session pedal steel guitarist in the Nashville area. Haynes also contributed a lot to the early styles and licks. Who exactly has been most responsible for the development of the pedal set up of the C6th-tuning is still obscure. It was almost natural that the lack of 7th-, 9th-, 13th-, diminished and other chords in the C6th-tuning led to certain pedal functions. And of course the building of an A-chord in the lower end of the tuning (like Jerry Byrd used quite a lot on his lap steel) had to be incorporated.

FENDER

In 1956 The Fender Company featured their model 1000 double neck pedal steel guitar. This was a real luxury instrument with pulling cables to enable quick changing of the pedal set up. Although the instrument's manual never showed the E9th- and C6th tuning and pedal set up that would be the standard tunings later on and Fender would never put knee levers on these guitars, many famous players would start their pedal career on a Fender 1000. Jimmy Day also had one. As Fender already had become well known for their non pedal steel guitars and for their solid body electric guitars, such as the Broadcaster, the Telecaster and the Stratocaster, they were getting dealers all over the U.S.A. This made it possible to sell steel guitars through the dealer net. The Fender pedal guitar, however, maybe got most of its fame in the west coast area. Steel player Ralph Mooney would develop a distinctive style that became known as the "West Coast style". Mooney is credited for adding the high G# string to the E9th pedal steel guitar tuning, although Don Helms and Little Roy Wiggins already had it on their non pedal guitars. He won his fame with singers Skeets McDonald and Wynn Stewart and would be the most used session steel player for Capitol records. He is the one that can be heard on several Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens and Rose Maddox recordings from the early and mid 1960's. A problem with the old Fender pedal steels was that they suffered a lot from breakage of the high G#-string. The instruments had a pretty long scale and had small diameter rollers near the changer. The string breakage problem forced a lot of E9th-players to lower the tuning of their Fender pedal steel guitars to Eb9th or even D9th. Ralph Mooney even pulled his high and low G# (actually G as he played Eb9th) with 2 separate pedals, probably to reduce the problem. The Fender pedal steel was a real factory built instrument. Paul Bigsby had just a limited output and his delivery times got longer and longer.

SHO-BUD AND EMMONS

In 1957 Shot Jackson from the Nashville area, who had played dobro and non pedal steel with a few famous country singers and did a lot of guitar and steel guitar customizing (also adding pedals to non pedal steel guitars), took advantage of Bigsby's long waiting list and decided to start building pedal steel guitars himself. In 1958 he and other famous player Buddy Emmons went building the Sho-Bud pedal steel guitars in Shot's garage in Madison, Tennessee. Oddly enough the first Fender 1000 production model had been presented to Shot not long before he started building the Sho-Bud. Shot and Buddy knew many musicians from the Nashville music scene, so it would not take long before they got many customers. A Sho-Bud tuning & set up booklet from the late 1960's shows quite a few a names of famous Sho-Bud players, such as Bobby Garrett, Walter Haynes, Jimmy Day, Lloyd Green, Hal Rugg, Buddy Charleton (with Ernest Tubb) and Pete Drake. The first Sho-Buds were 8-string instruments. Although most of these had beautiful birdseye maple cabinets like the Bigsby steel guitars (several exotic woods could be ordered as an option), they did not have aluminium endplates yet. Just like the Bigsby's they had a permanent pedal set up which could be altered only by bringing it back to Shot Jackson. The first Sho-Buds did not even have a roller nut, which sometimes led to a strange noise when pushing a pedal. It is not exactly known when Sho-Bud started using knee levers. In the mentioned booklet most instruments just had one knee lever. Although not all, most instruments in the booklet had 10 strings per neck. Bobby Garrett, who became well known for his fantastic steel work (including "Travis thumb style") with Hank Thompson, got the first Sho-Bud double neck with 10 strings. The first knee lever on the E9th-tuning was the one lowering the E-strings a half tone. Nut rollers became an absolute necessity as the string pitch after releasing a raise pedal otherwise would be much different from the pitch after releasing a lowering pedal. A few players, Lloyd Green and Hal Rugg being the most prominent of them, never went to lower their high E-string probably for this reason. Hal Rugg is credited for being the first to raise the E-strings of the E9th-tuning a half tone by means of a knee lever. When pedal set ups became more complex, all strings had to be provided with a multiple lower and multiple raise possibility.

In September 1962 Buddy Emmons followed up Jimmy Day in Ray Price's band "The Cherokee Cowboys". It was quite a challenge to replace such a great stylist as Day, so Buddy started looking for something special. He went experimenting with a high F# and D# at the bass end of his E9th-tuning. Herb Remington, who became famous as one of Bob Wills' (the king of Western Swing) best steel players, had experimented with these strings also on his E13th non pedal tuning. Later on Buddy sent his pedal steel back to Shot Jackson to let him put these strings on top of the tuning. From then on this became the standard E9th-tuning, as these strings, which actually changed the E9th-tuning to E9th.added maj.7 (although at first most players called it "E9th.chromatic"), fitted perfectly when playing a major scale at one bar position. While most of the Nashville and West Coast steel guitarists (and also even "swing" players, such as Noel Boggs and Joaquin Murphy and eventually also Herb Remington, Billy Bowman and others) went to play a pedal steel, Jerry Byrd, "the master of touch and tone", stuck to playing a non pedal guitar (Jerry never used that expression, as in his opinion a steel guitar without pedals is just a "steel guitar"). Finally around 1971 he became tired of and frustrated by the Nashville music scene with its hard competition and decided to move to Hawaii. This led to re-introducing the steel guitar into Hawaiian music, where it had become almost forgotten, and to teaching many native Hawaiians to play the instrument.

In 1962 Buddy Emmons started toying with the idea of building his own pedal steel guitar. He and Ron Lashley from Burlington, North Carolina, developed a steel guitar with a special changer with which raises were realized by pulling the string fingers and lowers were made by pushing them. The Emmons guitar was much more compact than any other design on the market. It had aluminum necks, influenced by the Bigsby design, and mica glass finish instead of lacquer as it was harder and thus protected the instrument better. At first the neck, changer support and tuning key head were one piece, which caused the instrument to go out of tune by changing temperatures constantly. Later on Buddy and Ron changed it to independent parts to solve this problem. Who could have expected that the construction of the Emmons guitar and the choice of materials would lead to the best sounding pedal steel guitar ever (as is generally accepted)? The Emmons Guitar Co. Inc. was founded in 1963.

Buddy took advantage of the new sound when playing with Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys. Ray's records from the mid and late 1960's show the clearest and most "open" sounds ever. Buddy Emmons' great playing would sooner or later make many well known steel guitarists buy and play an Emmons guitar. To name a few: Buddy Charleton, Weldon Myrick, Stu Basore, Jimmy Crawford, John Hughey, Sonny Garrish, Hal Rugg, Herby Wallace and Jay Dee Maness. Unfortunately Buddy Emmons and Ron Lashley would split up later on. This led to Buddy using a Sho-Bud once again. He and Shot recorded "The two aces back together" in the early 1970's, Buddy on steel and Shot on dobro.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Since 1963 a lot of changes took place. Zane Beck, who had been working at the Sho-Bud Company, began building his own pedal steel guitars. The ZB, as he named them, became quite famous as they got used by Tom Brumley with singer Buck Owens (Tom even became director of the ZB Guitar Company later on), Norman Hamlet with Merle Haggard, Sonny Curtis with George Jones and Rusty Young with Poco. Zane Beck was quite a talented player himself, using a 12-string universal E13th-tuning that kind of combined the possibilities of the E9th and the C6th. Brumley became famous in for his great solo and backup in Buck Owens' hit record "Together again", recorded in 1964. Tom played a Fender 1000 on that session that was originally owned by Jay Mac Donald, Buck's former road player. Not much later Tom became an official "Buckaroo". After playing a later Fender 1000 model with a shorter scale, a different changer and a different pickup, not exactly a good sounding combination, Tom switched to a 10-string ZB double neck, one of the best sounding steel guitars ever built.

Around the same time some other brands came on the market. Maurice Anderson, a very talented jazz and western swing player from Dallas, Texas, was not satisfied with the mechanics of the pedal steel guitars of that time. Together with Tom Morrell and Danny Shields he started producing the MSA pedal steel guitar. Although mechanically and from the finishing it was a perfect instrument, it did not have the great tone of the Sho-Bud, Emmons and ZB. Nevertheless many Texas steel guitarists went to play an MSA pedal steel. One of the most prominent players who went to play an MSA was Curly Chalker, who had won his fame by doing recording sessions for Hank Thompson. He was one of the best C6th players of that time, influenced by steel guitarists Noel Boggs and Joaquin Murphy. Chalker could execute chord series with unbelievable speed. To Maurice Anderson's opinion the pedal steel guitar by then was technically advanced enough to combine the possibilities of the E9th and the C6th tuning in one universal tuning. "Reece" would develop a 12-string Bb6th-tuning that could be changed to an Eb9th-tuning by pushing a knee lever. A series of albums called "The moods of Maurice Anderson" did not only show Anderson’s musical abilities but also the potential of his tuning and set up. Less fortunate was that Anderson took a 6th-tuning to start from while most steel guitarists used the "commercial" 9th-tuning. Nevertheless he became an inspiration for many players and so it would not take long before someone developed a (also 12-string) universal tuning based on E9th. Later on the "S-12 Universal" pedal steel guitar would become popular enough to become included in the production program of most steel guitar manufacturers.

Around the end of the 1960's the pedal steel guitar was pretty well established in Nashville-, West Coast- and western swing music. Buddy Emmons had cut a pure jazz album in 1963. Pete Drake had developed some appealing country licks on the C6th-tuning. Lloyd Green featured an exciting new style on the E9th-tuning, using staccato licks and an effective use of the "third" pedal and the knee lever that raised the E-strings a half tone. His solo work on Warner Macks' "The Bridge washed out" really opened new doors for the pedal steel (Lloyd Green would later on feature the "LDG" model, a single neck instrument on double neck frame with a padded rear deck. He removed his C6th neck and pedals as he did not use these very much with his session work and replaced the neck by a pad for playing comfort). Jimmie Crawford developed a kind of banjo style on the pedal steel.

In the meantime almost every major country singer had a great pedal steel guitarist in the band. Many of these players, although everyone adapted something from other players, had become true stylists who would sooner or later record one or more instrumental albums.

PEDAL STEEL IN POP MUSIC

Until the late 1960's the pedal steel guitar had only occasionally been used outside the country music field. That suddenly changed when singer Bob Dylan used Pete Drake on his "Nashville Skyline" album and pop band The Byrds used Lloyd Green and Jay Dee Maness on their "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" album. From then on more and more pop artists started using a pedal steel guitar, some of them even for road work. Music producers (also in other countries than the U.S.A.) discovered the instrument as "something new" and started hiring steel players for recording sessions. Bands / singers such as Michael Nesmith, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, Asleep at the Wheel, Poco, Manassas and Ricky Nelson, often called "country rock" bands, used the pedal steel guitar quite effectively. The "Burrito's" had Sneaky Pete in their band. "Sneaky" played an old Fender 400 8-string pedal steel guitar with an unorthodox B6th-tuning. Although he could reproduce many of the standard E9th sounds, his overall style and sound were quite different and he could even "imitate" the standard electric guitar. Sneaky Pete, Rusty Young (with Poco), Al Perkins (with Manassas) and other rock players started using distortion and other electronic effects. Jerry Garcia, guitarist of the Grateful Dead played an attractive pedal steel solo in "Teach your children" of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The Carpenters used Jay Dee Maness and Red Rhodes on a few of their records that became hits. Even Paul McCartney, formerly with The Beatles used a pedal steel on some of his albums. Buddy Emmons had done sessions with Ray Charles and with Henri Mancini. The pedal steel guitar seemed to have become an "accepted" instrument in many kinds of music.

CHANGES IN THE STEEL GUITAR WORLD

In the 1970's many country artists and producers, in their constant search for something new, started using violins and keyboards. The steel guitar began being used less and less. Pop music producers dropped the steel guitar, as it was no longer a novelty. Since the mid 60's and early 70's Emmons, Sho-Bud, ZB and MSA had got competition from a growing number of new steel guitar manufacturers: Marlen, Miller, Kline, Dekley, BMI , Sierra, Zumsteel (the latter combining the styling of the Emmons guitar with an all pull changer) and others. Emmons would stop the production of their original push pull models in the early 1980's and replace these by their LeGrande and later on Lashley LeGrande all pull models. MSA had to close down after Norlin, a large distributor, stopped ordering pedal steel guitars. Bud Carter, formerly with MSA started building the MCI (later on EMCI) continuing the high standard that was set during his MSA period. Paul Franklin, one of the most talented young players ever, started getting known with his amazing, almost fluid, speed picking. Paul's father started building the Franklin pedal steel guitar. Franklin also featured the "Pedabro", an acoustic pedal steel guitar with a resonator, like the dobro. Many new brands would get on the market. Jimmy Crawford and John Hughey started building the JCH, a better alternative for the Emmons guitar. Mullen became a good alternative for Sho-Bud and ZB (both went out of production around the early 1990's). Gene Fields, a former Fender employee (Gene designed the Fender PS 210, a very futuristic but short lived model), started building the GFI. Carter, manufactured by Bud Carter and successfully sold by John and Ann Fabian, came on very strong. Fabian was one of the first to take advantage of the computer and the internet. The Carter was manufactured at a fairly large scale and had relatively short delivery times. Many well-known steel guitarists switched to playing a Carter. A few other new brands, such as Derby, took advantage of the long delivery times of Emmons guitars. Eventually, after the death of Ron Lashley sr., things got worse with the Emmons Guitar Co. By that time many top players had switched to playing a Zumsteel. In the meantime there were many pedal steel manufacturers outside the U.S.A.: Fulawka in Canada, Excel in Japan, Bennett and Rotosound (and probably a few other brands) in England, Framus (later on A.B.M.), Jagiella and WBS in Germany, DeVis in the Netherlands, AWH (later on AVM) in Sweden, Wiesner in Switzerland, Promat in Yugoslavia and Anapeg in Australia. A few of these brands no longer exist.

COURSES AND SEMINARS

The Sho-Bud Company probably was the first to feature an instruction method (an LP by Neil Flanz) to teach people how to learn to play the pedal steel guitar. A few other Sho-Bud courses would follow. Being steel guitar manufacturers they understood very well that courses were a necessity, as the pedal steel still was relatively unknown and there were hardly any possibilities to learn to play the fairly difficult instrument. Steel player Jeff Newman featured his first course (with tab book and LP) in 1969. Many more courses would follow. Later on he would become the most well-known and respected steel guitar teacher ever. He opened a school and did a lot of "road" seminars both in the U.S.A. and quite a few foreign countries. The Emmons Guitar Co. featured a 52-weeks E9th course, a 52-weeks C6th course and a few other courses, some of them on tape, some on record, with the help of well-known pedal steel guitarists such as Doug Jernigan. Herby Wallace featured many courses and did road seminars as well. More and more people started publishing tablature and teaching methods. In 1975 Oak Publications featured Winnie Winston's and Bill Keith's "Pedal Steel Guitar" book. This book (with floppy record) became a real book of reference. It was not only a good course for beginners; it also was a kind of encyclopaedia, throwing light on every facet of the pedal steel guitar. Later on Mel Bay Publications featured some very good courses by DeWitt Scott (better known as "Scotty") with tab book and tape (CD later on). Their "Anthology of Pedal Steel Guitar" is probably the best-sold pedal steel guitar course.

CONVENTIONS

In 1972 DeWitt Scott (his "Scotty's Music" is probably the best known music store for steel guitars and accessories. He also ran "Midland Records" that recorded many steel guitar albums) organized an "International Steel Guitar Convention" in St. Louis, Missouri, which would be attended by a few well-known players. This was a great opportunity for steel guitar fans to see their idols perform live on stage. The show had much success and so it became a regular annual festival. More and more famous players would attend the Convention in the years that followed. In 1978 Scotty started the "Steel Guitar Hall of Fame". Each year one or more people who had a great impact on the history of the steel guitar were inducted and rewarded with a plaque. Jerry Byrd, Leon McAuliffe (formerly with Bob Wills) and Alvino Rey were the first ones to be inducted. Not many years after the start of the Convention, others would follow Scotty's example. Both in the U.S.A. and several foreign countries, such as England, The Netherlands, Austria and a few Scandinavian (and probably other) countries steel fans organized regular and individual festivals where national and foreign steel players (including several American top players) would perform.

ASSOCIATONS, CLUBS, MAGAZINES

Already in 1962 Paul Graupp started a series of articles about the pedal steel guitar for the "Fretts" magazine. The pedal steel guitar was relatively unknown at that time. So Paul contributed a lot to a better understanding of the instrument. Who still have copies of these articles or the reprinting by Tom Bradshaw (Tom is known for his "Pedal Steel Guitar Products" mail order store, his many in-deep steel guitar writings (Tom had a regular Newsletter too), the "Steel Guitar Record Club" and the re-issue of many vintage steel guitar recordings) can read some interesting stories about the early pedal steel and its development. Paul's article series lasted till early 1968. After that many steel guitar articles were published in "Guitar Player" magazine. Tom Bradshaw, Buddy Emmons, Jeff Newman and Rusty Young all had a monthly column for some time. "Guitar Player" somehow lost interest and hardly ever had articles about the steel guitar later on. In the meantime several steel guitar associations and clubs were founded. To name a few outside the Hawaiian music field: Pedal Steel Guitar Association (formed in 1973), Nashville (& International) Steel Guitar Club, (Scotty's) Steel Guitar International, Ozark Steel Guitar Association. There were also clubs in Canada, England, The Netherlands and Australia. All of them have (or had, as some clubs no longer exist) their own regular steel guitar magazine. Tom Bradshaw had the best, but unfortunately short lived, magazine called "Steel Guitarist" magazine. One of the very best in later years would be "Steel Guitar World" magazine, which unfortunately ran in serious financial problems. The ever-growing information stream from the internet may have caused a decreasing interest in magazines. Currently there are many so-called "forums" on the internet where steel fans can join in and exchange questions and information.

REVIVAL

After a period of decline, (country music and) the use of pedal steel guitars got a revival around the late eighties / early nineties. Singer Ricky Skaggs brought back honest country sounds with Bruce Bouton on pedal steel. Skaggs also used Lloyd Green, Weldon Myrick and his later road player Terry Crisp for his record sessions. After singer Garth Brooks rocketed to fame and in short time sold millions of records, the road seemed to be paved again for country music. Chris Hillman, with Jay Dee Maness on steel, came on very strong with music that echoed sounds of the "Byrds" period. Paul Franklin, who played his own unique style and could perfectly blend it with the Pete Drake, Ralph Mooney and Buddy Emmons style as well, became the most used session player. John Hughey, who had become well-known with singer Conway Twitty, started playing with singer Vince Gill and did a lot of session work. Jay Dee Maness did a lot of session work in the pop field, even with famous guitarist / singer Eric Clapton (listen to Clapton's studio version of "Tears in Heaven") and with The Rolling Stones. Tom Brumley, formerly with Buck Owens (and later on with Rick Nelson), got into session work, most notably with Dwight Yoakam who had "re-discovered" Buck Owens. Buddy Emmons recorded a series of albums with singer / producer Ray Pennington, perfectly demonstrating how a pedal steel guitar can be used in big band music (with melodies known to most common people). Tommy White, who already had recorded his first instrumental album at the age of 15, became a regular staff player at the Grand Ole Opry and did many record sessions showing his talent. Paul Franklin did sessions with famous guitarist / singer Mark Knopfler. Paul also did a 2-year tour with Knopfler and his band "Dire Straits", which meant a tremendous publicity for the pedal steel guitar. Many standard guitar players from then on would pick up the pedal steel as their second instrument. The "Dire Straits" tour also confronted many common people with an instrument that had been relatively unknown until then.

THE FUTURE

Nobody knows what the future will bring for the pedal steel guitar. Although many players have been trying endlessly to bring the instrument under the attention of musicians, producers and listeners outside the country music field, the pedal steel guitar still is known mainly from country music. Although many records, cassette tapes and CD's show the enormous jazz potential of the instrument, there is hardly any interest from the jazz world. Many producers even do not want a pedal steel guitar on pop country records as the instrument makes the music sound "too country". Unfortunately a lot of what is called "country music" is used for line dance music, in which heavy drum beats and rolling guitar patterns are dominant enough to leave hardly any room for solo work, including fills and solos by steel guitars and other instruments. A remarkable thing is that the lap steel is coming on very strong again these days. In America Tom Morrell, Maurice Anderson, Billy Robinson and others (even Tom Brumley) demonstrated what can be done on a lap or console (non pedal) steel. And while the annual sales numbers of the pedal instruments remain at the same level, many musicians rather buy the "easy to toy with" lap steel. Maybe steel players should no longer be busy demonstrating very hard what can be done on a pedal guitar (everything has been played by now from classical to fusion). Maybe they should try harder not to be a "clone" and try to avoid "stereotyped" playing. Maybe they should use a universal tuning... Maybe they should try to be more audience-directed, trying not to look at their instrument while playing. After all the pedal steel guitar is not exactly a show instrument. Maybe steel players should try to bring the instrument under people's attention just by sharing the local amusement band rather than being member of a country "cover" band.