Guitar Jam: Steel Crazy: Introducing Steel Guitar

By Bill McCloskey
Yes, ask anyone, I’m Steel Crazy after all these years: welcome to the first article in my new column dedicated to love of the Steel Guitar - Steel Crazy.

We are going to start by first defining exactly what we mean by Steel Guitar, and believe me it is not an easy task. The definition is even now debated by aficionados of the instrument, mainly because it is so many different things to so many different types of people, music, and cultures. Steel Guitar takes many different forms: acoustic, electric, with pedals, without pedals, 6 string, 8 string, 10 string, 12 string and more. Single necks, Double necks, Triples, Quads. Rock, Hawaiian, Country, Jazz, Western Swing, Sacred Steel and Devotional Music, Blues, and even Avant-garde.

In fact, I would say that if you are looking for an instrument to make your own – if you are looking for a place to truly develop a unique voice, one that has never been heard before, there is no better place to start than the Steel Guitar.

The first thing to understand is that Steel Guitar is not defined by the building material of the instrument – even National Steels aren’t made of Steel – but by the piece of metal you hold in your hand – the “steel” – that you use to fret the strings.

History holds that back in 1885, 11 year old Hawaiian Joseph Kekuku picked up a railroad tie on his way to school and used it to drag across the strings of his guitar, creating the first “steel guitar”. This story may or may not be true, considering that the Oahu Railway didn’t start running in Hawaii until 1889, but nevertheless it is the only story we have.

But certainly, THAT SOUND, the sliding sound of metal against metal with it’s eerie ability to mimic the human voice began there in Hawaii and from there transformed everything known as “popular” music from that time down until day. From Johnny Winter to Jerry Douglas to Buddy Emmons, to Jerry Garcia to B.B King – nearly every aspect of what we call popular music (including the invention of the electric guitar) had its roots back on that day in Hawaii, even though there may or may not have been actual railroad tracks there. Thinking of it that way, Hawaii is Eden and Joseph Kekuku is our Adam.

The other thing that differentiates Steel Guitar from, say, the Bottleneck Guitar of the old (and new) blues players is that Steel Guitar is played flat – on a horizontal plane – either in your lap or on a stand, or as part of a larger console. So, from a definition standpoint, those are the only 2 things that all steel guitars have in common: you play it flat and you play it with a “steel” or bar in your hand, on raised strings. The strings are never fretted with your fingers.

From there things get wild and wooly pretty fast. I’ll be devoting individual columns about all the major transformations of the Steel Guitar in future columns, but for this introductory examination, we’ll condense things pretty radically:

The first mass-marketed and popular Steel Guitar was the National Steel Tricone guitar invented by John Dopyera. Together with his brother, the Dopyera Brothers had a lasting impact on the future of music. Not only did they invent the guitar that helped popularize and imbue the Hawaiian sound into Tin Pan Alley, Jazz, and Blues, they also invented a hybrid instrument, the Dobro (from DOpyera BROthers) which became a signature sound of Bluegrass. Key to these instruments was the “resonator” an attempt to make an acoustic amplification system so that the guitar could be heard above an orchestra before there were PA systems.

This eventually led to an electric version of the Steel Guitar, manufactured by a number of companies including Rickenbacker, National, Gibson, and Fender. Starting out as 6 strings, and pushed door-to-door and through outlets like Sears, these instruments were geared to capitalizing on the Hawaiian music craze of the time but soon got co-opted into Western Swing, Hillbilly Boogie Music, and Country and once that happened all hell broke loose. These are the instruments which are commonly called “Lap Steel” guitars and will be a major focus of this column.

6 Strings soon became 8 strings. With 8 strings, multiple tunings were experimented with. Some tunings were considered secrets of the trade with at least one famous musician de-tuning his guitar during breaks so that no one could steel his invention. Multiple tunings lead to multiple necks – first a double neck, then a triple neck and finally a Quad – a four necked 32 string guitar.

Eventually something had to give and in the 50’s a new variation came on the market. One in which a single neck could be employed but, through a series of pedals (and eventually knee-levers) that could be depressed, the guitar could be given different tunings without re-tuning, and eliminating the need for multiple necks.

Eventually someone realized that you could create a new sound by playing a chord and THEN pressing the pedals while holding the notes, so that two chords could seem to be pulled through each other, in a way that had never been heard before. This became the signature sound of the Pedal Steel Guitar, and launched a movement away from Steel Guitars without pedals to Steel Guitars with pedals. Eventually the Pedal Steel Guitar settled on 2 standard tunings and 2 necks to play them on, and the non-pedal guitar began it’s slow decline in popularity

But, for many people, the individuality that came from those unique tunings and ways of playing that proliferated for so long with Lap Steel musicians was lost once the more mechanical sounding Pedal Steel took it’s place in the modern recording industry.

Today there is a renaissance in these older lap steel styles, and people like David Lindley have popularized the instruments once again. Traditional Steel Guitar manufacturers such as MSA have now been pushing the envelope with exciting and newly designed lap steel models which have re-invigorated the market. It is this type of music we will be spending a lot of time with over the next months and years. And while we will touch on the innovators playing Dobro, Weissenborn, and Pedal Steel Guitars, Lap Steel is where my passion lies, and I hope your passion will soon lie as well. You might find yourself, like me, Steel Crazy after all these years.

As a final note, if you are a Steel guitar player, manufacturer, or producer and would like to have your album and product reviewed contact me through the Guitar Jam Daily site.