Hi all! **before you comment!** yes his instrument is not a standard configuration. We did chat about it, but I decided to cut it out. This video (and series) is more of a show-and-tell about a single musician, their instrument, their place in their musical community, rather than a "how to play..." video. There are plenty of those videos on youtube already. Apologies if you came here expecting a tutorial, but I hope you'll click around on my other videos and find some interesting and unusual instruments that might have escaped your attention until now, I've been humbled to have chatted with some truly exceptional musicians :)
I just found your channel and it's fantastic. awesome videos! so cool to see someone walk through different string instruments with such detail and history
Matt, it'll be easier to set up your guitar and get it out of the case if you have the pedal rods away from you near the case lid. You have it backwards!
Really cool interview. People have mentioned that his set up is really different in two major ways: left handed and strung in reverse. Left handed steels are very RARE because most players wanted a right handed set up. Also normally, the lowest string is closest to your belly, for him the lowest string is the furthest from his belly. Hurts my brain thinking about that. Now if he had a "Day" pedal set up my brain would explode.
John Miller..... A close friend of mine, back in the 1980s & 90's until he passed away from cancer.... had 4 pedal steels that he used, and ALL Four of them set up with Jimmy Day's pedal/lever style..... I tried it.... Arrrrgghhh!!! Could not get used to it, even with just my limited learning on the Emmon's pedal setup... "seemed like" a whole different & opposing world. But, hey!!.... Jimmy could sure play it, and to this day.. manufacturer's still give you a choice of either the Emmons or Day pedal setup. To be honest though, if I had just settled into learning it... I may have found it more comfortable and natural to play, over Buddy's... more common setup... at least that's what my old friend tried to convince me of. Of course if it weren't for Bud Isaac, back in the early 50's (53?) sticking a pedal on his console steel and using it on Webb Pierce's hit.. "Slowly".. there may never have ever been such a thing as Pedal Steel Guitars.... and Buddy and Jimmy were right there to pick up on the idea and run with it... albeit in two opposite directions. lol God bless them, both for "being there" at the beginning and contributing all that they did.... and Especially Bud Isaac for getting the idea one day of.... "I wonder what would happen if I rig a pedal up to try and change the pitch on two of my strings to get two tunings on one neck"? (paraphrased by me). Now I'm fully retired and happily just playing lap steel (have a Gretsch 5715 (in C6th) and a new Recording King (Open D) which I'm about to install a bender on), and bass guitar as well (which I started on, at 12 years old, then got away from it for 54 years, since I left for the service at 18.... but having fun and enjoying it again.
I what to know what brand and model of amp Matt uses and what effects pedals Matt uses to get his reverb & delays when he plays his steel. Please share this because it was not in the video. Its important because not all amps & effects can be played on a pedal steel. Great video and hope you keep making them about the pedal steel.
This is a great introduction to an instrument that I have been trying to play for a couple of years. Once you begin playing it, you will notice it in the background of a lot of non-country music, i.e., the Commodores- Sail On, etc. Thanks for this video. Matt Beck plays like a long-time pro!
Hi! yes his instrument is not a standard configuration. We did chat about it, but I decided to cut it out. This video (and series) is more of a show-and-tell about a single musician, their instrument, their place in their musical community, rather than a "how to play..." video. Sorry if you clicked on it expecting an instructional video!
I was playing PSG professionally before you were born, @The Stringdom. If this is supposed to be a "show and tell" about this particular musician and instrument, I guess you should show and tell your audience what makes this player and instrument so peculiar. The video description could be used for that. Just saying. Cheers and best from south Brazil.
Just notice even your strings are on backwards. Standard arrangement is low strings near you, high strings at the top of the neck. Do you play lap steels the strung up the same way?
Very unusual to see this. A left handed player playing an oddly set up pedal steel. It is strung backwards or upside down with the bass strings away from the player and while he plays left handed, the pedals are a right handed setup and the volume pedal is right handed as well. Not that it really matters it’s just highly unusual. A right handed player operates the pedals with the left foot and volume pedal with the right. Also a few lessons with a really good player can straighten out the technical issues with his hands before the bad habits are more difficult to overcome.
Nice video. I didn't know any of these details on the Pedal Steel Guitar. Are you a fellow pedal steel fan? Check out Bruce Kaphan's 'Slider'. nuff said.
5:21- Hawaiian 'slack key' guitar is a really cool style. It's sort of like emulating steel guitar by using a regular guitar with some different techniques. I highly recommend guitarists check it out. Best of all, you only need a guitar to play slack key; there's nothing special to buy. Steel guitar is such a wonderful instrument. Without it, there are _a lot_ of popular songs that wouldn't sound the same. I like how you've included unusual western string instruments into the channel's repertoire as well as those from the orient and abroad. Keep 'em coming!
Great video to promote the instrument :D A lot of reverb in that mix. Not a bad thing ;) One thing I've noticed though, the strings are on backwards? That's insane :D Is that to make a right handed guitar left handed, swapped the stickers? I'm confused. The pedal rods wouldn't work. Never seen that in my life.
Yes thats right! Keen eye! I assume you're a pedal steel player as well? (the name was a giveaway...) and Matt mentioned it to me as we were packing up. He suggested I make a note of it in the video, because we didn't chat about it in the interview, but I ended up leaving it out.
I noticed that, but no reason the pedals wouldn't work. Think of your C6 neck, the pulls are short to the pedals. I have nine on mine. The ninth has very short rods.
@@steelblue1959 Short pulls or not I'm still struggling to understand how this works. My older brother plays left handed and his guitar was built to play that way. My brother's looks like the guitar above but the strings are loaded the correct way. This has the strings running backwards which makes me think somebody has just took a right handed guitar and turned it round, but then the pedal rod connectors would be on the wrong side of the guitar so the pedal rods themselves wouldn't have a straight drop? The only thing I can think of is that this is a left handed guitar and he's asked them to build the pulls the opposite way round to string number one becomes low B rather than F#.
@@stevenhickenjr the changer is on the side the pedals are on and the tuning keys are on the other end. No different than any other, just the pedals are on the opposite end. It's like playing in 6,7 8 on C6. It's odd, but no reason it won't work.
I love the pedal steel, i had the opportunity to hear it being played in austentexas, it’s sad because it’s not in country music anymore, it was prevalentin the 2000s, what happen to this beautiful instrument
I'd like to see how he shreds fast single string chromatic runs coming at it from the wrong side of the guitar like that. The fingerpicks and thumbpick geometry would be all inside out.
steel man It is a left-handed guitar...sort of. Most left-handed pedal steels I’ve ever seen have the headstock on the right, as it is here. But they usually have the pedals on the right and the volume pedal on the left, opposite of a righty guitar, and also opposite of what is seen here. But I believe Mike Johnstone is specifically referring to the fact that normally on either a righty or a lefty steel, the low B string is the closest to the player, whereas this guitar has the low B furthest from the player. An unusual setup for sure, but if it works for the player, so be it. Definitely would keep other players from being able to sit in on his guitar though.
