At this time, many changes were implemented and basically what came from most of these innovations is our modern pedal steel guitar as we know it today. Both propelled the pedal steel and how we approach this instrument into a brand new light.
In the 1950's Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day were credited with more innovations. It is noted that in 1952 Zane Beck who played for Hank Williams, Jim Reeves and many other notables, was credited to adding knee levers to a console steel.īud Isaacs is credited to adding a pedal to his console steel and was the first to record a song and change the pitch of two strings while holding a chord and thus the crying pedal steel guitar sound we hear today was born. One of the first electric steels to actually have pedals was designed by Paul Bigsby most notably known today for his vibrato tail piece used on many electric guitars even to this day.Įven with the addition of floor pedals steel players of that day still needed more versatility. Gibsons system of pedals seemed to work very well for the Electroharp. The Gibson Corporation in 1940 created the Electraharp which allowed the musician to change the pitch of certain strings without the use of a bar by using floor pedals. Alvino Ray is credited to having pedals added to the electric lap steel. The late 1930's and early 1940's the light bulb went on and pedals were added to the electric lap steel. But, even with these limitations players such as Herb Remington, Jerry Byrd, Joaquin, and Leon McAuliffe push onward and made fantastic music with what they had to work with. Even with all this there was something missing. Multiple necks, adding extra strings, various tunings, and bar slanting. Players tried everything to be able to play on the songs they loved. People such as Charlie Christian Boggs, Noel Boggs, Leo Fender, Leon McAuliffe, and Santo were all involved in the progress of the electric lap steel with multiple necks.Įven with the strides made by adding an extra neck or two to the lap steel, the musicians were still limited and they knew it. With the need to have some versatility in playing songs in different keys and scales, the addition of an extra neck tuned to a specific tuning seemed to be the logical answer at that time. Soon legs were added and the instrument was called a console steel. It has actually evolved over the years dating back to the early 1930's with the electric lap steel. So he plans to add a tribute to his repertoire.Ĭullum says he won't play it as well as Buddy Emmons did, but nobody could.The pedal steel guitar is a very unique instrument.
Still, Cullum idolized the man for how he innovated with both the instrument and the music. "I was like, we've got to do 'Once Upon A Time In The West,' because I think it's the only Buddy Emmons song I could tackle."Ĭullum says he regrets that he never actually met Emmons, even though he lived just across town. "We're doing a New York run," Cullum says. One of those whom Emmons indirectly taught to play is Spencer Cullum, who tours with Miranda Lambert and also has his own band, Steelism. "He taught everybody to play, whether it was one-on-one or just by his being." "I loved him and I miss him, and I will continue to miss him every time I sit down to a guitar, just like all the other steel players," Elliott says. Ron Elliott, a fellow pedal pro, says he accepted that he'd never be as good as Emmons, his close friend for more than 50 years. He retired from music in 2007 when he lost his wife. "It's just rife with possible accidents left and right."Įmmons displayed his abilities on numerous recordings of his own, including an acclaimed jazz album from 1963, Steel Guitar Jazz. "It's like a Rubik's Cube of a musical instrument that's not unlike driving a stick-shift truck through landmines," he says. There are pedals, knee levers, sometimes two sets of strings. The pedal steel has humbled many a musician who took a seat at one expecting to make a sweet sound. "You're talking about the ability to play fiery, complex, single-note solos that just would leave you staggered when you heard them, coupled with really imaginative chordal work," Fishell says.
Steve Fishell, who plays pedal steel for Emmylou Harris, calls Emmons a musical genius - even a savant. Though he might not be a household name, Emmons played on records for everyone from Ray Price to Ray Charles, and from George Strait to Judy Collins. Buddy Emmons as a member of Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours, circa 1962.Įlmer Williams/Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum/Getty ImagesĬountry music wouldn't sound like itself without the pedal-steel guitar, and the instrument sounds the way it does today because of Buddy Emmons, who died Wednesday in Nashville at 78.