Jerry Gleason
Ah, finally, a web page devoted to pedal steel! Just thought I'd throw in my two cents worth... My name is Jerry Gleason, and I live in Eugene, Oregon. Eugene is not exactly a hotbed of steel guitar activity, so I'm glad to get a chance to get a chance to connect with other players on the net.
Just thought I'd share a little about what I'm doing with the pedal steel for anyone who's interested. I'm a semi-professional jazz and blues guitarist (I have a day job, but I play gigs regularly)...I play in a jump blues /swing / jazz group called The JiveMasters.
I began playing pedal steel again about three years ago after a long hiatus. I play a Carter double 10 with eight pedals and eight knee levers. Here are the tunings I use for my guitar:
As you can see, my E9th is very simple and standard, not much to talk about here. C6th players, on the other hand, might be interested in some of the modifications I've made to the usual setup. Since I play mostly jazz and swing type music (well, I try, anyway), I changed a few things to more easily get the chord types found in modern jazz. On pedal 4, is the change usually found on pedal 8 (the Boo-wa pedal). I use this a lot, so I moved it to a more convenient location. Pedals 5 and 6 are standard, but I've moved the change usually found on pedal seven over to the RKL knee lever. That's because I often use it in conjuction with pedal 5, or 5&6, or sometimes pedal 4. Another change I like is that lowering the G to F (LKL). I play with four picks (three fingerpicks and a thumb) to get a bigger, fuller sound.
| Copyright ©1996 by Jerry Gleason |