Steel guitar
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Image:Steel guitar-KayEss.1.jpeg
Steel guitar is:
- A method of playing slide guitar using a steel. Resonator guitars are particularly suitable for this style, but other types are also used, as well as instruments produced specifically for the purpose.
- A specialised instrument built for playing in steel guitar fashion. These may be electric or acoustic, and are of three types:
The name steel guitar comes not from the material of which the guitar is made, but from the name of the steel, a slide held in the left hand.
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Technique
Steel guitar refers to a method of playing on a guitar held horizontally, with the strings uppermost and the bass strings towards the player, and using a type of slide called a steel above the fingerboard rather than fretting the strings with the fingers. This may be done with any guitar, but is most common on instruments designed and produced for this style of playing.
The technique was invented and popularized in Hawaii, thus the lap steel guitar is sometimes known as the Hawaiian guitar, particularly in documents from the early 1900s. However in Hawaii, Hawaiian guitar means slack string guitar.
Steel guitar technique also developed from bottleneck guitar, which is a similar technique but with the guitar held conventionally, and using a different form of slide to accomodate this playing position.
Instruments
A Steel Guitar is one designed to be played in steel guitar fashion.
Historically, these have been of many types, but two dominate:
- Resonator guitars, particularly the square-necked variety which can only be played in steel guitar fashion.
- Electric instruments, starting with electric lap steel guitars and developing through the table steel guitar to the pedal steel guitar.
Lap steel guitar
Template:Main The lap steel typically has 6 strings and is tuned to either standard guitar tuning, or an open chord. It differs from a conventional or spanish guitar in having a higher action and often a neck that is square in cross section. The frets, unused in steel style playing, may be replaced by markers.
There are three main types:
- Resonator guitars, which are acoustic instruments but may have pickups for amplification in addition.
- Lap slide guitars, which are also acoustic but may more rarely have pickups in addition.
- Electric lap steel guitars, which are normally solid body and were the first commercially successful solid body instruments.
Early lap steel guitars were spanish guitars modified by raising both the bridge and head nut. The string height at the head nut was raised to about half an inch by using a head nut convertor or convertor nut. This type of guitar is claimed to have been invented in about 1889 by Joseph Kekuku in Hawaii.
Table steel guitar
Template:Main The table steel guitar is an intermediate instrument, designed to be placed on a table rather than played on the lap.
Table steel guitars saw the introduction of amplification as standard, multiple necks, and additional strings on each neck, first to seven, and eight strings per neck is now common. One, two, three and four neck instruments are not uncommon.
Modern instruments often have built-in legs (or, if you like, a built-in table), but no pedals. They are particularly favoured in Hawaiian music.
Pedal steel guitar
Template:Main The pedal steel guitar is an electric instrument with up to 14 strings per neck, and sometimes two or even three necks, each in a different tuning. Pedals and knee-levers are used to alter the tunings of different strings, which gives the instrument its distinctive voice, most often heard in country music.
The use of pedals gives even a single neck pedal steel far more versatility than any table steel.
Steels
The slide called a steel which gives the technique its name was probably originally made of steel, or the name may come from the legend that the first steel was a railroad track.
Many materials are used, but nickel-plated brass is popular for the highest-quality slides, which are shaped to fit the hand and as a result have a cross-section not unlike a railroad track.
A caution on terminology
The term 'steel guitar' should also not be confused with steel-strung guitar which is a standard acoustic guitar that has steel rather than nylon or cat-gut strings, and is built with extra bracing, a stronger neck, and higher-geared machine heads to cater for the much higher tension of steel strings.
See also
External links
- Central Illinois Steel Guitar Association Information about central Illinois steel guitar players, events, and shows.
- Steel Radio A Web radio station dedicated to the steel guitar.
- Steel Guitar Forum A forum where steel players and enthusiasts get together and discuss steel guitar.
- Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association An organisation which promotes the development of steel guitar with worldwide membership.
- Lloyd Green Tribute Information page about the #1 steel guitar player in the Nashville studios.