I’m a retired pedal steel and Tele player. One of my best friends was a Buckaroo. He played steel for Buck for years. I tried listening to WGAR, “Cleveland Country,” on Sunday. It was like listening to The Buzzard, WMMS, during the Eighties! Power Rock ballads. It sure didn’t sound country to me!
Do you play the occasional gig? Naturally you still have your toys.....tell me you have your toys.
We’ve been in the music bus. for a long time, but have not played in Nashville. Took a break from playing pro. for a season. Raising kids become more important than the constant hustle for gigs, touring, and studio work.
We now have two kids who are musicians. One child (aspiring bass player, guitar, songwriter, singer) has a Strat, but really wants to get a Tele. When we were first looking at used guitars, I recommended a Tele, but he was set on playin’ a Strat. He loves SRV. Now he realizes how great the Tele’s are, so that will be his next big toy purchase.
One thing’s for certain: used Strat’s (American, Japan, or MIM) are easy to find. Tele’s......not so much.
My kids like country, which is better than (c)rap music, but comparing it to the real country music of Straight, Cash, Jones, Lynn, Parton... It’s not even close. It all sounds like a rock’n rap wannabe mutant.
When you cross a pedal steel and telecaster you get a B Bender, aka stringbender. You can put the bender on any string. Brad Paisley uses a G Bender and There's a YouTube video of Paisley demonstrating his G Bender
The Bakersfield sound re-incarnated as country rock when Clarence White and Gene Parsons invented the B Bender in 1967 and put on White's 1955 Tele when they were playing in Nashville West. White was also a session player so that sound was used on the last albums of the 1st Byrds band and the second Byrds band and eventually joined that band for Sweetheart at Rodeo. Many of those groups back then were using that sound. Eagles, Jackson Browne, Roseanne Cash, Everly Brothers, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend
Marty Stuart ended up owning Clarence White's B Bender and in 2011 recorded the Hummingbyrd album with that guitar. He won a grammy for the album, playing Clarence White music on Clarence White's guitar. Today, mostly C&W guitarists use the stringbenders.