travis-picking

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 13 Oct 2001 12:36 am

Anyone remembered the steeler with Curtis Gordon back in the 1950s??? He played some cool Travis/Scotty Moore licks, I think mainly because the band lacked a take-off guitar.
Which tuning would be recommended for that style?

Andy

------------------
1961 Sho~Bud D-9:1962 Sho~Bud D-10 : 1969 Emmons D-10 : Bigsby T-8: 1955 GRetsch DuoJet: 1958 Epiphone Broadway: 1957 Standel 25L15
about me
My steels
ShoBud Gallery

Ed Naylor · Post by **Ed Naylor** » 13 Oct 2001 4:49 am

I do some Travis style and there are several tunings that can be used. A lot depends if you are playing 6-8-10 strings. I have a tuning that I use on the 10. I call it the Ed Naylor "Accidental" tuning because one day I was fooling around and hit upon this tuning that I think works well. As ole Jackie Phelps would say" Put your thumb up against any of them"Ed Naylor Steel Guitar Works.

Paul Graupp · Post by **Paul Graupp** » 13 Oct 2001 7:10 am

Tele: Back in the 50s I'd have to say it was probably Bobby Garrett. I went to see him with Jim Reeves back then and I heard lead work that he was doing on the steel because they too didn't have a lead guitarist with them. He played lead, Travis style, Byrd and Day all in that one evening.

I recall later as I was playing my old National D-8, that I was never going to be able to do all of that and I was right !!

Regards, Paul

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 13 Oct 2001 1:58 pm

Thanks so far, yes Bobby Garrett is fantastic . I'm looking for an 8-string tuning, no pedals

Andy

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 14 Oct 2001 10:36 pm

Andy,
I had a chance to play steel and guitar for Curtis Gordon in Vegas two years ago. I used my D9 Sho Bud on that "thumb-steel" stuff. You know my tuning on E9, without chromatics and a low E. Push the A pedal down, and you'll have a nice E13th. If you're playing a non pedal 8 string, I guess a regular E13 will do, but you gotta have the low E. Not sure if that was exactly the tuning the guy used on those songs, but you can sure play those licks with it.
Jussi

Eric Stumpf · Post by **Eric Stumpf** » 15 Oct 2001 3:26 am

....according to the liner notes from the Curtis Gordon CD #1032 on the Cat Records label, "that guy" was either Buddy Emmons or Al Murray. Since there is no session info with this CD, I couldn't conclusively say which cuts either of these great players are on but on a few of the numbers there's no doubt that the Big E is the one.

Buddy Emmons · Post by **Buddy Emmons** » 15 Oct 2001 6:50 am

Tele,
I was using an 8 string Bigsby triple neck at the time I recorded the Travis/Atkins style steel with Curtis. From the top, the tuning was E, B, G#, F#, D, B, G#, and E. Pedal one raised the high B and G# to C# and A, and pedal two raised the lower D, B, and G# to E, C#, and A.

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 15 Oct 2001 6:53 am

Hi Buddy, welcome back! We missed you!

Buddy Emmons · Post by **Buddy Emmons** » 15 Oct 2001 7:05 am

I missed you too Jim.

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 15 Oct 2001 12:54 pm

wow, you all can imagine that Buddy answering my question made my day...actually it was a very good day. I stumbled over a very old picture of Bobby Garrett (1950s) as well , that I have never seen before. If anyone cares I'll try to post it here.

Thanks for all the input ( and Jussi, sorry for not getting back to you, I'm pretty busy these days, but will do tommorrow).

Mr. Emmons, I never realized that you played with Curtis Gordon. I once saw a picture of the Circle A Wranglers, circa 1956 and the steeler was someone else using a D-8 Stringmaster. Needless to say that I admire you even more now that I know.

Andy

------------------
1961 Sho~Bud D-9:1962 Sho~Bud D-10 : 1969 Emmons D-10 : Bigsby T-8: 1955 GRetsch DuoJet: 1958 Epiphone Broadway: 1957 Standel 25L15
about me
My steels
ShoBud Gallery

Tele · Post by **Tele** » 16 Oct 2001 2:10 am

okay here is one. Sorry about the bad quality but I thought its nice enough to share. Please overlook the pedal conversion(to avoid being off topic

)
Andy

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Tele on 19 October 2001 at 02:03 PM.]</p></FONT>