Norman Hamlet was just a kid when he heard this strange but wonderful sound during a Grand Ole Opry radio program. He was told the sound came from a Hawaiian Guitar, which was a term used...

Jim Palenscar opened up his small shop, Steel Guitars of North County, in Oceanside, California back in 2000. While in college, Jim heard the steel guitar on Jackson Browne’s recording of...

Dave Pearlman grew up listening to his father play horn and his mother playing acoustic guitar. His father actually had a recording studio in Plainview, TX! Dave started his musical journ...

Gene Haugh began his career as a factory worker for the Baldwin Piano Company in Arkansas making parts for the electric organ. Gene was hired by the DH Baldwin Company in 1966 and in just...

Paul Franklin asked his father to help modify his pedal steel guitar, as he had ideas to create sounds and chord changes that were not possible on the instrument at the time. His father, ...

Robert Riedel sat down for his NAMM Oral History interview in January 2018 and spoke in depth about the steel guitar. As a steel guitar musician, Robert was influenced by the giants of th...

Lowell Levinger, known as Banana, was a founding member of the Youngbloods back in the late 1960s.  The band had a series of hit records including the 60s anthem “Get Together.”  Banana p...

Newell Hardy had a life changing experience playing in the Youth Symphony on viola while in middle school. That opportunity led to his love of guitar and later his passion for the pedal s...

Gary Morse points out that playing a pedal steel guitar can be complicated.  The pedal steel guitar has a series of levers and pulleys that when used often, such as in country music, requ...

Herb Remington was the steel guitarist for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboy who built his own line of guitars called Remington Steel.  Among his fascinating history: being long time person...

Chuck Campbell revolutionized the "Sacred Steel" style of gospel music by adding electric guitar effect pedals to his amplified pedal steel guitar.  Campbell—a member of the Keith Dominio...

Buddy Merrill played the pedal steel guitar on the Lawrence Welk TV program from its start in 1954 until he left the show in 1974. Buddy played Fender products while on the Welk Show, whi...

Bud Isaacs designed a line of pedal steel guitars, teaming with fellow country music performer Shot Jackson to form the Sho-Bud Company. In his pursuit to create and develop new sounds fo...

George Roeder played the flamenco guitar and sang in Barber Shop Quartets ever since he was young. While he was taking lessons from Evelyn Breu, he took a liking to the retail business –a...

Evelyn Brue-Roeder opened her music store in 1940! Her main focus in the early days was music lessons, however she soon added sheet music, accessories and musical instruments. She develop...

Katinka Lathrop was married for over 60 years to a guitar player with a passion. After he retired from the ceramics industry, the couple moved to Modesto, California, where they opened a ...

Wayne Burdick’s pedal steel guitar made by Paul Bigsby graced the cover of the luthier’s first catalog. Wayne befriended Mr. Bigsby in the 1950s while Wayne was a member of the Tex Willia...

DeWitt Scott knew about as much as a person can know about steel guitars! As a retailer he sold them, as a performer he played them, as a composer and author he wrote about them and as a ...

Bob Wiley’s father opened a small music store in Kansas in the mid 1930s and specialized in steel guitars. When the sales rep, Charlie Hayes, came into the store with electric guitars fro...

Lowell Kiesel, as the founder of the southern California guitar company Carvin, joined the ranks with Leo Fender, Paul A. Bigsby, and the Rickenbacker Company, in establishing the new era...

Buddy Emmons is on the short list of the most influential steel pedal guitarists in the world. Along with Alvino Rey and Speedy West, Buddy helped define the role of the instrument in pop...

Speedy West was inducted into the Pedal Steel Guitar Hall of Fame as one of the instrument’s most innovative performers. He was able to apply his unique style to country, jazz, and popula...

Alvino Rey tinkered with putting a phonograph pickup in his banjo to increase the volume in 1927. His inventive mind also led to early guitar pickups and the design of a pedal-steel guita...