Jim Sliff - Pedal Steel, Dobro, Lap Steel
On old recordings - Stringbender guitar, acoustic guitar
Influences
The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Sneaky Pete, Clarence White, Yes, Gentle Giant, Bob Warford, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, David Grisman, The Firesign Theater, The Hellecasters, Al Perkins, The Meters, Jaco Pastorius...
It's just this little chromium switch here.
Sounds Like
Sneaky Pete, Clarence White, David Lindley, Al Perkins, Steve Howe...
Jim "Silverface" - A longtime veteran of the L.A. "never quite made it" band circuit with 25+ years of Pullstring Tele and acoustic playing. My left hand revolted (it was already pretty revolting...) due to tendonitis/arthritis, forcing a switch to slide-based instruments. I got hooked on old Fender pedal steels with Sneaky Pete's help. I'm not your typical Nashville country player...not even close. While I can plug in some typical steel-sounding stuff when needed, I'm more of a bizarre musical stew of keyboard-melted-with-a-banjo-and-poured-over-a-B-bender-Tele. It seems that no matter what instrument I play - I sound like me. Depending on your perspective (or musical needs) that's either really cool - or if you're looking for traditional playing, it sucks beyond all comprehension. But if I don't think what I play fits the music, I lay out. It took years to finally learn that the "white space" is a helluva lot more important than 937 notes a minute...
My left hand strangely recovered over the sumer of 2008 - over a period of less than 3 months I went from zero fretted-instrument playing to complete recovery (somehow my skill didn't improve. Damn, isn't that supposed to happen? Woulda made a better movie...).
My bass style is "no money above the 7th fret", and I usually lock into a good drummer's bass pedal and just drive the band. If you want a bass player who plays a popping/slapping style - you need a better drummer. Mando-wise, I play a little of everything, which mostly ends up sounding like Mike Bloomfield trying to play David Grisman licks (grin)...and so it goes...
As of early 2009 I'm at about 90% of where my chops were before my hand "rebooted" and am involved with several projects on pedal steel, guitar (and playing a new Evans Pullstring b-bender; www.evanspullstring.com. Stay tuned, more to follow...) and bass. Watch out for "The Accidental Clams" at a rodeo, funeral, Bar Mitzvah or Denny's parking lot near you (I get the Senior Discount).I play music on the pedal steel, rather than play pedal steel on the music...
On "Mother Nature" I'm playing a '58 Kay Swingmaster upright bass. On other gigs I use my '66 P Bass, a homebrew fretless P Bass, and a '60 Danelectro "lipstick" pickup/Masonite bass.
On "Sacramento", a Stringpull Guitar Shop "Nashville West" model with long-throw b-bender and Red Rhodes' "Velvet Hammer" pickups/wiring harness. (Other than tat dream guitar, which is used for special purposes, I primarily play a homebrew '60 Tele with an Evans Pullstring bender, Fralin custom-wound bridge and Harmonic Design Mini-Strat neck pickups. I also use a Variax 500 with a Higgins Peg Bender, a '63 Jaguar and a Trussart Steel DeVille
On the bluegrass stuff (live from a radio show on KLON, Long Beach CA) I'm picking a '70's Mossman Golden Era dreadnaught. These days I'm playing a '72 Martin D-41 that's a "bluegrass cannon"
As soon as I get some tracks down, I'll post some pedal steel; My main squeeze is a '60 Fender 400 in a B6 tuning with 9 pedals, 2 knee levers, 2 pickups and weird custom wiring, aka the "Sneakycaster II"; my '63 Fender 1000 with 9 pedals, 2 knees; and a GFI Ultra, also in B6, with a unique 3 pedal, 4 knee, 3 "split" setup....it's an amazing instrument. A '59 Ric lapstel, '70's Dobro squareneck and Liberty roundneck dobro make up most of the gear I use on a regular basis.
Amps I could list forever - primary ones are a '64 Vibroverb Custom, a Holland Little Jimi, SWR PB-200, '69 Pro Reverb, '72 Deluxe Reverb and '55 Deluxe. Plus a lot of others, especially little Champ-like tube amps and a ZVex Nano 1/2 watt tube amp. Plus all kinds of crazy effects - and the weird thing is I USE all of it - I don't just hoard the stuff (Don't get me started on non-playing collectors...they drive up prices and take wonderful tools out of circulation)!!
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Warm regards
Christian
CountryHome Magazine Editor Christian Lamitschka An der Pfingstweide 28 61118 Bad Vilbel Germany
Jiiiiiiiiim: Long time, no hear, buddy. Welcome to the "prestigious Internet," where all the music is "slammin'" and all the babes are hot!;-) That's some great pickin', but of course you already knew that Tele players are more virile than the average guy. Keep in touch! Cheers from above the Orange Curtain, Jere
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