Timothy D Miller Dissertation Admin rev

242 Pages·2013·12.3 MB·English

by  Timothy Miller

INSTRUMENTS AS TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE: CO-CONSTRUCTING THE
PEDAL STEEL GUITAR

Timothy David Miller

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the
Department of Music.

Chapel Hill
2013

Approved by:

Mark Katz

Paul Berliner

David García

John Nádas

Jocelyn Neal
© 2013
Timothy David Miller
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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ABSTRACT

TIMOTHY D MILLER: Instruments as Technology and Culture:
Co-constructing the Pedal Steel Guitar
(Under the direction of Mark Katz)

Through a case study of the pedal steel guitar, an instrument that emerged in the
mid-twentieth century United States, this dissertation theorizes instruments as
technological objects that exist within constantly evolving, mutually influential
relationships among instrument makers, players, and listeners. Placing the instrument at
center, I investigate how the refinement of the pedal steel's mechanisms and techniques
have both responded to and shaped the aesthetic and commercial priorities of country and
other popular music since the 1950s. I also show the relationship between individual
musicians and their instruments to illuminate the intersections of technology, culture, and
human agency. My analysis of the pedal steel guitar illustrates that instruments are co-
constructed objects, not only embodying the ideas of makers and musicians, but also
influencing their use through the cultural knowledge embedded in their design. In doing
so, I offer new means to account for the role of musical technologies in performance
practice and genre formation, and new insight into the impact of instruments on the
embodied experience of individual musicians. Beyond its applications to the study of
music, my analysis of instruments reveals how individual users embrace, reject,
manipulate, and reinterpret the function and significance of technology, and thus
negotiate their own places in the collective of society.
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For Jessie and Violet

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am very grateful for the assistance I have received in the writing of this
dissertation. First and foremost is my advisor, Mark Katz, who provided a sounding
board for my ideas, as well as the guidance and support that this project would not exist
without. I am indebted to the other members of my committee—Paul Berliner, David
García, John Nádas, and Jocelyn Neal—for their thoughtful feedback and advice, which
helped shape this study and has pointed the way for my future work. I would also like to
thank other faculty members of the Department of Music who have been supported me
throughout my career in Chapel Hill, including (but not limited to) Brigid Cohen,
Severine Neff, Brent Wissick, Felix Wörner, and Phil Vandermeer. My fellow graduate
students have also been a tremendous resource, especially Christa Bentley, Will Boone,
Josh Busman, Megan Eagen, Ryan Ebright, Matt Franke, Naomi Graber, Catherine
Hughes, Brian Jones, Chris Reali, Kristin Turner, and Chris Wells, whose collective work
has inspired my efforts, and whose individual insights have been invaluable.
During the course of my research, I received generous support from a summer
research grant from the Center for the Study of the American South, as well as a 2009
James W. Pruett Summer Research Fellowship at Library of Congress, which both
provided a wealth of source materials and the opportunity to interact with musicians in
the Washington, D.C. area.
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Among the musicians who shared their insights and experience with me are a
number of steel guitarists, particularly the late Mike Audridge and Buddy Charlton, who
both passed during the course of this project. I am grateful to Marty Muse and Allyn
Love for their perspective on my writing. I would also like to thank my teachers on
various instruments throughout my life, who guided my musical experiences and helped
to shape my own musical scripts. They include Noel Woll, Douglas Mapp, Karen
Meyers, Samir Chatterjee, and James Pokorny.
Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank my family for their endless love
and support.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .............................................................................................. x
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1
Instruments as Technology and Culture: Philosophical and
Theoretical Approaches .......................................................................................... 2

A Brief Introduction to the Pedal Steel Guitar ........................................................ 8
Technological Scripts ............................................................................................ 12
Mechanical Scripts .................................................................................... 12
Musical Scripts .......................................................................................... 13
Cultural Scripts ......................................................................................... 16
Personal Scripts ......................................................................................... 18
Outline of Chapters ............................................................................................... 19
CHAPTER 1: FORGING THE STEEL: THE STEEL GUITAR IN
AMERICA, 1900–1950 .................................................................................................... 23

From Exotic to Essential: The Transmission and Transformation
of the Steel Guitar ................................................................................................. 24

“Steel Guitar Progress”: New Mechanical and Musical Scripts, 1935–1950 ....... 39
The Resonator Guitar ................................................................................ 40
Electrical Amplification ............................................................................ 42
New Tunings and an Expanded Compass ................................................. 45
Early Pitch-changing Devices ................................................................... 49
Conclusion: The Rise of the Crying Steel Guitar ................................................. 52
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CHAPTER 2: SCRIPTING THE PEDAL STEEL, 1950–1975 ....................................... 54
Early Inventions and Patents ................................................................................. 57
The Gibson Electraharp and the Harlin Multi-Kord .................................. 61
User Intervention: Pushing Pedals for New Scripts .............................................. 68
Back to the Drawing Board: Redesigned by Popular Demand ............................. 72
Expanding the Musical Script ............................................................................... 76
Refining the Mechanical Script ............................................................................ 87
The Pedal Steel and the Music Industry ............................................................... 91
Sticking Close to the Melody: Pedal Steel Virtuosity
and the Aesthetics of Genre ...................................................................... 91

“Unprofitable Instruments”?: The Pedal Steel and the
“Nashville Sound” .................................................................................... 94

American Exotic: The Pedal Steel in Rock ............................................... 97

Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 105
CHAPTER 3: THINKING IN STEEL/THINKING OUT THE STEEL ........................ 107
Thinking in Steel: Approaching the E9 Pedal Steel ............................................ 113
Navigating Melodies Across the Lateral Plane ....................................... 116
Playing in “Pockets”: Navigating Harmonies Through Linear Motion .. 118
Defining Musical Thought on the Ancillary Plane ................................. 121
Thinking Out the Steel: Ideation and Innovation in the Pre-modern E9 ............ 123
Buddy Emmons: American Experimentalist ................................................ 124
Lloyd Green: “Mr. Nashville Sound” ........................................................... 139
Ralph Mooney: “…But I Do Play Nasty” ..................................................... 153
Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 166
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CHAPTER 4: CLOSING THE STEEL .......................................................................... 168
What’s In a Name?: The Ontology of the Pedal Steel Guitar ............................. 171

Standardization and Refinement ......................................................................... 174

The Professional, the Universal, and the Amateur ................................. 174

Less is More: The Triumph of the E9 ..................................................... 178

Steel Refinement: Patents Since 1976 .................................................... 180

Closure as Consensus: Co-constructing a Pedal Steel Community .................... 185

From Orality to Literacy ......................................................................... 185

The Pedal Steel Canon ............................................................................ 190

The Pedal Steel Community ................................................................... 192

Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 193
CONCLUSION: THE OPEN PEDAL STEEL ............................................................... 195
Paul Franklin ....................................................................................................... 196
Susan Alcorn ....................................................................................................... 200
Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 205
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 208
Discography ........................................................................................................ 222
Videography ........................................................................................................ 226
Patents Cited ....................................................................................................... 227

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure I-1. Excerpt from Buddy Emmons, “Danny Boy,” from Emmons
Guitar, Inc., Emmons Guitar Company ELP-1001, ca. 1971 ............................................. 1

Figure I-2. Hawaiian steel guitar in playing position ......................................................... 9
Figure I-3. Hawaiian steel guitar tunings in A major and E major ................................... 10

Figure I-4. Detail from George D. Beauchamp, Electrical Stringed Musical
Instrument, United States Patent 2,089,171, 2 June 1934 (10 August 1937); and
detail from Walter L. Fuller, Design for a Hawaiian Guitar, United States Patent
Des. 110,178, 28 April 1938 (21 June 1938) .................................................................... 10

Figure I-5. E9 pedal steel guitar tuning ............................................................................ 11

Figure 1-1. Electric Lap Steel Tunings, ca. 1945 ............................................................. 46

Figure 1-2. Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, “Steel Guitar Rag” (1936),
beginning of A section (a) and C section (b) .................................................................... 48

Figure 1-3. Detail from Edwin David Wilbur, Stringed Musical Instrument,
U.S. Patent 1,259,062 ....................................................................................................... 50

Figure 1-5. Three-way chord changer by Herbert Hise, ca. 1963 ..................................... 52

Figure 2-1. Detail from Antony P. Freeman, Musical Instrument, U.S. Patent
2,122,396 ........................................................................................................................... 59

Figure 2-2. Detail from John J. Moore, Stringed Musical Instrument, U.S. Patent
2,234,874 ........................................................................................................................... 62

Figure 2-3. Detail from John J. Moore, Stringed Musical Instrument, U.S. Patent
2,234,874 ........................................................................................................................... 64

Figure 2-4. Detail from cover of Bigsby Electric Guitars, The Finest Professional Steel
Guitars (Downey, CA: Bigsby Electric Guitars, 1963) .................................................... 67

Figure 2-5. Bud Isaacs’s tuning and pedal setup, ca. 1953 ............................................... 69
Figure 2-6. Hank Williams, “Your Cheatin’ Heart” (rec. 1952), vocal melody and steel
guitar intro by Don Helms ................................................................................................ 70

Figure 2-7. Webb Pierce, “Slowly” (rec. 1953), pedal steel intro by Bud Isaacs ............. 71

Figure 2-8. Buddy Emmons’s E9 tuning, ca. 1957 ........................................................... 76
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