Speedy West - Unused Pedals?

[Mike McBride]

In this clip Speedy plays a guitar with several pedals but does not appear to deploy any of them. This is typical of his playing style, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAH43TA9jmQ

[Chris Templeton]

Speedy used pedals to change tunings,
The MC is Tom or Ted LeGarde. I backed them up at Cowboy Curt's Cowboys And Indians Festival, in Switzerland. Margo Smith and Randy Boone (Gunsmoke) were also on the bill.
The guy who plays the LDG told me to get paid before I stepped on the plane, which I did.

[Donny Hinson]

I have a lot of respect for all of the "old timers", those guys that first brought pedal steel to listeners back in the 1940s and 1950s. Speedy West and Alvino Rey were undoubtedly two of those pioneers, and Speedy's "schtick" was to be different, to be a fun, visual, and auditory surprise. His bar slams and rapid bar movements (along with other occasional sound effects) were his main style and signature, how he entertained his audience. Like all players of his time, he grew up playing non-pedal steel guitar, and became pretty good at it. But when pedals started to become popular, he was not constrained to only use the pedals to change tunings. Indeed, he was also quite capable of using the pedals for moving harmonic and chordal changes, and playing in a more "standard" and familiar pedal steel style.

Here's a fine example, and one of his own compositions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFfvxb6OLaU

[Chris Templeton]

An excellent example of Speedy using pedals on that record and agreat description of his stylings, Donny.
Again, here's a tape Speedy gave to Buddy, who gave it to me and I uploaded it to Soundcloud:
The tape has songs of artists Speedy recorded with,
https://soundcloud.com/bluespruce8/speedy-west

[Per Berner]

The "old" Speedy West sure was entertaining to watch. But just to listen to – not so much. Too show-offy, too much "Look ma, no hands!", too much Yngwie Malmsteen for my taste. Just because you can play at breakneck speed doesn't mean you should do it all the time.

[Andrew Frost]

This tune is very pretty and has some more pedal-steely footwork in it...
https://youtu.be/g6-u4rj7hoo?si=RDHgzfZYUhoxFSZB

I love the mellow Speedy West stuff...
He wasn't always doing bar crashes and boo-wahs.
Afternoon of a Swan is indeed a fine example in Donny's post, as is West of Samoa...
https://youtu.be/pFGuzNAqVa0?si=SM-r2an_l9WekVG5

[Mike McBride]

An excellent example of Speedy using pedals on that record and agreat description of his stylings, Donny.
Again, here's a tape Speedy gave to Buddy, who gave it to me and I uploaded it to Soundcloud:
The tape has songs of artists Speedy recorded with,
https://soundcloud.com/bluespruce8/speedy-west

Chris- I'm so glad you've posted this priceless clip! Love it!

[Ian Rae]

This is all very instructive, as Mr West was of the generation that welcomed the pedals as a device to change tunings so you could cut down on the number of necks from maybe four to only two, and then went on to develop what we now think of as "real" pedal steel. The items posted demo this very well, so thank you.

It's worth noting a parallel with brass instruments. Valves were invented as quick-change devices to avoid physically changing sections of tubing in classical horns. It took a further logical step to move them while actually playing like we do now.

[J D Sauser]

Speedy's main pedaltuning became an F#9th, which is like an E13th with what on a BE C6th setup would be P5 (the "Two Below-chord pedal" as Jeff Newman called it) engaged, same as that BE C6th pedal ("P5") has a lower (G to F# in C6th which would be B to Bb in E13th), and early PSG had had less of a challenge to raise than to lower, he had his tuning "inverted" and would often just hold his main pedal down for extended times to play in E13th -which was a popular "Swing"-tuning at that time- and release it to get the II7/9th chord on the same fret or a 7/9th of what ever chord he was in moving 2 frets down (hence "The Two Below").

Speedin' West, the tune he got most famous for, and even generated him royalty checks after he had long stopped playing, was later played on E9th instead of the expected "Swing tuning" after he added pedals to a D8 and later D10 and only kept his F#9th and ditched all other tunings for E9th.
He played a LOT on E9th since it converts nicely to A6th (A&B down) and B6th (E-Eb-lever engaged) but always sounded like Speedy West.

All them guy, Bud Isaaks too, could play the living daylights out a non-pedal steel. Speedy's earliest recordings don't sound much different, certainly not in style, as his Capitol Records records, which besides having that famous clear clean and crisp sound found on Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson recordings of the time, reflect his peak performances.
As pedals came up, necks went from up to 4 to 3 and eventually 2 and some cases even only one quickly, which ought to remind us, that until Bud Isaaks turned the steel guitar world AND Country Music on it's head with ONE pedal moving a 4th/5th, pedals were just there to morph tunings into other tunings... something Jerry Byrd was well known and respected for to do "on the fly" just by retuning during a tune, all by ear. So, it's not surprising that even up to the Buddy Emmons generation, which also started out on non-pedal, many of these cats could play without using the pedals much except to access chords that were only partially available by the means of bar slants and pulling strings behind the bar with the middle finger. BE's C6th single solos rare see P7 or the C-to-B flattening lever engaged. Most of the rest he played non-pedal.
Even later generations like Paul Franklin is known to be able to duel it out hard on a non-pedal and Maurice Anderson, after a career on an S12 with 8&5 surprised everybody in his later years, showing up with a "little" S12 Lap Steel and still sounding like "Reece".

Speedy had also a pretty good knowledge of "theory", especially chords. Which was needed when you played in Big Bands which he did for a while. One can hear that influence in his backup work, doing "floating" horn section moves behind oder soloists.
He couldn't read, something which was expected in that musical environment, especially on the West Coast (and the NYC "real" Jazz scene), but could fake it for a while until he got caught... and fired... as he told me in 2000.

I was told BE learned to read when he moved to the West Coast, because even in BE's days, there it was still expected.

... J-D.

[scott murray]

I'm not positive but I seem to remember Buddy saying his main regret was never really learning to read because he missed out on some sessions. perhaps working in L.A. is what made him feel that way but guys like his friend Glen Campbell seemed to get by just fine without it