Tommy Detamore
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Guitar Gear and Technique
RS: Will you talk about your guitar gear?
TD: I have owned almost every major brand of pedal steel at one time or the other, and there are things to like about all of them. My current favorite is a 2001 Carter double-neck, with 8 pedals and 5 knee levers. I have Bill Lawrence XR-16 pickups in this guitar. It records really well and stays in tune.
I also have a Dobro model F-60 and a Gold Tone lap steel. And I have several electrics guitars: a Tele, a Strat, a Jerry Jones baritone, and a Variax. Oh yes, and a Taylor acoustic.
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RS: Does the Baritone get much use? When would you use it instead of a normal 6-string?
TD: Yes, but it’s certainly a color instrument. You use it when you want that kind of funky, greasy-down-low signature lick on a tune. It is really most commonly used for instrumental hooks, as opposed to solos. You hear it a lot with tremolo on it.
RS: How is a Baritone strung?
TD: I string it any number of ways, depending on the key of the song I am working with. But usually I tune it a fourth or a fifth lower than a standard guitar, with heavier strings, of course. If I am trying to get a certain lick, say some thing with an open string, I have no qualms about re-tuning an instrument just to get the lick laid down in the studio.
RS: That's a good trick!
TD: Guitar players in my clients’ bands hate me for this!
RS: Do you get much call for the Nashville tuning? And can you describe how you would use it?
TD: Not too much, but sometimes. It works well with an acoustic guitar, as an additional “angel dust” track, layered with another acoustic strung normally. Usually referred to as “high-string guitar” it used to be standard procedure in Nashville, but all that has changed, of course. I tune the bottom four strings up one octave, leaving the high E and B normal. Obviously, you need to change the gauges of those bottom four strings! Done right, it can be a lovely effect.
RS: How do you track the steel guitar? Direct vs. miked?
TD: Sometimes I mike an amp, but usually I go direct using a Pod XT or a Roland GP 100 preamp. The main reason I go direct, besides laziness, is so that I can recall a tone in case a client wants me to make a change in something I have laid down for them. With amps and mikes, once you tear it all down it can be tricky to get the exact same tone back later unless you take pictures and write stuff down.
RS: I can't imagine Line 6 ever pictured a steel guitar going through their Pod! Have you told them?
TD: No, but I know they are aware that a lot of steel players use a Pod. There are rumors that they may make a steel amp model pack, with models of classic steel guitar amps, but I would think the market is just too small for them to invest R&D in something like that.
RS: What's different about recording steel guitar versus electric guitar?
TD: Not so much really, but you have to know what tone you’re after and know what to do to get it. And for most things you want a very clean sound with no breakup, quite different than what you normally go for with electric guitars, unless you are doing very traditional country or jazz or something like that.
RS: How are they sonically different?
TD: The steel has a wide tonal spectrum, and it can hog up a lot of space in a mix. So knowing that sometimes helps guide you when you are recording it, so as not to capture too many lows and low mids if the steel part is destined for a crowded mix. If you know from the git-go that the steel is gonna have to cut, then you record it with that in mind so you don’t have to work as hard later to fit it in. The same thing applies to most instruments really, and guess I am still learning that. I still find myself cutting lows and low mids a lot of times on guitars and keyboards to clear things out of a mix.
RS: Who were your steel guitar heros growing up?
TD: The fellow that first turned my head around was John Hughey. He was Conway Twitty’s road and studio player for many years. He played on a Dicky Betts album called “Highway Call,” and it just floored me. I was a guitar player then, and at the time I was way into blues and Southern rock, especially the Allman Brothers. Soon after, I bought a used steel and I took some lessons from Buddy Charleton, who was Ernest Tubb’s steel player for years. In the early seventies Buddy quit the road and moved back to Virginia, my home state, and began giving lessons. He really got me started off on the right track. I totally immersed myself in all things steel, and studied the styles of many of the greats, particularly Buddy Emmons, Lloyd Green, Hall Rugg, Weldon Myrick, and later Paul Franklin.
RS: How about now?
TD: Nowadays my steel heros are my contemporaries here in Texas. There are so many great players here: Randy Rinehard, Rick Price, Dicky Overby, Gary Carpenter, Steve Palousek, Kenny Grohman, Jim Loessburg…must be the heat! Or the Bar-B-Cue and Mexican food!
RS: What is the de-facto "gotta play" lick/tune for a steel player? Like "Orange Blossom Special" is for a fiddle player!
TD: The one everybody always requests is “Steel Guitar Rag.” You have to know that one!
RS: I have heard a lot of your clips, and you wail, man! Are you ever going to do your own CD?
TD: Well, thanks! I have been threatening to do my own CD for a while, but I never seem to find the time. I have some ideas I’ve put down as a scratch pad so I wouldn’t forget them. Maybe someday I’ll get them all together. But to tell you the truth, my main focus is playing backup more than solo. I enjoy being a part of a great song with a great singer.
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RS: What's next for you, Tommy?
TD: Well, I don’t know to tell you the truth. I’m just trying to continue to make good music, pay the bills, live a quiet, clean life, and leave a decent body of work behind.
RS: Well, you're doing that! Tommy, thanks for your time!
TD: Thank you for the opportunity, Stuie!
