Adrian Legg

I was watching videos of pedal steel players the other day and stumbled upon this most interesting guitarist who has developed a style of playing six string guitar that mimics some of the the sounds and patterns typically associated with the pedal steel. Adrian Legg is a british finger style guitarist who began his career in the early 70's. His use of arpeggios is straight out of a classical guitarist book of tricks but the combination of altered tunings, sting bends and Keith banjo tuner bends gives the effect of a pedal steel. Keith banjo tuners (named for their inventor, bluegrass banjo player Bill Keith) have set screws allowing the user to define a set top and bottom pitch allowing for quick accurate bends. Its a trick many of the burning bluegrass players have employed but more and more guitarist are modifying their instruments with them (notably Clarence White who has them on the top and bottom strings of his telecaster). In the case of Adrian Legg, the guitar is a 12 string Ovation that has the headstock filled and then re-drilled for the banjo tuners. The extra space on the headstock allows for access to the larger banjo tuners and the wider string spacing is preferable for finger style. I'm going to modify an old Yamaha 12 string I have lying around as soon as I get a moment. Enjoy! (note, there is a second performance on this video by Brad Jones. I have no idea who he is and while the playing is good its really not that interesting... but perhaps you will like it. The Adrian Legg section ends at 2:39.