Posted by resotom on Thursday, August 6, 2015
Tom Schmidt,the very accomplished resonator guitar player for more than six decades, has appeared on several Grand Ole Opry package shows including: Hank Williams Jr., Conway Twitty, Merle Travis, Cal Smith, Gene Watson, Marvin Rainwater, Mickey Gilley, Barbara Fairchild, Webb Pierce, Bill Monroe, Bobby Bare, Asleep at the Wheel, among others and has recorded on many Midwestern labels and performed on stage, radio, television in that time. More recently, (2015) he has performed with Nashville recording artist Nora Collins (noracollins.com) who said "I am honored to have played with someone who has played for over sixty five years. Tom Schmidt, YOU ROCK !" He specializes in overlays (overdubs) in the studio which he learned from Les Paul in 1952. He was first attracted to the sound of the Dobro in 1949 and purchased his first Dobro in 1953 (a Regal/Dobro) in a pawn shop for $20.00 cash. He still uses this guitar today along with a 1982 10 string Dobro custom built for him by the Dopyera brothers in California. In addition to that, he had one custom built for him in Nashville Tennessee by Mark Taylor in 2012. His newest addition was built in West Virginia by Tom Warner with all the newest tricks of the trade used today. He continues to appear in shows and does recording sessions to this day. He is a member of the Reso Hangout Players Union and has many friends (190 ) around the world on his home page on the web-site Reso Hangout..There are so many accessories such as strings, bars, picks, mics and other sound modifiers that they can not all be listed here such as the Fishman JD Aura pedal. Also, he has played pedal steel guitar since 1958 and ownes two Opry model steels (Sho-Bud) which were played o the Opry in the mid 60's. His style of picking is a cross between modern bluegrass and pedal steel. He has played on many original and cover tunes which are on both cassette and CD's. For more information on his career you can E-mail him at tom165mph@yahoo.com or tom172mph@gmail.com, He is always willing to share his experiences of all those years with anyone and could write a book on the subject, He is also on Facebook, Instagram, Lonked-In and Twitter.
20 comments on “Press release.”
resotom Says:
Saturday, August 15, 2015 @6:43:14 PM
I have been very fortunate to have been on the stage with all these Nashville stars.
resotom Says:
Tuesday, August 18, 2015 @9:31:28 AM
All of the tapes and CD's that I have played on are the property of the studios that I worked for and are at this time not available to the public.
resotom Says:
Sunday, August 23, 2015 @8:43:21 AM
I am also very fortunate to have performed with Nashville recording artist (stage, radio, and television as well ) Nora Collins on three shows this year. I hope to do more in the near future as our schedules permit...
resotom Says:
Thursday, September 17, 2015 @9:52:27 AM
A CD of original tunes I recorded years ago with Jim Melvin is in my possession. Thanks to the studio for releasing it to me.
resotom Says:
Monday, November 23, 2015 @12:59:46 PM
My 'friends' count stands at 227 as of this date. I am pleased that every one of you are interested in my career and hope you will continue to read all of my 'blogs' which appear on this homepage. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. tom165mph@yahoo.com...
resotom Says:
Sunday, January 3, 2016 @12:13:49 PM
Here is an interesting fact. I have discovered that any time you are published on a public place such as a newspaper or other media, it will be able to be viewed on GOOGLE !! For example, go to GOOGLE and type in "Tom Schmidt, Mr. Nashville Steel" and you will come up with an article that was published on me in The Milwaukee Journal back in 1982. At that time , I was very heavily into playing pedal steel which I started to do in 1958. I also played resonator guitar at that time but my focus was on pedal steel. Today, I concentrate exclusively on resonator guitar but I thought that any of you out there who have had public exposure would like to research your career on GOOGLE !
resotom Says:
Friday, January 8, 2016 @8:34:36 AM
More experiments with angled double wrapped nickel Pro Pik finget picks. Very comfortable to use with great tone. I may add...248 'friends' as of this date. I am very humbled..
resotom Says:
Sunday, January 10, 2016 @9:33:57 AM
I am going to try a set of GHS 'Phil Ledbetter' strings on my TTT reso later this month . I experiment with strings all the time to get a different sound out my four resos...
Pine Says:
Saturday, March 12, 2016 @8:12:27 AM
You've had quite a career, Mr Schmidt!
I think you should post a couple of the songs you did with Jim Melvin now that they are in your own possession. Love to hear 'em!
resotom Says:
Saturday, March 12, 2016 @12:37:49 PM
I will try to do that as time permits ..
resotom Says:
Friday, March 25, 2016 @4:41:57 PM
I started in 1949 on Spanish guitar and switched to lap steel in 1950. I am self taught and picked up a lot from OZ and Josh Graves as well as all the current super pickers. I bought my first Regal/Dobro in 1953 a 1933 model 45.
resotom Says:
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 @4:31:40 PM
WOW ! 275 'friends' and counting ... I am pleased that all of you have accepted me. I will keep posting on the Reso Hangout site in response to questions that come up from members who may need assistance if I can help.
Lumpy Says:
Saturday, August 20, 2016 @4:16:20 PM
That is an impressive career, Tom. You played with many of the greats that I have admired. Even on the Opry! I was raised on the great old C&W music. My Dad played in bands followed by me. Nothing near your level. The last band I played in was in Germany while I was in the Air Force. I was fortunate to play with a guy named Tom Windsor who was very accomplished on pedal steel, fiddle and guitar. His son, David later played pedal steel a short while in Nashville. Tom played in his early days around Lynchburg (sp?) Va ( I believe) and told me stories of Flatt & Scruggs, Bill Monroe, Patsy Cline and others he rubbed shoulders with. Tom passed in 1984. You definitely need to write a book and I'd buy it. I'll google your name and read more about you. I would really enjoy reading more about your history with the greats of country music. I especially like Hank, Sr, Jimmie Rogers and Merle Haggard songs and hope to learn this dobro so I can play some of them. Regards.
resotom Says:
Wednesday, September 28, 2016 @7:42:51 PM
My new reso arrived from Nashville today. Custom built by Jackson Steel Guitar Company, it feature s a lever to change the pitch of the settings from a G tuning to a C tuning much like a pedal steel guitar. It's a real honker and will require me to learn how to use this lever. It is very sensitive but with a lot of practice, I will make that happen.
resotom Says:
Wednesday, September 28, 2016 @7:48:06 PM
I have sent both of my custom built Sho-Bud pedal steels back to Nashville since I don't play them any more. After 46 years of playing them, I couldn't lift them so I now play resos exclusively. It is the end of an ear for me but pushing 80 years old I think I made the right choice. So now I have five resos to play either in the studio or on stage.
resotom Says:
Sunday, October 23, 2016 @4:40:01 PM
The General Jackson pedal reso is getting easier to play with my wrist not resting on the cover plate. The sustain on this guitar is awsome in that the roller nut and roller bridge combine to make this happen.
resotom Says:
Sunday, October 30, 2016 @2:19:02 PM
I tried to write two reviews on this reso but was not able to get then submitted so I wrote to the web-site manager to see if I could get this corrected.
resotom Says:
Sunday, October 30, 2016 @2:24:40 PM
I have been experimenting with the sound of the new reso. Since I go through a Roland SE-70 effects box into three amps, the dialing in process gets to be very difficult. Between the K&k Pure Sound XLR preamp with its gain,phase,treble,bass andmidrangs and volume controls, and the different controls on the amps, this may take some time to get everything coordinated properly...
resotom Says:
Saturday, November 26, 2016 @7:31:45 PM
The Lace pick ups on three of my resos work very well with the K&K XLR preamp.I got them dialed in along with the three amps I use for practice and am very happy with the results. The Slide King reso is dialed in differently because of the mike under the cone.everything is coming along nicely...
resotom Says:
Saturday, December 10, 2016 @9:41:55 AM
Among the artists listed in the above press release, here are a few others : Holly Steele, Josh Thompson, Chad Wilson and Kimberly Twitty. These Nashville recording stars come up here to Wisconsin to perform in shows and I am privileged to back them up.
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