Junior Brown


Junior Brown is shown here at the
“From Early Rock to Country Rock
and Beyond” concert, part of the
November 1996 Lemelson
Center-sponsored program “Electrified,
Amplified, and Deified: The Electric
Guitar, Its Makers, and Its Players”.

Brown is a guitarist who carries on tradition–with influences as diverse as Ernest Tubbs and Jimi Hendrix–while looking for new ways to blend technology and creativity. In the early 1980s, Brown invented his trademark double-necked electric-and-steel hybrid guitar, the guit-steel, to avoid having to switch from one instrument to the other

18 thoughts on “Junior Brown”

  1. FELLOW STEELMAN PASSES
    CHERYL LUETTE CHILDREE BROWN

    MY FATHER , LEW HOUSTON CHILDREE, PASSED AWAY JUNE 4TH 2001, ONE DAY SHY OF CONWAY TWITTY’S ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH. LEW WAS THE LAST OF THE ORIGINAL CONWAY BAND. I AM SURE JUNIOR KNEW OF MY FATHER.

    1. Re: Junior browns tuning
      Ken Roll

      Dear RLW,
      I don’t know if you’re aware of it or not, but Junior isn’t playing ‘slide’ in the fashion thought of by most guitarists. Rather, he has a weird mutant double-necked instrument of his own design called a ‘guit-steel’, half Tele-like guitar and half 8-string steel guitar. He plays his ‘slide’ on the steel guitar neck with a steel bar, and he jumps from standard guitar to steel and back again like a rocket. My apologies if you already knew this, but to me, since I play both steel and slide, ‘slide’ is a Coricidin bottle on your finger used on a standard acoustic or electric guitar in either standard tuning or a D, E, or G tuning.

      From my research, on the 8-string steel portion of his guit-steel, Junior uses a C13 tuning as follows, from low-pitched to high-pitched strings:

      8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
      Bb C E G A C E G

      This tuning accomodates major, minor, sixth, dominant seventh, minor seventh, and, of course, thirteenth chords without having to use slants. (Use forward and reverse slants with this tuning and almost anything is possible!) With the chord’s b7 on the 8th string, this still allows the lead playing on the upper seven strings that most non-pedal steel players using a C6 tuning are accustomed to. On my 3-neck non-pedal steel guitar, in addition to the A6 and E7 tunings used by most country and western swing players on two of the necks, I use Junior’s tuning on my main neck for anything that I have to come up with something new on myself because it seems to be so versatile. Hope this helps you out. Mr. Brown, in my opinion, is just a monster guitar player who does really ingenious work.

      Ken Roll
      [email protected]

      P.S. If you’re wondering, from what I gather, Junior uses standard tuning on the six-string guitar part of his guit-steel.

  2. Guit-steel
    Don Tybor

    If anybody is interested I will be Auctioning off a Fender lap steel which I believe to be the same model Jr. modified for his guit-steel. It is a Fender 8 String Stringmaster of the similar (might be the same) color and will be posted within the next few weeks with more info and pictures on Ebay. Thanks!

  3. steelcrazies
    sir spliff richard

    if you see junior around, tell him to come to finland asap
    we have this "blues"-festival where everyone from john lee hooker to neville bros (with whom i got to jam!) played.
    junior would be a total blast to the locals
    it’s cliche, but junior rules

    spliff

  4. great show in Birwyn, IL
    Steely

    saw Jr. in Birwyn, IL. Best guitar work I’ve ever seen in my life. any music genre any style, Jr. is the best hands down. am interested to know about when Jr. started playing guitar, how he practiced. (locked himself in closet with telecaster for 10 years ???) how he got so damned good (voodoo spells, chants, witchcraft ???) also, does anyone know if the steel part of his guitar comes from a Smith-Malobar steel or some other source ??

  5. Top stuff Bloke !
    Couttsie

    How now Brown Cow …. Gee Jr.Brown , you have given me a hell of a good reason to pick up that old Les Paul of Mine
    and the Strat , Slip on the Slide crank up the old Music Man and start playing again . your music to me is totaly refreshing
    and very insperational … good stuff . thankyou from Couttsie from Down Under…..

  6. Jr. Brown, you kick ass, no one plays git-steel, like you
    David Thiel

    I’m so glad,I found some info on you Mr.Brown. I purcased your CD the other day. I just can’t stop listening to "the highway patrol tune" and "my wife thinks your dead". Do you have any guitar music books that, I can purchase. The books that you can buy from Guitar Center? , or order from you personally? I get a "hell" of a lot of looks when I’m Jammin’ to your CD in my Z28 with the Bose Stereo full blast. Some people aren’t usally here that "rap crap" not this ole country boy. Thank you, keep kicken’ ass on that git-steel.

  7. Twin necked guitars
    Simon

    I’m curious, do you know if anyone makes a twin necked axe with a bass on the top, and a six-string on the bottom ? If so, please let me know their details as I have a gig to perform in the future. Hopefully they’ll be on the web so I can have a peek at their work. Hope you can help, thanks much.

    1. Re: Twin necked guitars
      David Scotter

      Rickenbacker made a speciality model that featured a stereo bass on top and a 12- string second neck, I don’t know whether they made a bass6-string. I hope this helps.

      1. Re: Twin necked guitars
        mike greatbanks

        Any clues to who may manufacture a twin necked (4-string bass & 6-string acoustic)? help!! Manchester England

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