The Blues Scale Resource list Acoustic guitar makers Electric guitar makers Publications Steel guitar stores Pickups and amps Steel bars, capos, etc. There's a excellent article on Indian steel guitar in the December 1994 issue of Guitar Player magazine. There used to be a link to it on the Internet, but it expired. One of the people suggested as possibly inventing the method of playing guitar with a steel bar was an Indian-born sailor named Gabriel Davion. He is said to have based his playing style on two Indian instruments, the gotuvadyam and the vichitra vina .
Indian music lends itself well to the fluid sound of the steel guitar.
The acceptance and integration of non-Indian instruments into the rich Indian musical culture has made the steel guitar one of a handful of Western instruments to gain prominence. Famous Guitarists Originally steel guitar seems to have been popularized through its use in Hindi film music. The first Indian artist to use a steel guitar within classical Indian music was Brij Bhushan Kabra . His student, Debashis Battacharya , has released several CDs and cassettes of his own performances. He has been favorably compared to the bluegrass player Jerry Douglas in terms of his mastery of the instrument, particularly the faster tunes where his amazing single string staccato technique really shines.