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Topic: Pedal Steel and Effects |
David Hoskins
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 22 Aug 2010 2:25 pm |
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| Just wondering what you all use in the way of effects when you play live. I would imagine a little reverb....possibly some echo or delay? I had a friend years ago who got hooked on stero delay and he lugged two twin reverb amps around. What do you folks use to color your sound? |
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Eric Philippsen
From:
Central Florida USA
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Posted 22 Aug 2010 4:26 pm
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Of course there are exceptions but most steel players use reverb. The next most used effect is some type of delay. Then you start seeing some kind of distortion, phaser, Leslie-emulator, compression and other effects. But the most used are reverb & delay.
Many, but not the majority, of players use a stereo setup. I do, but when a gig is a quick in & out one, or when I'm feeling lazy, I just go with a mono setup. |
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Cliff Kane
From:
the late great golden state
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Posted 22 Aug 2010 4:41 pm
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| Reverb, delay, and distortion. Sometimes modulation like a phase. I used to play in a band where I used an envelope filter on one song. I just did a gig with a weird back line amp and poor stage monitors and it made me wish I'd had a compressor. A lot of steel players use a POD. |
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Justin Jacobson
From:
Rochester, MN
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Posted 22 Aug 2010 4:51 pm
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| I started out playing guitar (six string electric) and was heavily influenced by shoegaze and dream pop music. As a result I acquired a large collection of pedals. I run the same set up for six string as I do pedal steel, just hook up the ol' AB pedal. But I run them both through 14 or 15 pedals, basically I have some of every type of effect imaginable on there. I like sounds and atmosphere more than flashy lick driven stuff so it works well for me. It probably seems like sacrilege to some folks out there, but it gets me the sounds I want. |
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Barry Hyman
From:
upstate New York, USA
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Posted 22 Aug 2010 5:58 pm
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I own many effects and amps and have tried everything over the years, but I always perform and record steel mono with no effects except reverb. I guess I just think that the tone of a pedal steel is so georgeous that I never get bored with it. I use distortion on steel maybe 1% of the time.
(By the way, a stereo setup is meaningless unless the left and right speakers have slightly different signals, which is usually not the case with pedal steel. Two amps running the same signal is not stereo, just twice as loud and twice as heavy.)
_________________
I give music lessons on several different instruments in Cambridge, NY (between Bennington, VT and Albany, NY). But my true love is pedal steel. I've been obsessed with steel since 1972; don't know anything I'd rather talk about... www.barryhyman.com |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 22 Aug 2010 8:06 pm
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| Everything that Barry just said.... |
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John De Maille
From:
On a Mountain in Upstate Halcottsville, N.Y.
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Posted 22 Aug 2010 8:25 pm
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I used to, exclusively, use a Roland DD-3 pedal and a Nashville 1000 with reverb. But, I recently acquired a "Stereo Steel" amp and use a PV, ProFex 2 in the rack with it. The ProFex has many different settings for steel, so, I'm still experimenting with my choice ones. The new rig weighs next to nothing compared to what I used to lug around.
In the studio, I go direct to the board and sweeten it later in the mix. If you're new to this, a simple echo, reverb is the best way to go. You can have hours of fun dialing in some sweet tones. |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 2:27 am
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| I have a POD XT and 99% it's used for delay and reverb only. I have programs for chorus, leslie, phase, etc but they are only used on certain songs. I have a distortion program but it may or may not get used during a gig (most of the times won't) as I came up before distortion/overdrive and not in the era where distortion is considered a must. |
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Ken Metcalf
From:
San Antonio Texas USA
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 3:02 am
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Simple set up
_________________
MSA 12 String E9th/B6th Universal.
Little Walter PF-89.
Bunch of stomp boxes |
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Don Sulesky
From:
Citrus County, FL, Orig. from MA & NH
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 4:11 am
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At one of the many seminars I took from Jeff Newman he told us that many times "Less is More" depending on how you use it.
Of course we all know at times a certain effect is needed to achieve a given sound.
When I play live I use my NV112 with my reverb on 4 and my Boss DD-5 set with the 3 knobs on the left all set at 11:00 and the 4th knob set on 10.
I don't use the tap feature. I just use the pedal as is. I find this works great for me.
We have a member of our FSGC who uses a stereo system.
I find that his notes get lost with all the stereo and echo going on with the band playing behind him.
This is too bad because he is a good player, but it's hard to pick out what he is playing because of the stereo system and the notes running into eachother because of the delay.
Again "Less is More". 
Don |
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Bill Moore
From:
Manchester, Michigan
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 4:32 am
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| Kind of heretical, I guess, but I don't like to use reverb, to me it changes the tone and gives a kind of muddy sound. I do use delay, DD-3, set to kind of sound like reverb, just a slight repeat. To me it sounds much cleaner. I do add some overdrive once in a while. I use the Nobels ODR-1. sometimes i use the Pod xt, and end up with about the same sound. |
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David Hoskins
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 5:46 am
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| Barry Hyman wrote: |
| Two amps running the same signal is not stereo, just twice as loud and twice as heavy.) |
barry, he was running an alesis unit with stereo chorus and stereo delay. most definitely stereo! |
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Michael Robertson
From:
Ventura, California. USA
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 6:43 am Rp150
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I use a Digitech RP150 for a taste of reverb with one preset.
On another preset I have a delay setting I like.
On additional presets I have various tone settings, usually for specific songs or tone styles.
I come out of the RP150 with the left and right stereo outputs into two single twelve tube amps.
The single twelve amps are a bit easier to lug in and out than one large “Steel Amp”.
Do I need stereo? Probably not but it sure sounds good from where I’m sitting. |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 6:51 am
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| 99% of the people in the audience don't know and don't care whether it's "mono" or "stereo". It does sound good to the picker on stage but sadly that's about all. |
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Michael Robertson
From:
Ventura, California. USA
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 6:54 am Sad but true
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| Jack Stoner wrote: |
| 99% of the people in the audience don't know and don't care whether it's "mono" or "stereo". It does sound good to the picker on stage but sadly that's about all. |
Ain't that the truth. |
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Ulric Utsi-Åhlin
From:
Sweden
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 10:08 am
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On PSG & effects...my rod-pull PSG´s get some reverb,
little else...BUT,soon as I got my Fender 400 in the house,I´d think "pedal effects"...I believe it´s got
to do w/ Sneaky Pete´s heritage but,regardless of
that,these old Fenders kind of invite various
analog boxes...McUtsi |
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Barry Hyman
From:
upstate New York, USA
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 10:30 am
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About the stereo thing: you can run a mono signal (which is what most pedal steels produce) into a stereo effect and then out to two amps, of course. And you can have a mono signal digitally split into two halves and have an algorhythm that makes the left and right different somehow -- just stereo, no effects.
But are there true stereo output pedal steels? My Carvin AE-185 six-string guitar has stereo outputs, one side being the piezo pickup, and the other being the magnetic pickups. My old Rickenbacker had stereo output from the two magnetic pickups. Is anybody doing anything like this with psg?
_________________
I give music lessons on several different instruments in Cambridge, NY (between Bennington, VT and Albany, NY). But my true love is pedal steel. I've been obsessed with steel since 1972; don't know anything I'd rather talk about... www.barryhyman.com |
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Dan Fullmer
From:
Boise, Idaho, USA
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Posted 23 Aug 2010 11:06 am
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| Digitech RP155... A little delay and reverb, just a tiny bit of slow chorus to fatten it up a bit and add a little sparkle, and a small amount of compression to limit my peaks and provide a little sustain... All of them very subtle. |
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Johnny Baker
From:
Southport, Fla
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Posted 24 Aug 2010 5:20 am Pedal Steel and Effects
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I use a Nashvill 400 set to what the owners manual
recommends, with a Peavey Dela-Fex attached set to
Ping Pong (general setting), then I set my amps
reverb to full, and then set the volume to 5 pre &
7-8 post.
Not a lot of anything fancy, just what is factory
recommended and I love sound, course ya gotta be me
to understand my sound  |
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Bill Stroud
From:
Dresden, Tennessee, USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 24 Aug 2010 6:43 am Effects
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| Check out www.steelmixer.com Mark Dunn makes them, they are great.David Hartley uses the Steel Mixer also. |
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Stu Schulman
From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
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Posted 24 Aug 2010 8:09 am
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Barry,The late Red Rhodes had made a few stereo pickups where every other string went to either a left output or a right output "Discreet Stereo" those of us who were friends with Red and lucky enough to have sat between two amps and tried this out can tell you there is nothing else even close. 
_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952. |
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Tommy Shown
From:
Denham Springs, La.
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Posted 2 Sep 2010 7:25 am
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| Jack Stoner wrote: |
| 99% of the people in the audience don't know and don't care whether it's "mono" or "stereo". It does sound good to the picker on stage but sadly that's about all. |
I agree with Jack, because when you come out through the house it's in mono. as far as effects I have a Digitech Studio Quad 4rack with several delay and reverb settings, hooked up to a GD Walker Stereo Steel. It sounds SWEET>
Tommy Shown
SMFTBL |
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Bill Moran
From:
Virginia, USA
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Posted 2 Sep 2010 8:33 pm
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My Lexicon give's me a stereo effect. It might not be true stereo but I can't get the same sound with one amp. I have tried two amps with efx's only on one. Don't know what works best for you. The Lexicon with two amps, in stereo, works for me.
Like it was said before, I could be the only one that can hear the split. But if I'm happy it makes me work harder.
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Bill |
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Johnny Baker
From:
Southport, Fla
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Posted 6 Sep 2010 5:42 pm Pedal Steel and Effects
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I just use what is in my signature block and get fantastic
sound. I will put a few more things in there, soon.
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I am currently running a Simmons SD10, Peavey Nashville 400 that's packing a 15" BW, Peavey Delta Fex effects processor, and a Match Box. Best rig I've ever run and the sound is truly incredible. |
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Alexa Gomez
From:
San Francisco
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Posted 7 Sep 2010 12:11 am Effectless...
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Hello David,
I've used various effects and modelers over the years and have only recently started just going direct into an amp and/or direct box. Here's why...
At home, it's nice hearing a little ambiance or what not, yet I find it really tempers my playing so that I often find myself working the effect more so than my steel. So, now, I just play it effect-less and my technique and articulation have improved dramatically.
Likewise live, since most sound-men throw their own signature ambiance/modulation wash across the mix, anyway. In other words, I've never known one to just let it stay dry if that's the stage mix.
Not to mention I have enough dealing with getting through a set without adding to the stress managing a pedal board. But maybe that's just me?
Anyhoo, food for thought...
Alexa
_________________
Sister Alexa>SX Lap Pro>Rocktron Surf Tremolo>Pignose 7-100.
www.youtube.com/sisteralexa |
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