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Topic: Question For Distortion Users |
Rick Abbott
From:
Indiana, USA
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Posted 13 Dec 2012 7:25 pm |
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Well, I know some of us play rock and blues. I wonder what guitars and more specifically, what pickups you use for good clear note definition while playing with distortion.
What is your experience with overdrive, distortion and even high-gain with a pedal steel?
I do play "country" too. So versatility is important to me as well.
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RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Sehy #112
1975 Peavey Pacer 1963 Gibson Falcon |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 13 Dec 2012 8:19 pm
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I think good clear note definition depends more on the kind of distortion, since most steel guitar pickups are about clarity. I have a lot of various overdrive/distortion pedals and my fav is the Tone Bone Classic, but the best overdrive I have is from a VHT Sig:X that has 5 gain stages.
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 13 Dec 2012 10:49 pm
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I make pickups and have experimented quite a bit. I think for distortion/overdrive you would be better off with one of Brad Sarno's Earth drive pedals. I have wound some pickups for guys that like that overwound fat sound but it is quite a commitment. Messing around with a couple stomp boxes is way less hassle than modifying your guitar. For distortion and overdrive I like the OCD pedal and I really like the Earth Drive. It works for steel better than anything I have ever used. I loaned mine to Eric Johnson and haven't got it back yet. I miss it.
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Bob |
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Ken Metcalf
From:
San Antonio Texas USA
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Posted 14 Dec 2012 7:39 am
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| Bob Hoffnar wrote: |
| I really like the Earth Drive. It works for steel better than anything I have ever used. |
+1
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MSA 12 String E9th/B6th Universal.
Little Walter PF-89.
Bunch of stomp boxes |
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Bobby Snell
From:
Austin, Texas
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Posted 14 Dec 2012 7:39 am
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Bob Hoffnar wound pickups for my Williams D-10 as I specifically asked for: Not overwound modern style. I was looking for a more traditional base to work from. These work very well with a variety of guitar stomps. I use Fulltone's OCD and Plimsoul, and an old Ibanez MS-10, and have a two-channel amp, for going from a little hair to brutultonz.
Even hotter pickups can be attenuated, either by a volume knob on the guitar or setting the volume pedal and leaving it alone. |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 14 Dec 2012 12:12 pm
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| For versatility with most of the variant tones actually sounding good, I have been having good luck with Fulltone's "Fulldrive II w/mosfet." It will do their own OCD, a middy Tube Screamer kind of sound, and a full range 308 ProCo Rat type of sound. The tone control rolls off fizz without changing the proportions of mids and lows. And like all these things, it's much more useful if you have a volume control in front of it, as well as a volume pedal. |
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Rick Abbott
From:
Indiana, USA
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Posted 14 Dec 2012 5:16 pm
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Thanks for the insightful replies! I had not thought about the volume control aspect, but I should have! One pedal I've used with 6-string is the old tech21 XXL. On its own I barely like it, but with a volume pedal before it it'll clean up very nicely and as I roll on the VP it gets nastier and nastier, with virtually no volume change...it makes the VP a virtual variable distortion. I used to run that into one combo amp, with another set clean with all the time-related effects on it. So my chorus, delay and reverb were always clean and my distortions and octave-lower were always on the other amp; a wah on both (before the ABY). Rock the VP back...clean; as it goes forward...up to Black Sabbath, with clarity in the effects.
May have to fool with something like this for the steel...never crossed my mind before now.
Earth Drive, sounds good!
As far as "stock pickups" what has been the best / worst experiences?
I usually use a stock Blackface Bassman head into a pair of hight-watt Celestians. I am going to make the "bass" channel into something more in line with a steel amp...fiddle with the input a tad and maybe use "clearer" sounding caps in the tone stack. Just a thought.
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RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Sehy #112
1975 Peavey Pacer 1963 Gibson Falcon |
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Ken Metcalf
From:
San Antonio Texas USA
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Posted 14 Dec 2012 6:15 pm
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Be sure to try the fuzz before the volume pedal for a more uniform effect across all volume levels.
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MSA 12 String E9th/B6th Universal.
Little Walter PF-89.
Bunch of stomp boxes |
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mike nolan
From:
Forest Hills, NY USA
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Posted 14 Dec 2012 6:53 pm
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| I like an Earthdrive or Fulldrive post volume pedal most of the time and some sort of fuzz, like a Bosstone pre volume pedal. Or switch it around, you can get a lot of different dynamic things going that way. |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 14 Dec 2012 7:05 pm
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| Quote: |
| As far as "stock pickups" what has been the best / worst experiences? |
I don't think it makes much difference. For the most part if you like the sound of a pickup without overdrive you will like it with overdrive. I have not experienced any problems with stock or replacement steel guitar pickups and how they relate to amps or effects for the last 15 years.
BTW: One super nice feature of the Earthdrive is that you can change the level of overdrive without changing the volume. I put my overdrive before the volume pedal.
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Bob |
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Todd Brown
From:
W. Columbia , South Carolina
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Posted 14 Dec 2012 7:43 pm
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The Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive is also a great overdrive pedal for steel. You can mix the amount of clean and dirty signal all the way from a clean boost to a nasty overdriven tone. It's what I use since I sold my Earth Drive to Ken  . IMO the Sparkle Drive is second best to the Earth Drive for an overdrive for pedal steel. |
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Alex Cattaneo
From:
Quebec, Canada
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Posted 14 Dec 2012 9:46 pm
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There are hundreds and hundreds of "boutique" pedals available today, in every price range, with every possible configuration. Best is to try them if possible, but it's rarely the case because big music stores carry the big brands, which are rarely the best available, and represent a very limited array of what is actually available out there. If you look on the Proguitarshop website or youtube page, you will find hundreds of video demos. It's a good place to get started. Although they are guitar demos, the principles are the same with pedal steel, and most pedals nowadays are incredibly tweakable so there is no need to tweak your steel pickups.
Also, try to get a sense of the differences between the three main families: overdrive, fuzz and distortion. It's good to have at least one of each.
I have an MJM Britbender and a Keeley Fuzzhead. Both are FUZZ pedals and sound amazing with my vintage Fender lapsteel and Stringmater (both 1955). They both sound very different.
My distortion is a Wampler Plextortion which is basically a Marshall in a box.
My Wampler Ecstasy is an overdrive that has 3 different "voicings", very useful.
Finally, your guitar won't make a huge difference, but the amp is a big factor when dealing with overdrive/fuzz/distortion. Tube amps sound wayyyyyyyy better for this type of stuff. That's why I prefer to keep the pedal steel clean in transistor amp and use a lapsteel or stringmaster for overdrive stuff, in a tube amp. Plus, when you have lots of distortion, you're better off with 4ths and 5ths intervals and open tunings.
Hope this is helpful. |
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Larry Allen
From:
Kapaa, Kauai,Hawaii
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Posted 16 Dec 2012 11:11 am distortion
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I copied the old MSA distortion unit and use it on all my guitars...has a volume and amount of distortion along with the on/off switch. I added the battery on/off switch as I keep everything plugged in once set up...
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Excel steels & Peavey amps,Old Chevys & Motorcycles & Women on the Trashy Side |
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Marty Rifkin
From:
Santa Monica, CA
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Posted 16 Dec 2012 9:59 pm
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One thing I try to look for when checking out distortion pedals is what it does to the tone of the steel when the pedal is bypassed. Some units that claim that they're "true bypass" often still seem to change the clean tone when hooked up in line. Sometimes for the better...like a buffer (since I put it before the volume pedal) and sometimes, it's not so good.
In the studio it doesn't matter much, since it can be unplugged from the signal chain before playing a clean part, but live it's a different story. |
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Matthew Prouty
From:
Warsaw, Poland
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Posted 17 Dec 2012 6:11 am
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| I tried the OCD and it was not what I was looking for, maybe too metal sounding. Then I tried a Seymore Duncan Twin Tube Classic after the volume pedal and it sounds fantastic. It a sound that works great with modern country, blues, and cross over music. I use it with a Sho-Bud Pro II, TruTones, and a Little Walter Amp. |
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Dan Tyack
From:
Olympia, WA USA
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Posted 17 Dec 2012 8:07 am
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In terms of a box for overdrive with the steel, you can't beat the Sarno Earth Drive. Some gigs I just leave it on, even on clean stuff.
In terms of pickups, I've been working with different pickups and pedal steel for blues/rock and roll, and I never was happy with the sound until I started using two pickups, with the neck pickup in the same slot (roughly) as an SG neck pickup, around the 24th fret. I have been using my Desert Rose steel for this, but recently have been playing my Franklins using a pickup setup that Jon Light put together, using a Lace bass pickup and a box to mix the different pickups.
For most situations, I find the 'bridge' pickup on the pedal steel (aka the only pickup most players have) is too bright and brassy, I usually use a combination of pickups or the neck pickup. |
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Dan Tyack
From:
Olympia, WA USA
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Posted 17 Dec 2012 9:53 am
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Here's an example of the two pickup thing through an Earth Drive pedal into a super clean amp (Little Walter on 2).
Smokin' Gun |
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 18 Dec 2012 10:07 pm
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Dan, the link in your post takes me to youtube, but just a black hole and nothing plays. Same thing clicking the Mycle Wastman link there, all his links seem broken. I'm just saying!
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E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net |
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 18 Dec 2012 10:09 pm
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deleted duplicate...
_________________
E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net
Last edited by John McClung on 15 Feb 2013 5:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Steve Ahola
From:
Concord, California
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Posted 18 Dec 2012 10:13 pm
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| Alex Cattaneo wrote: |
| There are hundreds and hundreds of "boutique" pedals available today, in every price range, with every possible configuration. Best is to try them if possible, but it's rarely the case because big music stores carry the big brands, which are rarely the best available, and represent a very limited array of what is actually available out there... |
Very true but the big stores do get the cool boutique pedals in used from time to time.
GC evidently has the exclusive contract to sell Mad Professor pedals in the US and their $200 "Golden Cello" pedal is pretty good. It captures the sound of Eric Johnson very well but I don't know how that would translate to a steel guitar (probably more appropriate for lap steel than pedal steel.)
The Golden Cello also has a delay with a top panel knob to blend it in and 3 trimpots inside to set delay time, repeats and volume going into the delay circuit. Most of the Mad Professor pedals are based on designs from Bjorn Juhl Forstarker, only they are not hand-wired like his own line of pedals.
Barber Electronics makes some great boutique quality pedals at very reasonable prices. The LTD has been mentioned a lot in other threads here. Many of his pedals have internal trim pots to fine-tune the sound.
Steve Ahola
_________________
www.blueguitar.org
Recordings on electric guitar:
http://www.box.net/blue-diamonds
http://www.box.net/the-culprits |
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