Reverb and echo

Jack Hargraves · From: Missouri, USA

I'm trying to get a good sound from my pedal steel,and so far am not satisfied. any tips on using a digital delay or the amp's reverb, or both? I would just like to get some of your opinions on this.
_________________
GFI Expo SD10, Nashville 112, Steelers choice Pak-a- seat, Carter vol. pedal, Stage one vol. pedal, Peavey Deltafex. Goodrich volume pedal.

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

If your amp has a good spring tank you may not need anything more, and lots of us use just that at least some of the time. If you want to get a real education do a forum "Electronics" search with the keyword "effects" and you will be reading for a week...

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

What Dave sed. A bit of reverb.
IMO, good steel sound requires:
1) a firm right hand. Indecisive attack will have a weak tone that no amp can fix. Even if you want to play soft, pick hard and throttle it back with the pedal.
2) EQ for a fat bottom, crisp highs and a lightly scooped upper mids.
3) just a bit of reverb. You don't need big caverns, just q bit of space.
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Jack Hargraves · From: Missouri, USA

Thanks Dave and Lane. That helps a lot.
_________________
GFI Expo SD10, Nashville 112, Steelers choice Pak-a- seat, Carter vol. pedal, Stage one vol. pedal, Peavey Deltafex. Goodrich volume pedal.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I like to use both reverb and delay. If there is reverb built into the amp, I usually just use that and a stomp box for a little "slapback" delay.

Tony Glassman · From: The Great Northwest

1] Hall of Fame Reverb (reverb)

2] Sib Echodrive (delay)

3] "zero" Peavey N-400 or N112 factory reverb (hate it)

Les Cargill · From: Oklahoma City, Ok, USA

If you're in a venue, the venue *itself* will have "reverb". It will not be good reverb*. So bring that into your calculations when using time-based f/x.

*or if it is good reverb, chances are it's somebody else's problem and you should do what they tell you to, like patch around your stage 'verb to get to the mains.

In your practice room? Make yourself happy.

In general, I'd rather use echo than 'verb, unless the band or mix has a lot of space in the sound.

Jim Pitman · From: Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA

Digital reverberation with presets: ( doesn't matter what brand)
This is what I do with a digital verb.
Slow songs - deep reverb and long delay of the first echo.
Fast songs - shallow reverb short delay.
I have a few effects that I program for particular songs, ie slapback, quick delay for rockabilly, phase/chorus for psychedelic rock.
I may be fooling myself as most room acoustics are so bad they cover up the subtleties of time delay effects but as a service to my audience I feel obliged to give them something different from song to song so their ears don't tire.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

I used to add a little reverb, and maybe just a touch of very short delay, all the time back in the days.

These days I may add a tiny bit of reverb while practicing at home - add "atmosphere" in small rooms so to speak. Otherwise I now rely entirely on extracting my PSGs' body-tone vibrations as "natural reverb", and my own ability to "pull out" or "dampen" the inherent body-tone at will while playing.

With firm but varying picking technique and good VP control, and a conservatively set LMB-3 in the sound-chain, modifying the amount of body-tone while playing makes for a much more dynamic, and I dare say more realistic, effect than what can be had with any type of reverb/delay units.

Must add that this "extract body-tone at will" method in my experience works best with certain PSGs - mainly those that have thinner and more/easier vibrating soundboards than what is found on most PSGs. My Dekleys and GFI are good examples of PSGs with thinner sound-boards, which in part is why I like them. Seems to get good body-tone out of some P/P steels too, but I don't own a P/P.

Also seem to take years to perfect "controlled body-tone extraction", and with all my voluntary and forced breaks away from playing in later years I am far from stable at it yet.
Pure fun to play when it works as intended and my steels really sing with subharmonics "from deep down" with their own voice all the way through though Smile

Oh, and I don't boost any parts of the frequency range in amps. I just extend the frequency range maximally at both ends by bypassing all built-in intended or non-intended filtering, and play "flat".

Jack Hargraves · From: Missouri, USA

Thanks for all the input. I'll experiment, trying the different things you all said. I have a feeling I'll find that sound I'm looking for with your help. Thanks again.
_________________
GFI Expo SD10, Nashville 112, Steelers choice Pak-a- seat, Carter vol. pedal, Stage one vol. pedal, Peavey Deltafex. Goodrich volume pedal.

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Reverb, echo, chorus, flanging, compression, gating, and EQ.

Use 'em all in series and I disappear..... Very Happy

Seriously though, on my Dekley D10, I really like the sound of two delay stomp boxes in series, one set to 50 mSec and the other to 300 mSec, then fed into the NV400, sometimes with the Black box, sometimes without.
_________________
Lawyers are done: Emmons SD-10, 3 Dekleys including a D10, NV400, and lots of effects units to cover my clams...

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

I'll go along with the 50. Here's my thought on a 300 ms delay (I love slow crying bends and slides on ballads):
OK, so you play strings 5&8, let it ring and start squeeeeeezing the A pedal and/or moving the bar, and WHAM!!! your amp assaults the microtones you're playing NOW with the starting tones you played a whole beat EARLIER. So you're dissonant with yourself which is more jarring than the dissonance with the band, since your ears tell you that the dissonance with the band is on its way to resolution (and then comes the slapback telling a different story).
Just my take on it (and why the only place for a delay in my setup is after the Tele).
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Forum Index > Pedal Steel		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: