Sneaky Pete Kleinow Setup

David Graham · From: North Carolina, USA

Anyone know what Sneaky Pete Kleinow was playing on "It Makes No Difference" (10 string? 12 string? Tuning? Amp and effects?)

Rich Sullivan · From: Nelson, NH 03457

b0b has his copedant listed here. http://b0b.com/tunings/stars.html#b6pk
(8 string B6)

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

He played a Fender 400 single neck 8 string pedal steel with 9 pedals and two knees. He used delay and not reverb. Often seen with Session 500 amps.
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Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

When I saw him at the Main Point in Philly with the Burritos in "77 he was using 2 Session 400's

Michael Maddex · From: Northern New Mexico, USA

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"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert." -- Arthur C. Clarke

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

Yeah prolly Session 400s. I saw some videos of him in Europe and he had 500s but now that you mention it he used 400s over here....nice picture Michael! Very Happy

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Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps

Jacob Brockway · From: New York, USA

So is this the set up he used In the early burrito brother days on Burrito deluxe and Guilded palace or did he mod his fender 400 after the fact?

Jacob Brockway · From: New York, USA

So is this the set up he used In the early burrito brother days on Burrito deluxe and Guilded palace or did he mod his fender 400 after the fact?

John De Maille · From: On a Mountain in Upstate Halcottsville, N.Y.

I played through his two Session 400's at the Lone Star Cafe, back in 80' or 81'. He was nice enough to let me use his rig. So...... I plug in and pick my first chord and almost get blown off my seat. I think he had the volume at around 8 or 9 and the amps were set up directly behind me on their road cases. I asked the roadie if I could turn them down, he passed it on to Pete and the answer was a hilarious yes. I really enjoyed that night talking with Pete. He was very tech savvy and inspired me when he played. I felt blessed to have met him, used his amps and enjoyed his company. Unfortunately, I never met him again.

Greg Milton · From: Benalla, Australia

Hi David,

Here is a link to his copedent transposed to E6 by the forum's David Doggett a long while ago: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/010502.html

I love looking at this anytime I listen to Sneaky (which is often).

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

I think Gene Parsons (Byrds drummer, B-Bender inventor)

is selling one of Sneaky's old Session 400s.
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Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps

steve takacs · From: beijing, china via pittsburgh (deceased)

Geez, we are lucky; perhaps today the studio czars would not have not allowed Sneaky to set foot in the studio with his low-cost equipment lacking that supposed special high-cost equipment "tone" Smile

Talk about an individual sound. Thanks, stevet

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

When we worked with the Burritos in 1978 he also had a Red-Rhoades-modified Univox Fuzz box mounted on the side of his guitar, and he used it a lot.

Skip Edwards · From: LA,CA

Pete used to record direct most of the time. And that was way before amp modeling and Pod type things.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Some of the effects he used -

The Red-modified fuzz
Later a fuzz he built himself that was smoother sounding
An EP-3 Echoplex
Later a Roland Space Echo
No reverb (live - producers added it in the studio). The reason - most spring reverb in combo amps follows the Fender model (even SS amps) and only processes high frequencies. It tends to wash out the sound and you can lose string definition. That was easy for me, as I had realized that and only use reverb with Surf music - unless it's a unit like a Fender outboard in front of the amp (Holland amps have internal full-frequency reverb).
A Phase 90. He reportedly use a BiPhase at times, but everything I have heard can be played with a Phase 90 - and sounds more correct.
And autowah (or envelope filter). Example is Bon Souls Blues. Very mild setting.

He went through a bunch of other stuff, and later on had a Stereo Chorus (Boss) attached under his steel - which I found funny as I'd started attaching pedals upside-down under the apron of my 400 before I saw the chorus!

When he was playing at his wildest in the late 70's and 80's it was petty much Phase90 (wonderful sounding on Jackson Brown's version of Take it Easy), Fuzz...plus some kind of milder overdrive
Envelope filter
Tape echo
Amp tremolo

He hardly ever touched his volume pedal, and his volume control was pretty much wide open. Most of his volume changes were touch and bar vibrato (a 1#, 1 1/4" - 1 1/8" tapered thing that weighs a pound - I am lucky enough to own its slightly smaller...by minute amounts...twin). He used the same guitar for most of his "pedal" career (every once in a while he got stuck playing a locally-available 400 or 1000 if his got delayed in shipping. I saw him play a sunburst 1000 once).

The one levers were added around '69, at the same time as pedal #9 - which he ended up never using! It was a placeholder for his right foot, since he didn't use his volume pedal.

His guitar seat was his road case!
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No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Michael Kessel · From: South Carolina, USA

Sometimes you have to be a detective to get the answers you're looking for. In this case, I too loved the sound of Pete's steel on Jackson Browne's Take it Easy. All I had been able to find was that early on he used a Fuzz Face, but the effects on Take it Easy wasn't that and it wasn't overly driven. It became obvious that it was a phase shifter set to a fairly low speed.

With that, I quickly ordered a MXR Phase 90 - but when I put it in the chain, I knew immediately I was wrong. At either end of the wave, the signal would break up into an irritating static roar. Unfortunately the only setting on the Phase 90 is the speed, so back to the search.

I finally found an ancient article about the MXR Phase 45, which described the effect as a much shallower wave, and like the 90, with only an on/off and a speed dial. So, a week later the 45 arrives, and I stick it in the chain - excellent results! Not that I nail Pete's tone 100%, but the effect nailed what I was looking for.

Just a note to those looking at the MXR 45. For some reason they built this thing as a vintage pedal - meaning there's no 9V power port on it. So. I ordered an adapter with an 18" cable to reach the power block on my pedal board. I'm in the process of making it permanent by drilling a hole in the case to run the cable through.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

K Maul · From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL

I had a Phase 45 for years and loved it. I think it finally died one day. I have a 90. It’s ok but I need to “get back to where I once belonged”.
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KEVIN MAUL: Airline, Beard, Clinesmith, Danelectro, Evans, Fender, GFI, Gibson, Hilton, Ibanez, Justice, K+K, Live Strings, MOYO, National, Oahu, Peterson, Quilter, Rickenbacher, Sho~Bud, Supro, TC, Ultimate, VHT, Williams, X-otic, Yamaha, ZKing.

Mike Bacciarini · From: Arizona

I’m using a newer MXR Phase 95 and can get any phase shifter sound I want. Great little box.

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MCI Arlington S-10 3+5, George L E-66, BJS & Emmons bars, Fender Stage Lead II 100W 1x12, Fender Satellite SFX, custom FX rack, 1983 Dobro 60D, Martin D16GT, Ibanez AS73, 1978 Rickenbacker 4000 custom.

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