Is this the sound this guy was looking for?

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIuvdrjbxZA

Don't know the player or the band at all, but was wondering how in the world he got this particular sound on his steel.. Pretty good player with the straight out of 1970 staccato country rock style that I love.. Could whoever recorded/ produced this song really wanted this much of an ultra thin, trebly,buzzy sound?... It is actually kind of interesting, but is way overblown.. I have heard a similar sound coming from old Fender steels but with a much more pleasing to the ear tone... Just wondering is this was something they were aiming for, or someone that had a tin ear when it came to the sound of a pedal steel.. Again, I like this version of the Little Feat classic, and actually find the steel "tone" interesting [to a point}, but can't help but wonder if its by design or lack of taste or experience that it made the final mix...opinions?
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Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

It wouldn't be so irritating if there were less of it. It gets in the way of the singing - less would be more, musically speaking. Then the sound might be interesting. Maybe.
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Bill C. Buntin · From: Cleburne TX

Sounds like they were going for country rock, but it has a bob seger kind of feel to it. I think whoever was playing the steel track captured the tone they were after. I mean I think whoever it was was trying to get that sound. But a commendable job really. Classic country kind of licks. Pretty tasty sounding to me. FWIW… not tone I would go for, it is kind thin. I agree with Ian though it so repetitive it is over done.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

It sounds like a demo tape. With some arranging and editing the steel sound might have come across a little better. As it is, it’s just lead vocal and pedal steel with an accompaniment that’s as straight ahead and uninteresting as it could be. Not a bad song at all, though.

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

Maybe its just my headphones, but that was such a buzzy tone.. Sounded like that horrible sound when a 3 string starts to get "zingy" and you have to replace it, except it was across all the strings...
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I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!

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Fred Treece · From: California, USA

It’s not your headphones 😎

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

The problem there is not tone, per se, but technique. That buzzing or rattling sound is usually caused by insufficient bar pressure, no dampening of the strings behind the bar, or a combination of both. I have no doubt, though, that it's a fairly novice player, one who is inexperienced, not addicted to the homogenized same-old, same-old tone we hear so much nowadays, or both. So, as to whether or not that sound was intentional is anybody's guess. (At least he's playing, which is more than I'm doing lately.)

Here's a clip (over 60 years old!) featuring an early Pete Drake with the same tone, more or less, but without the buzzing and rattling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3GzB57ZWJo

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

There’s a lot of zing and sting in the steel sound. At first I thought it was an overdriven amp, but now I’m thinking it was some effect, like a treble booster, overdrive pedal, etc. that the player or the engineer thought would sound cool for that style.
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Mike Neer · From: NJ

I had a Fender pedal steel that sounded like that, an 800 I think. I think it was the nut.
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Kenny Davis · From: Great State of Oklahoma

Someone (engineer or artist) told him to play all the way through and we'll keep what we want but kept everything. I've had that happen to me and it's embarrassing around other players. Sounds like non-country artist wanting to sound like a country artist. Not knocking the playing, but sounds like rock guitarist on a Fender 400 putting everything he's learned so far into one song. Hopefully that's what everyone wanted. Probably was since it made it to YouTube.
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Jan Michael and Forlaget Rosenlund appear to be from Denmark - looks like this was initially released in 1995 - http://www.janmichael.dk/diskografi.htm and here - http://www.janmichael.dk/Historie.htm

In the Americana world I am familiar with, this is a pretty standard pedal steel sound. Not far from what I was getting when I was first starting with my steel into a blackface Deluxe Reverb. And that's exactly what the band leader wanted. In fact, sometimes producers have run my take through an overdrive pedal to hair it up some more. Anymore, I ask what someone is looking for and hair it up if that's what they want. I still see steel players in Americana bands going for this sound. Hey, around here it's hard enough getting people interested in steel these days as it is, and very little interest in a super-clean sound like comes out of a Nashville 400.

There is also sometimes a different ethos in the non-strictly-traditional-country-pedal-steel world about how much to play. Over the years, I have sometimes gotten the evil eye if I just stop playing, let's say, over the vocal or someone else's solo. Hey, y'all paying the bills, I'll play as much (or as little) as you want. So I don't know if that's what they were going for, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.

Someone mentioned Bob Seger - from that same CD - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfxM6iZKp0A

And hey, I love Bob Seger. Spent 75-80 in Detroit working at Chrysler. He was everywhere back then, and I was lucky enough to see him many times in good settings. Excellent songwriter, great band, and his stuff is, to my ears, more "country" than a lot of what I hear coming out as country music these days. OK, I don't exactly call it country either, but Against the Wind and the other stuff I heard on this Stand & Deliver album is nice, melodic, and has a nice country/country-rock/Americana vibe.

Marc Muller · From: Neptune,NJ USA

Hard to stand up to the original. Classic Sneaky Pete, well arranged between other instrumentation, and the one and only Lowell. Some bands/songs are best left uncovered...https://youtu.be/SMeFHAaZ_gE?si=IRCMKBkTwSq818IO

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

Dave, just to clarify, I must say that I can appreciate anyone who attempts to play with a different tone or sound nowadays because it counters some of the incredible sameness of steel sounds heard these days. I can understand the "hair" aspect of guitar sound that some relish, and while I don't care for it much, myself, I think what some are disliking about this particular recording is definitely string rattle or "buzz", and I will tell you why. If it was overdrive, the effect caused by excess gain, it would be affecting all the strings fairly equally. But assuming this is a typical E9th setup, even my old ears can clearly hear a difference in the sound of strings 1, 3, & 4, and the sound of string 5, which is surprisingly devoid of the buzzing-distorted sound. This difference in sound is quite evident if you slow down the playback of this song, and while many times this buzzing is caused by not enough bar pressure, I suppose it could also be caused by grooves in the changer tops. However, I disregarded that in this particular case because it affects at least 3 strings.

Hope that clarifies what I was trying to put across.

Very Happy

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

btw the way, I give the steel player credit for getting a mica MSA to sounding like a Fender 400 with rusty strings and a corroded bridge, ...Not an easy task! actually upon further listening I actually like the steel sound... I have a problem with the annoying zing....
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Greg Vincent · From: Folsom, CA USA

I dig the tone!

I once had a Fender Artist (“Fen~Bud”) that sounded just like this.
It never cut it as my main axe, but I’d use it on certain recordings —sometimes just in one part of a song (returning to my Emmons for the rest of the song). It’s a “color”, but… it needs to be used sparingly. This is kinda too much.

This player is a trooper, though —blowing through the entire song with all he’s got.
(I suspect maybe he’s using a Stevens-style Dobro bar?)
The shortcoming here lies in the arrangement/mixing/production realm.

Franklin · Posted 23 Jan 2025 6:30 pm

He was using a normal style bar with a very small flat place about an 1/8" ... the bar I was given by someone at a steel show sounded exactly like this players tone...There was not enough flat surface to really emulate a Sitar sound but it did have a buzzy tone...
Paul

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Ya' know, it does sound like a flattened bar. I have one with a flat spot. Upon re-listening, he may have been just trying to emulate Sneaky Pete's Fender sound - well, as much as it's possible on an old MSA, which seems like a serious challenge in itself. I had a '74 Clasic D10 in black mica with Supersustain pickups, and it sounded kinda' dark to me. Nothing like this.

This just doesn't seem to bother me as much as some of you. And I wouldn't remotely try to compare this to the original Little Feat version. The whole feel is totally different, not just the sound of the steel. And nobody is Sneaky Pete. I just hear this as more of a tip of the hat to that sound.

As I said earlier, I got something in the range of that sound when I first started playing steel. It wasn't zingy like this, no flat bar, but a fair amount of treble and the distortion from the amp got it in this ballpark. I was a guitar player and didn't know any better, but people around me liked it, and some wonder why I often sound so much cleaner now, LOL. In fact, they sometimes tell me to bring a little Fender amp and crank it up.

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

Here's a great example of an old Fender steel [I think this is Red Rhodes soloing] with some of that zing noticeable on the upper plain strings [G#-E-B] that we are discussing.. Its not everywhere on this cut, kind of in and out, but to my ears it actually makes the steel part when its there.. For some stuff I like that ultra high pitch "buzz", it makes the steel sound "real time" and not over produced... or something, I dunno...

I really like this steel part, just as I like the steel part we discussed in this thread.. This sound on this one though is pleasing to my ear, whereas the other gets almost annoying..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk6UUJiWdI0
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I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!

no gear list for me.. you don't have the time......

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

I didn't listen through headphones, and the sound was more shrill than I'd have liked. There's no denying that it cuts through the mix!

It's the fact that he never stops that irks me. Sad

It reminds me of doing sessions in London fifty years ago; the pedal steel was such a novel instrument back then that I found myself booked to play on dozens of albums just like this.
More often than not, they'd be so enthusiastic about the 'new sound' (A&B pedals on and off) that they'd urge me to play all the way through (my ethic used to be: 'Play it tune and play within yourself'.). For better or worse, I'd be omni-present for the entire song from measure 1 to the fade-out.

What a joy it is to hear a well-produced track where the steel plays a part, but leaves plenty of space; like those wonderful Nashville recordings of the 1990s/2000s to which Paul Franklin or Sonny Garrish (or whomever) added their tasteful obligato to the music.
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Don R Brown · From: Rochester, New York, USA

For what it's worth, I just did a search of forum members from Denmark. The most recent is a Jens Peder Rasmussen, who joined us January 14th. Perhaps the son of the steel player we are discussing? Maybe we will get some close-to-the-source information.

Welcome, Mr. Rasmussen, if you happen to read this!
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Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

The steel guitar sounds busy, Like some old recordings.
I wonder it the guitar has some Double Tree bars in the pull chain. The guitar sounds like some strings are coming to note, And other strings then catch up, Reaching the note on both raise and lower.

Jeff Peterson · From: Nashville, TN USA

Boy! This is fun...Donny, I agree with you, bar pressure. And Paul, go easy on me but it seems a little extravagant to use a bar with an 1/8 inch flat on it...even if I had ever seen one.
The whole thing to me sounds like he's doin' his best to fly his Buddy Cage/Jerry Garcia technique from the '60's early '70's into that. The cleanest technique back then of that 'picket-pickey-pickey' thang to me was Rusty Young on 'Pickin' up the Pieces'.
Opening for the Burritos in '78, when they had Pete Kleinow and the drummer from Spanky and Our Gang, I asked Pete about that style and he said, 'take a hit of this here coke and you can do it too'! Laughed myself into a stupor, and got in my spot to the right of him in a nook on stage and watched his next set. Seems like his modus operandi was crappy looking gear combined with terrific sound and pure taste...just loved it. He was running 2 Session 400's and just tore it up.

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