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Topic: How to make a "tone pedal?" |
Grant Johnson
From:
Nashville TN
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 8:02 am |
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I have been listening to alot of Speedy West lately and am wondering how to get his boowwah tone on my pedal steel. Did he use a Fender Vol/Tone pedal? I was considering a Wah Pedal, but they seem to have a much different frequency than what would be suitable for steel... I would want one that have the regular tone of the steel when opened up and less high end when backed off.. It seems that the wah's that I have tried have way to much sweep. Can one take a volume pedal and add a certain resistor to make a "tone pedal"?
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www.bigsmokey.com
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John Daugherty
From:
Rolla, Missouri, USA
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 8:20 am
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Grant, that is a volume/tone pedal. The tone is changed by rocking the foot from side to side. The volume is changed by the up and down motion. I have seen one of those pedals for sale recently on the forum. If someone still makes a vol/tone pedal, I am unaware of it.
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www.phelpscountychoppers.com/steelguitar
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 8:23 am
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I think I saw a Bigsby vol/tone pedal at Killer Vintage in St. Louis in the last month or so.
www.killervintage.com
It may be just a volume pedal, but I'm thinking it was a vol/tone pedal.
Brad |
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Grant Johnson
From:
Nashville TN
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 9:04 am
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| Thanks for the info. With that said, can one easily mod an old volume pedal to make a tone pedal with the same sweep and tone of an old Fender Volume/Tone pedal? |
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Blake Hawkins
From:
Florida
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 9:26 am
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Grant,
The answer to your question is yes, it is an easy modification.
You just have to add a condenser and move one wire.
I have an old volume pedal that I modified with a switch. It can be either volume or tone.
Since I play lap steel and the volume pedal is usually wide open anyway, it works for me.
Blake |
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Ken Fox
From:
Nashville GA USA
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 9:48 am
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Tyoically a .05 cap works well, Grant. Yhe original Fender tone and volume used 250K pots and a .05 ceramic cap. I was just checking on Danny Gatton's website. He used a 1 meg pot and a .05 in his Tele for wah effects.
I just rebuilt a Fender pedal and used the Ernie Ball 250K pots and a .05 cap and it worked quite well on steel and my Tele. I still have a few of the new Ernie Ball pots if you need. They come with the string pulley attached.
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Michael Garnett
From:
Seattle, WA
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 12:31 pm
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Is that what I heard Bobby Koefer played through last time I saw him? That's just a great tonal tweak you can do, and I can't turn the knob on my Matchbox fast enough, or while I'm playing. That'd be interesting to play through! Maybe once my Hilton gets here I'll pull out the ol' soldering iron and play with my Goodrich! Especially with all the Western Swing I'm playing these days.
-MG[This message was edited by Michael Garnett on 15 September 2005 at 01:32 PM.] |
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Bob Kagy
From:
Lafayette, CO USA
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 2:20 pm
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I'm pretty sure Speedy West used the tone control on his Bigsby guitar to get his wah sound. That together with the bar slam.
Step 1 - slam the bar on the strings with the tone control all the way to mellow,
Step 2 - using your little finger on the tone control, spin it out to full treble.
Modern pedal steels don't usually have a pot tone control in the circuit onboard, so the right track would be to go with above good advice.
BK
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Russ Wever
From:
Kansas City
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 9:49 pm
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Speedy did not use a tone/volume pedal for his 'tone-swell' effect.
He used a standard volume pedal, and his Fender, Marlen and BMI guitars had tone controls on the right endplate.
He would use the edge of the open palm of his right hand and quickly 'roll' the knob of the tone control.
~Russ |
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Per Berner
From:
Skovde, Sweden
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Posted 15 Sep 2005 10:06 pm
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I'm not sure this is the same thing, but on a lot of Hank Thompson's records there is a sort of swelling effect, a three note ending to some phrases, on songs like "Humpty Dumpty heart" (you'd all recognize it in a millisecond or two).
I've never been able to replicate that sound . Is that also done with a tone/volume pedal, or is it just clever volume pedal work? |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 16 Sep 2005 12:58 am
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| Conventional, commercial wah-wah pedals can be greatly tamed and regulated by putting one of those little 6, 7 or 10 band graphic equalizers in front of them. By shaping the curve of frequencies you feed it and by simply not feeding it the highest end it changes and smooths the sweep. Of course, you are adding another stage, source of noise and complication to your signal chain, but you might already have this stuff lying around. I've been keeping this arrangement inline for my six-string almost constantly lately, and use it for very subtle adjustments as well as the more overt effect. |
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Jussi Huhtakangas
From:
Helsinki, Finland
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Posted 16 Sep 2005 1:58 am
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| Per, that Hank Thompson lick is a combination of hitting a harmonic chord, sliding it up one fret and swelling it on and off with a volume pedal. That lick doesn't require a tone control, just a regular volume pedal. |
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Per Berner
From:
Skovde, Sweden
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Posted 16 Sep 2005 2:48 am
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...and I was hoping it was because of a gadget i didn't have - now you tell me it's just my own inability. Perkele!  [This message was edited by Per Berner on 16 September 2005 at 03:49 AM.] |
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Keith Cordell
From:
San Diego
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Posted 16 Sep 2005 4:55 am
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| I visited Garland Nash a couple of months back and he demonstrated that effect for me on a Stringmaster. He did it with bar slams and the edge of his palm on a specially placed tone knob. I have been trying to duplicate it daily since, with little luck- it ain't easy. |
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Jussi Huhtakangas
From:
Helsinki, Finland
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Posted 16 Sep 2005 4:57 am
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Per, you crack me up  !! |
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