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Topic: Has anyone used a midi pickup on your pedal steel? |
Gordy Hall
From:
Fairfax, CA.
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Posted 15 May 2008 4:30 pm |
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The other night I saw Larry Cragg playing, and all of the sudden there was a B-3/Leslie sound. I asked Larry about it, and he showed me a midi pickup under his strings. He turned off the regular pup and patched through a synth.
Does anyone else do this?
What pickup do you use?
Gordy |
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Jim Eaton
From:
Santa Susana, Ca
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Posted 15 May 2008 5:02 pm
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Jim Palenscar has a set up on his MSA Legend that I got to play with on a recent trip down to Oceanside.
It's really odd at first, but once you get some feel for having it NOT sound like a steel guitar or a steel with a Hammond or Marimba following your every move it's cool!
Maybe he'll see this and jump on here and tell us more about his set up.
JE:-)> |
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Michael Brewer
From:
Carrollton, Texas
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Posted 16 May 2008 6:05 am midi system on steel guitar
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| I have been using a Steel Rider midi system for 25 years on my steel. Works great but requires different thinking. If you are doing piano, you have to think like a piano man and try not to use steel guitar moves. Pick attack is also different. There is also a slight delay on the lower strings butyou get used to it after a while and automatically compensate. I have found that piano, trumpet, vibes and clarinet sounds work best for me. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 16 May 2008 9:56 am
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I've been doing it since the early 90s. It works OK but you really have to study the way the instruments that you're emulating are played and voiced. In other words chickin pickin licks with a trumpet patch don't cut it. I've seen a couple guys try it and get stopped in their tracks because they couldn't get off their E9 country licks. The first thing you want to do is turn off the pitch bend feature and leave it off. That way it will incrementalize your pedal pulls into halfstep jumps making fixed pitch instruments like piano and organ attack correctly - saves midi bandwidth too(triggers faster).That way if you play country E9 w/a piano patch it'll sound like Floyd Cramer "slip piano". Similarly,if you play jazzy blues on C6 w/a B-3 patch you'll sound like Brother Jack. Also I'd say you don't want anywhere near the amount of reverb on your synth as you would have on your pure steel output.And also you need to devise a way to switch back and forth real easily between steel and synth and I've done this a couple different ways - and you might even want a dedicated second amp rig for the synth. You have to be a pretty well rounded musician and have pretty clean technique to get the good out of a midi steel rig.
Even then it's not perfect. Useful,expensive,complex and not perfect - kinda like my wife. |
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Bob Simons
From:
Kansas City, Mo, USA
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Posted 16 May 2008 11:42 am
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I don't know about your wife, but I hope she's more useful than the midi system I tried!
All it did was turn a fluid expressive instrument into a tedious electronic struggle for me and at the end, instead of the sweet and complex sound of a steel guitar I had second rate emulations and sound effects. A keyboard is a much better trigger that a guitar or steel guitar for synths. Don't waste the time. Play horn and string parts with the sound of a steel guitar!
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Zumsteel U12 8-5, MSA M3 U12 9-7, MSA SS 10-string, 1930 National Resonophonic, Telonics Combo, Webb 614e, Fender Steel King, Mesa Boogie T-Verb. |
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Michael Brewer
From:
Carrollton, Texas
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Posted 16 May 2008 5:03 pm midi
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Michael Johnstone -
You have it exactly right. A dedicated amp is the only way. Using steel licks in a trumpet solo doesn't fit. Also you have to reduce the width of your vibrato to zero if possible. |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 16 May 2008 7:30 pm
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Sneaky Pete had an early guitar-synth type system on his 400 for a while back in the early 70's. He didn't use it for long - he could get enough of his own sounds with his self-built fuzz, BiPhase and Echoplex (or Roland Space Echo).
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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 |
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