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Post new topic What Pedals Go Well With Lap Steel?
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Author Topic:  What Pedals Go Well With Lap Steel?
Doug Burling

 

From:
Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 2:55 am    
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I have access to a Barber Tone Press, MXR Carbon Copy, Hardwire RV7 and a BBE Sonic Stomp. Are any of these useful for lap steel? Any other pedals I might want?
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Brian Hunter


From:
Indianapolis
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 3:24 am    
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Depends on the player and what they want from the steel. Except for some fuzz on one song my band plays I only ever use reverb. Just depends on what you want from it.
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Steve Green


From:
Gulfport, MS, USA
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 3:29 am    
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Ditto on what Brian said. Depends on what kind of music you're playing. With the stuff I do, I only used reverb and a little delay.
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Frank James Pracher


From:
Michigan, USA
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 5:18 am    
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Doug, I personally am an effects pedal junkie. I think vibrato and tremolo sound real good on lap steel.
As a hobby I build effects pedals, and recently entered a circuit design contest. I made my demo video with lap steel so if you follow the links you can hear some different effects used with a lap steel.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CVqZBxxO4k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUI7tsuC8fI
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Rick Barnhart


From:
Arizona, USA
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 5:21 am    
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Wet Reverb and Zendrive
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Mike Anderson


From:
British Columbia, Canada
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 9:32 am    
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Just old school verb here: http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetails.php?ProductId=1021

Probably add a volume pedal some day.
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Michael Schuppe

 

From:
Kent, Washington, USA
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 1:32 pm    
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My opinion, the MXR Carbon Copy is a great delay - I use it for both guitar and pedal steel. I have four Barber pedals, Tone Press included, and they're all exceptional. I don't use a compressor with my steel, but once again, IMO it's the best compressor out there, if that's what you're looking for.
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Brian Hunter


From:
Indianapolis
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 3:01 pm    
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I almost bought a Carbon Copy but then a (now deceased) friend gave me this in a trade. All the delay pedal I will ever need. Beautiful.




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Mitch Crane


From:
1000 Oaks, CA
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 4:37 pm    
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Not sure what the sonic stomp does.. but the others look fine.

I've used most compressors out there and the Barber is the best IMHO, the blend knob !

Other than Tone press, reverb, delay, volume pedal, you 'may' want to consider the Sarno Black Box..
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Frank James Pracher


From:
Michigan, USA
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 6:02 pm    
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Brian Hunter wrote:
I almost bought a Carbon Copy but then a (now deceased) friend gave me this in a trade. All the delay pedal I will ever need. Beautiful.


That is an amazing delay pedal. I had one for years. I just recently sold it to get a lap steel. Can't say I regret it because I didn't really use it much. But if you want an analog delay the AD-80 is the one.
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Eric Gross

 

From:
Perkasie PA, USA
Post  Posted 30 Sep 2011 6:24 pm    
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Doug, like some of the guys said, it depends on what style of music you want to do. With the effects you listed, try setting the carbon copy for just a quick slapback echo(Regen and Delay knobs set to about 7 o'clock), with the mix less than 50%. This gives a subtle thickening of the note, and adds sustain, especially if you use some bar vibrato. I like reverb so if your amp doesn't have a good reverb then put the RV7 at the end of your effects chain, and add as much as you want. The two other devices I have not used but the result you get from them depends on what kind of pickup/steel you are using, and also what kind of amp, and how dynamically you play. I don't use compression, could never get it to sound good. Probably user error. But you might like it, when you try the Tone Press put it first in the effects chain.

The number one rule is experiment and have fun!
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Ray Montee


From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
Post  Posted 1 Oct 2011 7:22 am     Do you suppose....................
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I wonder if selecting an affects pedal 'by name' or 'price' is the proper way to go.........

How long have you been playing steel?

What is it, in YOUR PLAYING, that you feel is lacking?

What single affect do you 'know' will enhance your playing sound?

Are you planning on using it for every note picked or just for a special 'break' or 'solo' you've worked up?

For others to select for "YOU".......a pedal to solve all short-comings that you see/hear in your own playing, is sorta like having your best friend selecting a girl, just for YOU!

I feel affects pedals are more of a 'personal thing'. What they deliver is directly proportional to how you use them.
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John Mulligan

 

From:
Ontario, Canada
Post  Posted 1 Oct 2011 10:38 am    
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The search for tone is never ending, until you find your own. Sonically, the tone spectrum has gotten almost infinitely broader in the last 50 years. Musicians and listeners have become accustomed to this broad range of tones and the devices that are on offer to colour tones have multiplied in number and quality. Some people like a simple but rich tone, such as a single coil pickup going into a Fender (for instance) reverb amplifier. The rest is up to the players touch. Other players (and listeners) want a tone palette that is more complex and incorporates different textures. Other players (and listeners) even have a diferent perception of what is pleasing in a signal-to-noise ratio. Everyone wants a tone that is as uniquely "their own" as possible, pleasing and identifiable.

Steel guitar, with or without pedals, is in the same world as electric guitar. It is the conservative cousin, usually. The variety of tones and effects available in the electric guitar world are accepted as the norm, and every player that can achieve a unique tone coupled with other elements that make a player great, will find an audience. Because a musician desires a unique tone that pleases his or her own ear does not always mean that they are making up for deficiencies in their playing. I think a good player knows when a tool has become a crutch, just like they know when they have found their own sound. Every single element of your playing goes into your tone, so the sounds will be as unique as every player, potentially.
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Doug Burling

 

From:
Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 1 Oct 2011 1:28 pm     Re: Do you suppose....................
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Ray Montee wrote:
I wonder if selecting an affects pedal 'by name' or 'price' is the proper way to go.........

How long have you been playing steel?

What is it, in YOUR PLAYING, that you feel is lacking?

What single affect do you 'know' will enhance your playing sound?

Are you planning on using it for every note picked or just for a special 'break' or 'solo' you've worked up?

For others to select for "YOU".......a pedal to solve all short-comings that you see/hear in your own playing, is sorta like having your best friend selecting a girl, just for YOU!

I feel affects pedals are more of a 'personal thing'. What they deliver is directly proportional to how you use them.


Ray, I'm just getting started on lap steel. Right now I have plenty of short-comings. Good news I have no place to go but up. I'm really not worried about pedals right now, just have the mentioned pedals available to use if I want. My question about the pedals is no more than my curiosity and maybe for future reference when I'm actually able to play.
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Don Kona Woods


From:
Hawaiian Kama'aina
Post  Posted 1 Oct 2011 2:15 pm    
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What Pedals Go Well With Lap Steel?

Only Rose Pedals



Last edited by Don Kona Woods on 1 Oct 2011 9:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Mat Rhodes

 

From:
Lexington, KY, USA
Post  Posted 1 Oct 2011 8:44 pm    
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Get the most expensive signal processor you can buy, especially one that has more multi-effects than you can use at present. You never know when a synth patch or something otherworldly may come in handy.

And don't listen to anyone who refers to distortion as "fuzz" or a "fuzz tone". And don't listen to anyone who tries to talk you out of buying one. It's the 21st Century. Live in it.
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Tom Wolverton


From:
Carpinteria, CA
Post  Posted 2 Oct 2011 12:25 am    
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Wet Reverb and Brad Sarno's Earth Drive. A great combination.
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Dave Boothroyd


From:
Staffordshire Moorlands
Post  Posted 2 Oct 2011 1:04 am    
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I play non pedal steel (some of the time) in a rock band, and I use the same Zoom multi effects pedal for both steel and tele. I use two sound settings for steel, clean with reverb and slightly distorted with less reverb. The first is for country and jazz, the second for blues and rock. However, each setting is twinned with the setting next to it, only the next setting is 6dB louder, so I can go into and out of the solos with one click on the pedal.
So A1 is clean, A2 is clean but louder. B1 is blues, B2 is blues solos.
The louder settings have more output gain and more compression.
I have another half a dozen settings for the tele and one more for Bass- though I should really double up on that one because I do have a bass solo in one song.

The pedal has thirty odd factory presets, and I don't use any of them on stage!
Cheers
Dave
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Peter Harris

 

From:
South Australia, Australia
Post  Posted 2 Oct 2011 2:26 am    
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...my Good Ol' Boss GT-5 gives me everything I want, is sufficiently programable for my limited brain power, and has been used to advantage on an amazing diversity of instruments in the 15-odd years that I have owned it.... Cool
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