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Topic: Terrible-Sounding Ideas That Actually Work Well |
Chris Bauer
From:
Nashville, TN USA
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Posted 5 Aug 2014 6:04 pm |
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I just did a show that specified amplified reso. When I got there, the supplied backline was a 100 Watt Randall head with a 4 x 12 Mesa Boogie cabinet. A rocker's dream but hardly the stuff of resophonic bliss. Bottom line? It was possibly the sweetest, more natural-sounding amplified reso sound I've ever gotten. (The chain was Beard reso w/ Nashville pickup -> Fishman JD Aura pedal -> Fishman Platinum DI -> Randall head.)
It got me thinking... Between all of us, surely there's a lot of collective experience using bad-sounding ideas that turned out to work really well. Assuming the rest of us wouldn't think to try 'em, what have you all stumbled on to for steel or dobro that shouldn't have worked but actually worked well? |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 5 Aug 2014 7:23 pm
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Honestly, the solid-state Randall heads or combos I've played, in clean mode, were kings of clean. In distorted mode (present in the rock heads and combos), they are death-metal ecstasy. Totally schizophrenic.
On Boogie cabs - depending on the speakers, they can be insanely high-headroom. I had one years ago with very high-headroom original speakers, I forget what they were, it was 20 years ago. That thing would break glass with a clean high-power head and never break up at all - it would handle my Hi Watt DR-103 with zero breakup but sweetness all the way to the top. Oh, I never shoulda' traded away that Hi Watt.
I know it may sound crazy, but a lot of older Crate high-power heads and combos are pretty much the same way. I also used to use a Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 amp to amplify acoustic guitars if the PA was sub-standard. Super-clean and chimey, and I thought they helped tame the annoying piezo quack that often came through too heavy through PA speakers with horns.
I mean, anything is possible. Why do Lindley and Cooder and hordes of copycats use those crappy old microphonic Teisco pickups and other cheap pickups out of 60s Japanese guitars? Because they sound great. The microphonics are a total PITA, but if you can deal with it, they really are cool. |
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Fraser Moffatt
From:
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 17 Aug 2014 11:55 am
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Not PSG related, but a similar experience.
Can't remember why I tried this at band practice one night, but I did. I plugged a 5W el cheapo Kustom guitar SS practice amp into an ancient beat-up particle board 1x15 speaker cab (some sort of Peavey clone with a no-name speaker). Plugged my bass in and WOAH! Didn't have a ton of volume, but the tone was unexpectedly good - nice round, mellow tone with just the right amount of compression. Even the drummer commented on the tone I was getting out of that right. While not gig-worthy volume, it was enough to hang in a four piece rock band setting at practice volumes.
Shouldn't have worked, but it did.
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Rookie-ish steel player - currently tinkering around on a BMI S10 and a Guyatone S8. Bassist and vocalist for The Derringers. |
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