The Steel Guitar Forum

I don't suspect the Hilton pedal - I have never had noise problems with mine. A humbucking pickup in a budget guitar may well have a comparatively low output, which would impair the overall signal/noise performance. No offence meant :) I like the pickup in the Stage One more than other steel guitar...

Some good advice here already, but some misdirection as well. White noise is an artifact of active analog electronics and has nothing to do with your pickups or induced AC noise ("hum") in cables or the "buzz" of a ground loop. Trying to eliminate white noise by messing with you...

I think my first question - before I start replacing my equipment - is whether anyone has had any success in this situation - where you are using the volume pedal heavily to sustain harmonics. Also, I went back and tinkered with the noise reduction plugin some more. It won’t work for cleaning up wha...

Bob Hoffnar wrote:Get in touch and we can trouble shoot over FaceTime . I’ll be at my steel this morning

Thanks, Bob. How do I get a hold of you?

Ian Rae wrote:What kind of volume pedal are you using?

I have a Hilton.

Hello, I am doing some home recording for a friend who lives far away. For one particular song, the part I play involves a lot of harmonics that I sustain with heavy volume pedal use. Putting the volume pedal all the way down causes the background white noise to rise to the point of making my track ...

Hmm, I guess the word "original" in the title was a turn-off. Maybe I posted this in the wrong steel guitar forum?

Hi everyone, about a year ago I posted on here for tips about creating accompaniments for a songwriter friend's songs with only guitar and steel. We did a live recording of some of the songs last fall and did some homemade video recordings to go with them. Here are a couple: https://youtu.be/urT16cH...

Bucky Baxter playing perfect support for Bob Dylan on "Forever Young": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt18hi8RzHE Never got a chance to meet Bucky, but we chatted a little on the internet, Resting in peace. I agree. I learned his parts on that song back when I was learning how to play: h...

I saw this and saw that they had the steel in a prominent place on stage behind Kacey with a spotlight on it (but not the steel player).

I've played lots of instruments over the years from Bassoon to Banjo. I have to admit to a certain OCD tendency, and pedal steel is perfect for that. Occupies all four limbs, brain and eyes and there's no room for slack on any of the above! Love it. Dave The responses that highlight the intense foc...

I cannot sing its praises enough. That said, I struggle to play in pitch when really high up the neck... and it is an issue that has persisted long enough that I am starting to wonder if it might be something about the guitar as well. I have nothing to back that up with, but thought I would throw it...

Johnson's Love by Dwight Yoakam. The A+B rocking and climbing up the chord inversions was loads of fun at the time.

I find this solo of his from a Lambchop song to be remarkable: https://youtu.be/S0835hPFSpI . It starts at 1:58. Here's the YouTube video I saw that made me create this thread: https://youtu.be/cB-cjnomYEI . I think one thing that strikes me about it is that it is slow, but hits the right rhythms to...

I saw a YouTube video of Paul Niehaus laying down a track for a recording. It sounded great and it struck me because his musical sensibilities in it lined up really well with where I am currently at on the instrument. Can you all on the forum help me put together a playlist of his 'greatest hits' to...

Didn't you also find it obnoxious on some level? It is very impressive to understand songs enough to manipulate them like that. That said, if you turn music into sport the songs lose what makes them effective. To me, a lot of what makes different versions of song engaging is when the artist understa...

I have been putting steel to a series of songs written and performed on guitar by a buddy. We started about a year ago and are building a small catalog of songs with the ultimate goal of making an amateur recording and playing casual sets. I am at a stage where I am going back to some of the songs a...

This is such a great thread, and I really appreciate your commitment to detailing the journey. I know what you mean about the "operator" feeling. Looking forward to next year! :) Agreed. I also took up pedal steel in adulthood (27 years old) and as my first real instrument. The learning p...

I think professional players know they are capable and can deliver what's needed in any situation. I don't believe they're too concerned with how "good" they are. My thoughts on reading this thread go in a similar direction. The pros can deliver across the board. For the rest of us, it ma...

That is so well said and if you read it a couple times; you can tell that Paul is comparing his progress to HIS SELF... That is so important. If you get caught getting down on your self playing not near Perfect or wish you could play more Perfect; if those mind thoughts are "in Comparison"...

For me after the notes and chords are learned for a phrase - then the "perfection" part of the process begins. At practice time I record myself and constantly ask myself is the Tone, Touch, Emotion, Interpretation (vibrato, pedal squeezes, dynamics, phrasing and timing) as good as it &quo...

There are two things I am learning more and more when I feel perfectionism creeping in: 1) At a certain point, the quest for perfection skews your vision so much that you have to walk away to regain perspective. Sometimes that means working on something else and coming back to it. Sometimes that mea...

as for dark and moody steel, there are plenty of examples... not sure where to begin. but this Johnny Paycheck/Lloyd Green cut comes to mind: https://youtu.be/aqunV99xBfM I have never heard that one before. It definitely comes very a different place than his other songs and other songs in the genre...

What's a good attitude to get to regarding perfectionism in steel playing? I am nowhere near perfection. However, I can get close enough sometimes where I find myself falling into that trap. I know I'm falling into that trap when I ruminate on how technically well I am playing a part and stop asking...

I have a suspicion that unfretted instruments like steel and fiddle may present more difficult issues with intonation both for players and listeners. Simpler music may just be more appealing to people who don't listen a lot. After having attended many steel shows I notice I hear many players whose ...