"Wicked Game": Lap Steel B11 Tuning

Kay Das · Post by **Kay Das** » 23 Mar 2010 11:18 pm

This tune had women swooning...when Chris Isaak first sang it...

http://www.4shared.com/file/248134010/5 ... _Game.html

Credits: Kay Das on steel and rhythm tracks. West Coast B11, key of E

Kay

Nils Fliegner · Post by **Nils Fliegner** » 24 Mar 2010 12:43 am

TAB, pleeeeease ...and you'll have me swooning, too!

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 24 Mar 2010 1:56 am

Beautiful tone there Kay, and sounds great.

Randy Reeves · Post by **Randy Reeves** » 24 Mar 2010 3:26 am

very nice. made my morning.

Roman Sonnleitner · Post by **Roman Sonnleitner** » 24 Mar 2010 3:41 am

Wow, that was GREAT!!!

Peter Jacobs · Post by **Peter Jacobs** » 24 Mar 2010 5:23 am

BeaUtiful tone, Kay -- outstanding job. This is one of my favorite songs, and you really captured the mood. Thanks for posting!

Richard Sevigny · Post by **Richard Sevigny** » 24 Mar 2010 6:32 am

Nice job, Mr Das

..especially love the harmonics.

You're right, the women always get up and dance to this one.

Bill Leff · Post by **Bill Leff** » 24 Mar 2010 7:29 am

That was beautiful Kay.

And you REALLY nailed the backing track.

Jason Anderson · Post by **Jason Anderson** » 24 Mar 2010 7:58 am

Nice work, I'm going to try this one out myself.

Chuck S. Lettes · Post by **Chuck S. Lettes** » 24 Mar 2010 8:32 am

Hi Kay,
Great choice of tune and wonderful atmospheric arrangement. Is that a regular 6 string guitar (some kind of Fender)playing the fills in the background?
Chuck

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 24 Mar 2010 8:49 am

Very nice, Kay. You've captured some magic with this one!

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 24 Mar 2010 7:03 pm

ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL !!!!! YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.

Kay Das · Post by **Kay Das** » 24 Mar 2010 9:36 pm

Gentlemen,

Grateful for the appreciation from all you great steelers. I am humbled. I am not the world's greatest tab man so that will take a little time. I am off to Hawaii tomorrow for a few days...

A little about the genesis of this rendition of this "women swooning" tune. I got first ideas of a steel version from a backing track I received from a guitar site (www.guitarchaos.com: it is a great site, with about 28,000 guitarists members), playing anything from heavy metal to blues to southern rock, lots of interactions, monthly competitions, originals, backing tracks etc. I believe I am the only steeler on it, it is a free site. The backing track had a good base line, which I retained, but the quality of the rhythm and lead was thin and tinny so I worked on top of them. I added four rhythm guitar tracks ( Martin acoustic, Stratocaster Craftsman electric, and two Strat direct mic'ed tracks. I used a SM57 mic all through. For the Strat leads I patched it thru an Alesis Quadraverb GT. It is a normal 6-stringer. There are just three chords to this tune: Bm/A/E.....

For the steel guitar, I wanted a close harmony at times so chose the B11 tuning. Except for a hint of a 7th or 9th about three quarters of the way through the lead I did not use any accidentals for harmony. I plugged the West Coast B 11 into a Fender HotRod via a FV300L foot-pedal and then directly to the mixer. There are two steel tracks, one with a 30mS and 50mS echo and one with a high overdrive, that I thought captured the atmosphere of the song.

For any more info or help please ask or e-mail me...

Kay

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 24 Mar 2010 9:47 pm

That sounded great, thanks for the tune

Jay Jessup · Post by **Jay Jessup** » 25 Mar 2010 3:51 am

I believe Chris Issack released an instrumental version of the tune which is essentially the song with his vocals removed so if anyone wanted to fool with this tune without creating a backing track it's out there for you.
I thought this song would make a neat steel tune quite a while ago---I just didn't do anything about it and you did Kay---nice version!!

Roman Sonnleitner · Post by **Roman Sonnleitner** » 25 Mar 2010 5:08 am

Kay Das wrote:I added four rhythm guitar tracks ( Martin acoustic, Stratocaster Craftsman electric, and two Strat direct mic'ed tracks. I used a SM57 mic all through. For the Strat leads I patched it thru an Alesis Quadraverb GT. It is a normal 6-stringer. There are just three chords to this tune: Bm/A/E.....

For the steel guitar, I wanted a close harmony at times so chose the B11 tuning. Except for a hint of a 7th or 9th about three quarters of the way through the lead I did not use any accidentals for harmony. I plugged the West Coast B 11 into a Fender HotRod via a FV300L foot-pedal and then directly to the mixer. There are two steel tracks, one with a 30mS and 50mS echo and one with a high overdrive, that I thought captured the atmosphere of the song.

For any more info or help please ask or e-mail me...

Kay

Sounds only marginally less complicated then the recording process for the original tune...

http://mixonline.com/recording/intervie ... ks_wicked/

Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 26 Mar 2010 8:57 am

I really liked the way you used the steel for the vocal melody and kept the Straty lead intact. Very nice work.

Peter Jacobs · Post by **Peter Jacobs** » 26 Mar 2010 10:14 am

[quote="Roman Sonnleitner]
Sounds only marginally less complicated then the recording process for the original tune...

http://mixonline.com/recording/intervie ... ks_wicked/[/quote]

Oy vey. That's too much work for me. The amazing thing is Isaak can pull off that song live.

Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 26 Mar 2010 12:08 pm

Peter,

The song as Chris Issac did it is not really that difficult if you have a band member with a voice that can carry it. That would not be me but......

My old band, The RipTones played it 4 piece and it came off well. The other guitar player/vocalist played the Bm, A, E progression & sang and I did the lead work. Not too tough, a lot like playing steel with drippy reverb, clean headroom and the wang bar. Strat quack is a must. Yes it would make the girls crazy. Fun tune. We did it a few gigs with a B3 player, icing on the cake. Kay's version is a perfect instumental.

Jay Jessup · Post by **Jay Jessup** » 26 Mar 2010 12:21 pm

Not being a studio engineer I am sure I am missing some key details but I just can't understand why four competent musicians couldn't go in and knock out that tune very quickly? The explanation of how that tune was achieved was fascinating as was a similar link someone had posted a while back on ZZ Top but do you guys think it really requires all those studio pyrotechnics to get 'that' sound?
Actually Kay may have already answered that question---yes he put an effort into it but he did get it to sound real good.

Roman Sonnleitner · Post by **Roman Sonnleitner** » 26 Mar 2010 12:26 pm

Well, that song WAS recorded in the 80s, when the excitement of all that new digital technology sometimes made people use it just becuase it was there, not because it couldn't have been done traditionally...
Also, the original does have an extremely smooth, polished, "produced" sound, recording it live with a 4-piec band would probably have led to a grittier, more "real" sound (not that that couldn't have been great either...)

Kay Das · Post by **Kay Das** » 26 Mar 2010 7:06 pm

I am in Waikiki for a few days, limited Internet access. Found it challenging to interpret a vocal number with three chords into an instrumental lead. The strat whammy bar effect in the original, however, gives scope for the steel guitar to offer contrast...

Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 26 Mar 2010 7:48 pm

Contrast! That is the word the sums it up.

seldomfed · Post by **seldomfed** » 29 Mar 2010 12:45 pm

Kay - excellent job! Have fun in Hawaii!

Mark Daniels · Post by **Mark Daniels** » 1 Apr 2010 2:22 pm

Sounds great.

The Steel was the perfect instrument choice for the melody!