Best Practice Rig?

[Paul MacNabb]

Hi. I'm 1 month into pedal steel and looking for recommendations on what I should have for practicing. Currently I am using a combination of my iphone with the Amplitude app and headphones. This allows me to play along with backing tracks and also slow them down if needed (usually!). The problem with this set-up is that the guitar overpowers the system and distorts very easily. I use a volume pedal to tame it however I'd love to be able to crank things!
What other options are out there at a reasonable cost? Plugging in headphones and the ability of slowing the music down is a must, all in a rig that has some power behind it.
Thanks!

[Ken Metcalf]

You will not find this "all in a rig that has some power behind it". I would start with a basic steel guitar amp like a Peavey 112 / Nashville / Session 400 then you have an amp that works.
A 112 has headphones out but I prefer a separate system for amplified practice tracks.
Try to play with a garage band when you feel comfortable.
Pedal steel normally requires a very clean and full sounding amp.
I also use BIAB on an old lap top for practice..
Welcome to the slippery slope.
Here is a sys I am using at present for practice and could use for gigs.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=249555

[Matthew Beall]

Paul,
I have a reasonably priced practice rig and thought you might like to see what it consists of. I'm presuming that you'd like to practice steel through headphones with rhythm tracks. I have also presumed, perhaps inaccurately, that you have a computer. You'll probably opt to add reverb at some point; there are a lot of choices there. I use a Lexicon MX 200. I've used links to Amazon; of course there are many places these items can be obtained.

Vox headphone amp

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss? ... 0Guitar%20

Analog to Digital converter

http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UCA202- ... erface+beh

Mixer

http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-802-Pre ... um+8-Input

Best of luck to you!
Matt

[Paul MacNabb]

Matt, this is excellent. A few questions for you.
-I assume that you are using all 3 of these together?
- the Vox headphone amp comes in a few configurations. The Twin version might be best for headroom?
- How do you find the system handles the relatively hot output from a pedal steel?

I have a reverb pedal now for guitar (Mr. Springgy) so I assume I can use that for some reverb.
Thanks for the info!

[Matthew Beall]

Hey Paul,

I do use all three together along with my Mac.

The Vox Twin headphone amp is the one to get. If you only turn the volume knob on the Vox up halfway or less, you get a clean sound. It's actually quite good; uses AAA batteries that last a pretty good while; no wall wart.

No problems with the signal from the steel.

Note that the Behringer mixer is receiving the rhythm track from my computer via the headphone jack on the computer. The mixer also gets the Vox headphone amp signal. Using the mixer, I can control the relative volume of each of these. Of course, the mixer has a headphone jack, and that's what my headphones are plugged into.

The reason I have the analog digital converter is so that if I want to, I can send the mixed rhythm track/steel signal to the computer and record --- in my case I record into Garage Band.

The hardest part in all this, aside from playing the steel (!) is keeping the snake nest of wiring coherant. It gets kinda ugly back there.

Matt

[Paul MacNabb]

Excellent Matt. Time to go shopping!