Slide guitar tone on PSG

[John Billings]

Right Chris! It was RC goofing!

[Jamie Mitchell]

. And E9th doesn't give you the low "power" strings for Delta Blues. maybe it can be done in C6th?
JB

i use E B E as the low strings of my pedal steel, helps w/ this kinda stuff.

[b0b]

It might be best to think of the 4th string E as your highest string when emulating slide guitar. As for the low end, that's why I played 12 string E9th for 30 years, and why my current 8-string copedent goes down to low E.

[John Billings]

b0b,
that's why I play Uni. Gotta have that low E!

[Joe Stoddard]

Ok- I've play(ed) bottleneck slide since I was a kid - you hardcore steelers are going to have to unlearn a lot of things - same as me going the other direction but in reverse if that makes sense

- Robert Randolph often sounds like a rock/blues slide player. I reference his set-up a few times b/c he's the only "steeler" I've heard even getting close. Even if you don't like his stuff, it sits right in there with a cranked Hammond B3, R&B backup, all the rest.

- Tube amp, natural distortion. There are pedals that help but rock slide players if they use overdrive/distortion pedals at all- would do so on top of an overdriven amp. The "lots of clean headroom" is the opposite of what you're looking for. I think if you're serious about sounding like a bottleneck player, you'll need a second amp -kick it in with an A-B switch. FWIW -even the really good dirt boxes like the Klon don't sound anything near the same going into a clean transistor amp as they do a tube amp - even a clean tube set-up like a Fender Twin will give you totally different results than a Peavey Nashville 400 or something. A little Princeton or even a Champ cranked up would be way better.

- Glass slide. That *will* help, if you want to sound like Duane/Derek.

- String Tension - big problem. Need more slop/slink. Perhaps re-configure re-tune your C6 neck with some lighter strings and/or tune down a semitone to B6? Robert Randolph plays a U12 the last I knew. I'm not good enough on PSG to fool with this suggestion yet so YMMV.

BTW - THere is a Robert Randolph "Rig Rundown" on YouTube -well worth checking that out.

- Pickups: All wrong on the PSG. I don't know the outputs/sonic range of a typical PSG pickup but they sure don't sound anything like a 6-string, or most lap steels for that matter. Stomp boxes don't seem to help Robert Randolph was playing a 2-pickup U12 at one point - don't know if he still does but that sounded a lot closer to what you want. Maybe try an MXR 6-band graphic and kick up the mids a little bit - a 6-string has more at 1000-2500 hz.

- Tuning. Derek Trucks plays in open E most of the time. EBEG#BE. That gives you a M3 between 4&3 and a m3 between 3&2...and plenty of power chords R-5-R. That's ideal for rock/blues bottleneck IMO. I played in standard tuning most of the time for convenience -M3 between 3&2 (G-B)- and slant bar to get a m3 there.

- Finger Picks: Nobody I know uses finger picks for rock/blues slide. Hybrid picking (so you could use a plastic thumb pick only) or no picks. Derek goes "bare back".

- Pedals: You gotta stay off them. There's no equiv - Bottleneck players don't have them, so as soon as you pedal into or out of an interval - no longer sounds like a bottleneck player. The best we can do are bar slants.

- Scales: Rock/Blues players play major and minor pentatonic predominantly with the "blues scale" and M9 tossed in. That's a very different mindset than most pedal steel players who play much more melodically. Robert Randolph gets the sound you want sometimes- do what he does.

- Volume knob vs. Pedal. I always used a volume pedal but it is true guys like Derek Trucks don't. They use their volume knob to "clean up" their sound.

Hope these suggestions help someone. I'm a noob on PSG but I got around as a slide player back in the day . My biggest influences were #1 Duane Allman, Billy Gibbons, and George Harrison, who also got a beautiful sweet tone. Trucks def. has it going on today - as does Susan Tedeschi. Bonnie Raitt is very under-rated. For lap steel - David Lindley, no doubt.

[John Billings]

Good points. I really think string tension and pickup placement work against the steel sounding like a bottlenecked guitar. You can play some of the notes, but not the low power stuff. I've been playing steel since '72, but bottleneck since '60. But that's Deep Delta stuff that I just can't pull off on pedal steel.

[Lane Gray]

Avoid those close spacings we steelers have at our disposal. I think it's less tonality than approach that gives us away.

[Dustin Rhodes]

Derek and Duane play open E and someone like Lowell George plays open A. For guitar their string tensions are pretty high.

[Jamie Mitchell]

It might be best to think of the 4th string E as your highest string when emulating slide guitar.

i'm pretty much in agreement here, but, Lindley did stuff (on lap) up to a high A(!!) that is still super rocking, so it's not like the range itself does it in. but yeah, the tone of that high G# can be pretty unballsy at times...