How to get the Santos and Johnny "fuzzy" steel sound

Regan Branch · Post by **Regan Branch** » 15 Dec 2019 11:22 am

I have a fuzz pedal, but by all means I've failed to reproduce the sound I hear on tracks like "Girl". Anyone have any tips to reproduce this earworm? [/i]

Garry Vanderlinde · Post by **Garry Vanderlinde** » 15 Dec 2019 3:31 pm

It's that real quick, emotional Italian vibrato that Santo uses and lots of treble..

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 16 Dec 2019 9:01 am

It is doubtful that they used any effects.

Erv

Regan Branch · Post by **Regan Branch** » 16 Dec 2019 12:14 pm

I'm sorry but if you can't hear fuzz on "Girl" than you're deaf. I don't mean that as an insult and I'm not saying that they used effects. Maybe it's a result of the tape they recorded it on. There's something about it though, it is indeed fuzzy, psychedelic, different sounding than any steel I've heard. Something's going on there. I'm not saying it's an effect pedal, but if I were to reproduce it, it would have to be either an effect pedal or a DAW plugin. My steelmaster just doesn't make that noise.

Regan Branch · Post by **Regan Branch** » 16 Dec 2019 12:15 pm

Maybe it's the amp breaking up. That's another idea. I'm just asking if anyone knows forsure what's going on.

Garry Vanderlinde · Post by **Garry Vanderlinde** » 16 Dec 2019 2:24 pm

Regan Branch wrote:I'm sorry but if you can't hear fuzz on "Girl" than you're deaf.

Nice! Do YOU hear the quick vibrato and all the string noise?
Get yourself an early Fender Deluxe or Stringmaster and a Fender Twin amp.
Use the same tuning Santo did, (yes, it makes a difference!) Turn the treble up and work on your Italian vibrato.
It helps to be 16 yrs old and Italian,ha-ha.

Jody Carver:
the Italian Vibrato... "Olive Oil"helps the vibrato,one slice of pizza and dont wash your hands and there it is...the Italian
Vibrato.

These are the facts based on my opinion.

Marc Jenkins · Post by **Marc Jenkins** » 16 Dec 2019 4:00 pm

Sounds like tube amp breakup to me.

Al Evans · Post by **Al Evans** » 17 Dec 2019 6:41 am

Regan Branch wrote:I have a fuzz pedal, but by all means I've failed to reproduce the sound I hear on tracks like "Girl". Anyone have any tips to reproduce this earworm? [/i]

No way to know for sure, but if I wanted to make a sound like that with a pedal steel, I'd do a search for "sitar bars". Either that, or just find a sitar and play it with a bar....

--Al Evans

Regan Branch · Post by **Regan Branch** » 18 Dec 2019 9:19 am

Garry Vanderlinde wrote:
Regan Branch wrote:I'm sorry but if you can't hear fuzz on "Girl" than you're deaf.
Nice! Do YOU hear the quick vibrato and all the string noise?
Get yourself an early Fender Deluxe or Stringmaster and a Fender Twin amp.
Use the same tuning Santo did, (yes, it makes a difference!) Turn the treble up and work on your Italian vibrato.
It helps to be 16 yrs old and Italian,ha-ha.
Jody Carver:
the Italian Vibrato... "Olive Oil"helps the vibrato,one slice of pizza and dont wash your hands and there it is...the Italian
Vibrato.
These are the facts based on my opinion.

Unfortunately because of my liver disease i can't eat a slice of pizza before every practice session

It does sound like tube breakup. I have a remington steelmaster and a twin reverb. that's as close as you can get without having that. And yeh if I had the money I'd buy every instrument in the world but we all know how that goes.Plus I already have sweaty palms half the time and the tone bar is as slippery as a bar of soap as is. Ain't trying to lube up anymore. And from what I've heard sticky shit ruins your tone. So. More practice, practice, practice. I don't even like the rest of the song "Girl" just the intro lol. And I DO want a sitar or whatever the "Indian Slide" is referred to. is that a weissenborn?

Al Evans · Post by **Al Evans** » 19 Dec 2019 6:18 am

Regan Branch wrote:...And I DO want a sitar or whatever the "Indian Slide" is referred to. is that a weissenborn?

A quick search indicates that Jim Palenscar might be a good person to ask....

--Al Evans

Garry Vanderlinde · Post by **Garry Vanderlinde** » 19 Dec 2019 11:11 am

Found on youtube, here's a live performance of Santo & Johnny on an old Perry Como show where they play a couple of tunes. Starting @ 3:29 min. they play Sleepwalk and you can see and hear Santo's "Italian Vibrato". Very quick, sort of hawaiian like.
Regan, is this what you are hearing... psychedelic fuzz sound?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz42L7upvvA

Jason Goodell · Post by **Jason Goodell** » 19 Jan 2020 6:35 pm

To me Sleepwalk is a very warm track. You can hear hiss noise at the start, then the vibrato, and then to my ear there is some clipping of the signal chain. I've never heard or seen mention of what amp was used. The recording is from 1959, so it is likely that a Fender Tweed amp was used, and this was in the era before guys intentionally put their amps into overdrive. So I doubt the clipping is from the amp, but it's not impossible. Instead I think what is happening is tape saturation during the recording process, and maybe some clipping of the microphone preamp. I think it would be fun to try and recreate the sound. You could start with an overdrive pedal on a very low gain setting, and play with the volume on the steel and your picking dynamics to manipulate how much grit you get.

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 26 Jan 2020 1:18 pm

Almost has the plinking sound of a sitar bar . I don't detect a fuzz but maybe the amp or microphone was being over driven, or it was just his technique. Cool sound for sure.

Franklin · Post by **Franklin** » 18 May 2020 2:33 am

Hi Regan,

Its most likely a combination of tube amp distortion, tape saturation, and tubes in the console - the Fender Twin has too much power to create that sound. On the recording you are also hearing the instrument picked aggressively hard which triggers all of those low watt puppies into doing "That Thing".

When you listen to recordings up to the mid 70's...Tube consoles, Tube amps, actually tubes were everywhere in the recording process. For the players part the low watt amp is the unique factor. Chasing tones - the only way to exactly capture a very specific tone is to do exactly as they did on that particular day.

Paul

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 30 May 2020 10:50 pm

The song Girl was released by the Beatles in 1965. So the Santo and Johnny cover is from after that. Figure 1966 or around then. The sound Iâ€™m hearing is mainly ferocious picking and vibrato. Iâ€™m not hearing any reverb except for some plate in mix. I do not hear any effects or overdrive. If you are interested in that sort of tone and phrasing look at steel players from India. That is the exact sound those guys are into. It is a great scene. Tons of monster players. Even the current guys sound like that track.

Paul seems right about the small tube amp and a slammed console.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 30 May 2020 11:13 pm

Gautam Dasgupta is a little on the cheesy side but I really like his music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEvendz5SM4

Sunil Ganguly nails that sound. There is tons of stuff of his on youtube.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dWBKwsL4DU

Jeremy DeHart · Post by **Jeremy DeHart** » 23 Jul 2020 5:38 am

I'm gonna assume this was his steel with full treble through a fender twin amp cranked pretty decently (over 5 on volume). So it's that tube breakup from pretty heavy strong pickups (The massive trapezoid pickups on the Deluxe Triple neck) and full blast treble on both the amp and the steel. It's one of the crazy things about Santo, the volume he must have had was tremendous, but he's playing so lightly and delicately on most everything. I'm assuming this would have been quite something to see live. To my ears listening to all of his repertoire, I've never even heard so much as a volume pedal.

Nicholas Cox · Post by **Nicholas Cox** » 2 Aug 2020 12:11 pm

Bob Hoffnar wrote:Gautam Dasgupta is a little on the cheesy side but I really like his music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEvendz5SM4

Sunil Ganguly nails that sound. There is tons of stuff of his on youtube.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dWBKwsL4DU

Bob youâ€™re right it does sound a lot like that Indian steel sound.

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How to get the Santos and Johnny "fuzzy" steel sound

How to get the Santos and Johnny "fuzzy" steel sound

Re: How to get the Santos and Johnny