Boo-wah tone switch for pedal steel...

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 2 Oct 2005 7:27 am

...essentially adding a tone pot or tone kill switch from a non-pedal to a pedal steel for those Speedy West sound effects. Done it? Been done?

thanks,
Drew

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Drew Howard - website - Fessenden D-10 8/8, Fessenden SD-12 5/5 (Ext E9), Magnatone S-8, N400's, BOSS RV-3

jim milewski · Post by **jim milewski** » 2 Oct 2005 2:49 pm

I saw ATTW and their steel player John Ely was getting nice effects reaching over with his finger and sweeping a pot (tone I think), maybe it's a volume pedal and tone pot technique, he was on a stand up no pedal Fender

Dean Parks · Post by **Dean Parks** » 2 Oct 2005 2:54 pm

Drew-

I saw Time Jumpers with Johnny Cox a few years back, and he had a tone control with what looked like a Tele knurled knob (maybe longer?) mounted on the endplate. Seemed to be Bass clockwise, Treble counterclockwise... so, the move was, fast forward move for boo, then quick back for wah. Great.

-dean-

Keith Cordell · Post by **Keith Cordell** » 2 Oct 2005 4:28 pm

Garland Nash told me he was using a long shaft pot with a small knurled knob for his, and he used it extensively.

Tim Whitlock · Post by **Tim Whitlock** » 2 Oct 2005 7:21 pm

Heard tell of players in the 40's - 50's adding a doorbell button into the circuit that would allow for them to rapidly cut the signal in and out of a capacitor to create the doo-wah effect.

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 4 Oct 2005 10:19 am

YES, Tim. The switch is the easiest method to operate(and build). Any momentary contact switch will work.
I once owned a steel guitar that had a momentary shorting switch across the output jack. You could move the bar up the neck while tapping the switch. This would give the effect af "bar slams".

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www.phelpscountychoppers.com/steelguitar

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 5 Oct 2005 7:24 am

Speedy had a doorbell switch on his steel. That's how he did that effect so quickly. Pretty ingenious...

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 12 Oct 2005 10:52 am

Drew-Thanks for the post and bringing that important,I think, point up.

I have always had a tone control on my guitars for that Boowah effect and to make it talk, sorta, and laugh, sorta, etc. I miss it on all these modern pedal guitars being built today.

Alvino Rey used it in 1938
On his Gibson Console and later on his 6 pedal Electra-harp. That was way before Speedy West came along. I mentioned this on my website.

All Pedal Steels should have one, lets all ask the builders to spend a few bucks and put them on right on top of the board , in front of the strings so you can use it with your little finger that way we used to do it.

It works best with bass left to high right. But it is important to put a narrow band rheostat on it for quick bass to high...al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 12 October 2005 at 11:57 AM.]

Willis Vanderberg · Post by **Willis Vanderberg** » 16 Oct 2005 4:33 pm

If you notice, a lot of the Multi-Kord guitars for sale have a small red shot gun button by the volume and tone controls.
The effect was easy to do on my old Fender custom D-8 by curling the little finger around the tone control.I still have a set of those old Fender tall knurled knobs if there is any interest in them.

Bud

Stephan Miller · Post by **Stephan Miller** » 16 Oct 2005 4:56 pm

Bud.....check your e-mail. --Steve

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 18 Oct 2005 12:44 pm

I have a 1 meg pot in my Gibby Grande Console. Works well.
A previous owner cut a narrow slot in the top of the guitar, and put a lever onto the pot. So I don't have to rotate anything. Just move the lever back and forth. There is a small switch to take it out of the circuit.

Joseph De Feo · Post by **Joseph De Feo** » 19 Oct 2005 9:20 am

Here's a circut I used on a lap steel I
built last year.

Taken from an old Tele.
layout. I added a treble retention cap.
so that low volume=thin & bright, high volume=fat & smooth. My pot values were
Vol.500, Tone 250. Roll the tone pot with
the cup of your hand and you get a Wah.[This message was edited by Joseph De Feo on 19 October 2005 at 10:21 AM.]

SveinungL · Post by **SveinungL** » 22 Oct 2005 4:21 am

Not that I'm much of a player, but I use the little finger on the tone pot on my fender Deluxe lapsteel. Gets kind of a boowah effect.

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Thanks Sveinung Lilleheier
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Kentucky Riders

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 22 Oct 2005 6:18 am

Jerry Byrd couldn't have played "Steelin' The Blues" without rolling that tone control. He was a master at it.
Erv

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 26 Oct 2005 10:10 am

Joseph, we need more guys like you who experiment. Thanks for posting the diagram of your work. There should be more people like you posting in the electronics part of this forum, and less posting who know nothing about electronics. At first this topic did not interest me, because I haven't heard a recording since the 1950's that had this effect on it. The more I thought about it, the more the topic interested me. Even though the concept seems simple, it is much more than the movement of a tone control. I was wondering what value capacitor Avieno Rey and Speedy West used? When you think about the operation of the circuit, you must consider time. With an off and on switch, time is much different than with turning a potentiometer on a pedal or control knob. I got to thinking and ask myself a lot of what if questions: What if the effect had controls where you could set the trebble, and you could set the bass? What if you could set the time factor? In other words put a digital timing circuit in the mix, where the user could set the timing of the effect? What if you put this on a lever that was mounted to the leg of a steel guitar? What if you didn't use any pots for the controls, but did it with optical electronics in combination with digital and micro-controllers? What if you built this circuit and used it along with a distortion circuit? What would this circuit sound like if it were used with a wah circuit? I think I can build something pretty interesting. I was thinking .05uf Joesph, so I was glad to see your.04uf capacitor. Again, there needs to be more people like Joesph posting here.