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Ricky,
Since Bill Cutright asked some specific questions to which I can relate I'm delighted to provide some insight.
I'll itemize my responses in the sequence he asked.
When recording I turn the reverb on my amp to about...2, the rest being added by the engineer from the board. This blend gives the best of all steel reverbs.
I use absolutely no echo/delay when recording, simply plugging from steel, to pedal to amp. Nothing in between. If you ever hear any echo on something I'm playing it has been added after I left the studio.
When recording I never turn my volume past 3. Even then I use no more than 1/2 to 3/4 of the pedal taper.
During the 2 years I've been recording again I've used exclusively, my Sho-Bud LDG #1. My instrumental cd, "Revisited", was recorded with one Hot Rod Fender Deluxe with on 15" D-130F JBL speaker. Soon after, I found my sound connection to the past, when steel used to sound so good on records, a Black Face Fender Twin (not a re-issue, but the real thing) which I had cut down into a head and which I use with my never re-coned 15" JBL.
I have no mike preference but I always, with a smile, ask the engineer to record me flat with no EQ, add a little reverb to mine and turn me up. I already have my sound and don't require an uneducated engineer screwing with it (I don't tell them this last part).
My 27 years of experience in the recording studios have taught me that if you're playing good, the louder they crank it the better it sounds. The lower they put it in the mix the worse and more washed out it becomes, losing much of the nuance, tone and emotion.
If you're playing marginally or pedestrian....well you know there's not much can be done for that handicap.
I have no favorite studio but in my judgment the best modern recording engineer for steel is John Kelton, Alan Jackson's man, and with whom I played steel on his first recording date in Nashville many years ago when he was only 18 years old.
But the best engineer of my big era, 1960's, 1970's and thru the mid 1980's was unequivocally, Al Pachucki. Al, among thousands of recordings, mixed most of the Charley Pride music, including the "Live at Panther Hall", Paycheck's Little Darlin' records and was Elvis's engineer.
Creativity and originality in the studio used to be a desireable and required trait. While there have been session musician(s) who have stated on this forum that nothing new has been created since the masters (an outrageous statement since I never heard Mozart, Bach or other B's play anything resembling Brumley's "Together Again", Weldon's "I'll Come Running" or my "Farewell Party" or "Borrowed Angel" or Hughey's "Look at Us").
I'm not much interested in the pedal, amp or steel of the week, but rather in ideas and originality. All of those other things are ultimately distractions. It's not enough to play as many notes in a short phrase as possible, that's just part of learning to play the steel. When one learns to play steel well enough and understands the mathematical changes and possibilities on his/her particular set-up at that point the focus changes. Then the question becomes, "Can I learn to play music now, not just patterns and fast doodling"?
The last steel guitarist I was influenced by was Jerry Byrd. He had all the elements figured out as to how to become an artist; tone, intonation, being in tune, emotion and originality. Nobody has stated it better and, like him, I never wanted to sound like anyone other than myself and be the best I could be. Neither did Curly Chalkler and neither did Emmons, but most of all, neither did Jerry Byrd.
Besides, when I was recording 500 to 600 sessions a year for more than a decade, had I been playing like anyone else those numbers would have dropped dramatically. I was told by Grady Martin, who was leader on everything when I started recording in 1964 that if they wanted ____ or ___ they would call them. That told me to play my ideas or I would soon be back selling shoes! I found "The Bridge Washed Out " sound soon after and Grady said one day in the studio, "Now that's the way it should sound and be played". It was the first of many new ideas for me to record.
So ultimately, creativity in the studio depends on a number of factors; a good engineer, great musicians off of whom to play (and today all of the sessions players are great), a good song, a good singer, good equipment and most importantly, belief in yourself and your ideas and the freedom to play music the way you hear it in your head.
So far most everyone I've worked for lets me do just that.

Lloyd Green

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"While I don't know what type of mikes John Kelton uses, he used two on my open back speaker cabinet. I just made certain where the front one was placed; about 6 inches from the speaker and a couple inches to the left of center. That's the sweet spot on a JBL for recording. The other was placed about two inches inside the cabinet in the rear."

Lloyd

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Ricky,
This is for Gregg Simmons on the Greentone thread.
My amp settings on my Fender Twin are currently: Treble- 3 3/4 Middle-5
Bass-6.

Lloyd G.

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