The Steel Guitar Forum

I think Junior Brown just uses a flatpick and his fingers when he slides.
As mentioned above, it's hard to get that characteristic sharp, clear tone without picks if you're playing clean. Distorted, I think fingers sound better, the picks are too abrasive.
I'm an amateur, I can't wear 'em.

Gerard Ventura wrote:Distorted, I think fingers sound better, the picks are too abrasive.

Don't tell Greg Leisz.
Just gotta tweak your eq a bit to get a nice warm distorted sound with metal finger picks. There's also the plastic finger picks....I use those on occasion, but not often.

Dan Simard wrote:I think I'll stick to using the pulp of my fingers instead of picks.

The range of tonal color produced by picking with pulp vs. finger picks or nails is drastically narrowed, which is why hardly anyone does it.

Using finger nails is a workable, albeit unpopular, compromise for steel guitar. But with finger picks you can pluck much harder than you can with your nails without having to worry about your nails breaking and pain

And don't tell David Lindley either. Andy Volk recently posted a great video showing Lindley playing fingerpicks...with a nice, warm overdriven tone (a very signature Lindley tone)....and, dare I call attention to the fact that he is using a Stevens steel??


http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=228734

Chris Walke wrote:And don't tell David Lindley either. Andy Volk recently posted a great video showing Lindley playing fingerpicks...with a nice, warm overdriven tone (a very signature Lindley tone)...

Thanks for the link to that great video.

Mr. Dave was an early fan of the Dumble Overdrive Special (current resale prices ~$50k-100k) which has a very smooth distortion- supposedly inspired by the distortion of a vintage tweed deluxe amp. I don't think it gets any better than that but there are a lot of newer amps with much more gain than that.

BTW the great blues guitarist Freddie King played with a metal pick on his index finger something he learned from Jimmy Rogers.

Steve Ahola

P.S. If anyone is looking for that great David Lindley Dumble tone there are a lot of pedals that get pretty close- check out the Zen Drive, the Ethos and the Barber Small Fry. There are a lot of pedals and amps that will give you the sustain but it is the smoothness and warmth that is harder to capture.

Chris Walke wrote:And don't tell David Lindley either. Andy Volk recently posted a great video showing Lindley playing fingerpicks...with a nice, warm overdriven tone (a very signature Lindley tone)....and, dare I call attention to the fact that he is using a Stevens steel??


http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=228734

Thanks! Plus, I think he's just using the volume knob, no foot pedal?! Incredible tone and control.

For my playing, the picks sound abrasive because I'm a guitar player, and the biggest hurdle for me is applying the much lighter right hand (picking) technique with steels. (I know...practice!)