The Steel Guitar Forum

My band was finally sent a DVD of our Comcast Battle of the Bands performance so we have posted it on YouTube. As I mentioned a while back, this is a live performance at a club in Larkspur, California.

I should mention that Bobby Black played pedal steel on the studio recording of this song. What I'm playing is an interpretation of his parts. I hope that you enjoy it.


Brittany Shane on YouTube

Very nice Michael.
Keep up the good work!

I really enjoyed that, great performance from everybody. Loved the sound of your lap steel!


Steinar

Very nice Michael. Band sounds great and you steel work is excellent. Love the "touch and tone".

Very cool

Thank you very much for your comments. I was REALLY nervous that night because I'm not used to having television cameras in my face . It's a pretty good example of how that song sounds, though.

It's funny, everyone always talks about how Supro lap steels are mainly good for distorted tones but I really love the clean tone with mine. I'll admit that the NiBro magnets that I bought from Rick Aiello definitely help but it always had a nice tone. I have a number of lap steels but this is the only one I use with Brittany.

Anyway, it's nice to have the support of my fellow forumites. I really appreciate it.

shweet!

Outstanding, michael! I really liked the song, and your steel playing was excellent -- you really captured the mood of the piece, and your fills were great. Nice tone, too!

Peter

Defined Evidence the Lap Steel Is the New Lead Instrument.

Bravo !!

You're right, George. I think we've just heard what the future of mainstream lapsteel is going to sound like. Great performance.

I'm flattered by your comments. Lap steel has always been a big part of our bands sound. I do play electric guitar on a portion of our set but the lap steel always gets the most comments after our shows. Our CD release party is Thursday, May 8th at the Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco. I would love to take part in a new lap steel movement .

Yes Sir, thats how it done!
Very good job by the whole group and very nice job on the lap steel! Thanks for posting.

Larry

Very tasty picking and super tone, Michael!

I'm wondering what effects you had going?

My main effect for lap steel is a Boss DD-20 delay (and an Ernie Ball volume pedal). I tend to use the Modulated Delay setting with a delay time of 390 milliseconds. I have other pedals that I use for guitar but tend to keep it simple when I play lap steel.

I enjoyed that also Michael. You're getting a nice tone from your steel. What amp do you use?
Nice job by all, thanks for posting

I have a friend named John Harris who started an amp company around 2 years ago called Harris Amplification. I use 2 different models of his amps. The one in the video is his "mini ming" model. It is 18 watts and has a single 12" speaker. I really love the tone of it. Mine is the prototype and is built inside a gutted Blues Junior (there is literally nothing left of that amp except the cabinet). His regular production models look more like a small Vox amp, though.

I wanted to add kudos to you and the band's performance. Very nice fills that support the feel of the song. Reminded me of the tasteful stuff I'd expect to hear from Gary Brandin. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thank you for the compliment. While I only own a few things by Gary Brandin, I really love his style and the overall mood he is going for. I'm happy to be associated with his style of playing .

Brittany Shane had a big picture of herself posted in this past Sunday's "Pink Section" of the San Francisco Chronicle, in the index of upcoming shows. This sounds like a great band to see. I'll try to make it out there.

By the way, Michael, nice playing, very sympathetic to the singer.

Very nice, Michael! Your lap steel is right out front in the mix... where it should be! Very nice playing. I really like the Valco-NiBro tone!

Brad Bechtel wrote:Brittany Shane had a big picture of herself posted in this past Sunday's "Pink Section" of the San Francisco Chronicle, in the index of upcoming shows. This sounds like a great band to see. I'll try to make it out there.

By the way, Michael, nice playing, very sympathetic to the singer.

I was really happy to see that photo in the pink section. We're in the middle slot that night. Definitely say "Hi" if you are able to make it to the show.

I couldn't find a web page for Harris Amplification?

That was a very good job, and the Supro and amp really had a nice sound and tone.

Gary Lynch wrote:I couldn't find a web page for Harris Amplification?

John is in the process of getting a real web site together. In the meantime, he has a few clips on a MySpace page. I recommend listening to the clip called "Mellow Mini's" as it is an improvisation with two Tele's and my lap steel. The other two clips are definitely more "rock" in nature as that is more his style of playing. Please be warned that they are on the loud side.

As I mentioned, the Mini Ming is a beautiful sounding amp that has a surprising amount of headroom for an 18 watter. It has a very simple circuit and has three knobs:

Volume
Tone
Cut

The tone control is more like a variable midrange control. If you turn it below noon it scoops the mids. If you turn it past noon it boosts the mids and adds a little gain. The cut control is similar to ones found on Vox amps and acts as a sort of presence control. It runs on 2 EL84 tubes and has an EF86 preamp tube. I'm able to get a wide variety of excellent tones using just these three knobs. Most people are surprised at how small the amp is and how big it sounds.

His amps are currently selling through Gelb Music in Redwood City, CA but I'm pretty sure that John sells them independently as well. I've owned a lot of amps and find that I'm extremely happy with my Mini Ming. I've pretty much sold all my other amps with the exception of his Alpha model.

Harris Amps

Well, I'm late to the party, but let me also chime in and say that I really love that song ynd your playing - that's exactly my favorite style of lap steel playing, no matter whether it is done by Greg Leisz, Nels Cline, or you...