The Steel Guitar Forum

I drove over 600 miles round trip yesterday to see Brent Mason, Paul Franklin, and the Players perform at Guitar Town Festival in Copper Mountain, Colorado. A beautiful, sunny Colorado day......perfect setting for the A Team to play and be heard. And that's where the trouble began. Whoever the idiot was who was mixing sound had Paul Franklin so low in the main speaker mix, that his talent was all but absent from what the audience could hear. Pleading on my part and the part of another steel player there to turn Paul up in the main mix got nowhere. It makes me furious when sound men show their incompetence in mixing steel guitar. And I've had it done to me personally far more times than I care to recount. So Paul, if you read this, know there were fans there to hear you, who left very much disappointed. And to those of you who truly know how to mix sound, thank you for your contribution. And those of you who think you do, and probably don't realize you don't, pay special attention to how you mix steel guitar, because most all of you do it poorly.......why I have no idea.....but you do.

I doubt the chance will ever come again to hear the Players in a beautiful mountain venue as yesterday.......such a loss. Paul, from what I was able to hear, you were superb as always......and why you were introduced by Duane Eddy as the world's best pedal steel guitar player.......for in my book you are. I hope you and the Players enjoyed the beauty of the mountains. Thanks for coming.

Paul, I went with a friend to a private gig once, just to listen to him. The sound guy did the same thing. I went to him and complained to no avail, so I took my chair and went and sat next to his amp.

Paul, That's too bad about the sound. At least it was a beautiful Colorado day! LOL! I bet had everything turned out that would have been a great show. Wish I'd known, I might have made the drive for that one. Great players!
My experience has been that many sound guys don't understand the concept, that a majority of steel players use a volume pedal and are controlling their own volume all the time. So they try to compensate, and get it wrong. Amazing that it happens with with players of that caliber also.

Hi Paul Carestia. Good to see you posting on the forum.

If I was mixing that show, you'd have trouble hearing anything but Paul Franklin! Seriously, I have mixed shows that Paul has played on and I was always nervous that I'd be called out for the steel being too far forward in the mix. I agree with you that when a guy doesn't know how to mix and there is a monster player being buried (usually by drums), it drives a steel player absolutely crazy.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of hearing Paul Carestia play...whoa! What a phenomenal steel player is he!

All the best to you Paul.

TC

I have had that happen to me before, but nothing can compare to a Gospel show I did a few years ago. We lost the house speakers and no one, I mean no one could hear the entire band. And of course there was a night I was playing with a Country band, and we only had one channel working. That was on my right hand side. At the Gospel show if people wanted to hear us they had to come down to the stage and listen to us over the monitors.
Tommy

I've said it before and I will say it again,the house soundman will in most cases bury you.

Recent Example: When Billy Bob's runs sound for National Acts they always bury the lead instruments and muddy the vocals.

Ronnie Milsap brought his own FOH and Monitor soundmen last week and there was no mistake on who played what. One of the best mixes I had heard there in a long time.

I've watched the House guys and they almost never move their hands once they set a level while Ronnies men were constantly working faders.

I played behind Becky Blackaby a few weeks ago at the Montgomery County Fair here in Missouri and was told later by an attendee that as far as the ears of the audience was concerned, there was no steel guitar in the band.
The same thing happened when I attended a Joe Nichols concert in Las Vegas a few years back. Terry Crisp was on steel and not a peep could be heard from his instrument. After my blood pressure had reached stroke level, I went back and literally SCREAMED at the sound man; he kept his head down and wouldn't look me in the eye. I think he was afraid I was going to pull out a gun and blow his stupid brains out. But do you think he raised the level of the steel one iota??? NO, NO, NO, not a chance.
By the way, he was an employee of the casino. If I was a touring entertainer, I would always have my own sound man and he would be the most scrutinized and disiplined employee in the whole group. If you don't have a competent sound person, you have nothing.

for what its worth, I just saw Mr Crisp with Joe Diffie at Decatur Celebration (Decatur IL) last Sunday Aug 9th. Joes band is HOT!!!
The FOH guy was terrible. I was standing immediately stage right and was enjoying the tele player completely master his tele with dominant force!!! I really couldn't hear Terry's steel at all so I decided to back up so I could hear the PA system and it was no different. couldn't hear the steel at ALL!!!
What a waste. To be fair, the tele player was lost in the mix as well. you could only hear vocals, piano, bass and kick drum . I LOVE loud drums, especially good solid LOUD kick drum, but when did the kick drum become a lead instrument?
Don

I LOVE loud drums, especially good solid LOUD kick drum, but when did the kick drum become a lead instrument?

At the very same instant they started miking them.

And that is why Paul Franklin should not be missing
the st, louis show, Paul Franklin is the best of the best. Paul and Dave peterson were just great at the
Dallas show.Scotty and the sound people at the Dallas show put the sound where it should be. I will
miss seeing him, And Randy Beavers, Johnny Cox at
Scotty's this year

In my personal opinion, the best place to hear Paul Franklin is every Monday night at the Station Inn, in Nashville, I went to hear him last night with the "Time Jumpers" He done an absolutely awesome job...no problem hearing him, and also Vince Gill was there, and sang "Look at Us" and to no surprise Paul done a wonderful job....John Hughey would have been proud.

One of the best times I've ever had in a club was the night I went to see The Players at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville, the mix was absolutely perfect, I mean, Paul, Brent, Michael Rhodes, what can you say? AND I got to meet Paul that night, it was something I will never forget, standing 10 feet from Paul and Brent while they set the stage on fire with "Hotwired". I don't know how often they play there these days, but you'll definitely hear the steel there.

Gerald

I guess all I can do is "echo" the sentiments posted here. If all steel players doubled as soundmen we would all be so much more contented(???).Just goes to show that there are still so many music afficionados that just can't figure out what to do with the pedal steel. So, let's all take it with a grain of salt and keep doing what we love to do. Sounds good to me! Just like to send out a big "hey" to Paul Carestia, an old bud from my early days of steel..the man was doing real tasty stuff on steel thirty years ago! Same goes to T.C....great to see you doing so well in all your endeavors. Respectfully submittes, RK

Bottom Line, Rock&Roll Soundmen, They'll kill you almost every time by shoving the Bass & Drums up your xxx

This is off topic, but I just wanted to chime in and say howdy to Rick! How are you old buddy? I haven't talked with you in sometime. I went through some of my old boxes of materials (from back in the early 90's) and came upon some of the old songs you tabbed out for me back when I was cutting my teeth. Should've asked her faster, Look at us, Sleep walk, Is it cold in here and Don't rock the jukebox if my memory serves me. Do you realize that was nearly twenty years ago Rick! WOW! Time flies when you are having fun; or is it the fact that we are getting real old? Workin' five and six nights a week back then and having all the venues to play. What memories eh? Good to see you around. Drop me a line or a jingle if you ever get the time. Take care and tell the family hello.

A FEW MONTHS BACK AT SOUND CHECK THE FOH MAN SAID THAT MY STEEL WAS "WAY TOO LOUD". I ASKED HIM IF IT WAS LOUDER THAN THE LEAD GUITAR. HE SAID IT WASN'T. WHEN I INFORMED HIM THAT THE STEEL SHOULD BE AS LOUD AS THE GUITAR HE WAS TOTALLY SHOCKED. HE HAD NO IDEA. DAN HATFIELD IS RIGHT--IF I WERE A TOURING ENTERTAINER AND COULD ONLY AFFORD 6 GUYS ON THE ROAD, IT'D BE A FIVE PIECE BAND AND A GOOD SOUND MAN.

When doing a soundcheck if the soundman asks me to play loud I press the volume pedal about an eighth of an inch and look as if I'm playing as loud as I can. Then he will give me plenty of gain, at least until later when he might turn it back down...

Imagine being surprised that the steel should be as loud as the guitar! What does he think it is there for -- visuals? Ah the world is full of idiots, no?