The Steel Guitar Forum

Im a typical jack of all trades—master of none, but having lots of fun!
What do you suggest for a rig that is:
A: Portable—Im gettin old.
B: Affordable—Im cheap. Except when impulse really strikes.
C: Easily Switchable—Im tryin to do many things at once, it should be easier. Any ABC input switching ideas?
D: Sounds Great—I love it when rehearsal goes well, but as soon as you're in a venue, and the tones you had just got dialed away.
Comments appreciated.

—PS: I've read a lot of posts about the POD as a pre-amp effects. I used to use a Korg A2 guitar processor, which, though completely digital sounding, seemed to work for everybody, including the sound man. I know the Fractal Axe FX is the unit, but doesn't fit into category B (above)



Im now using this old school string of guitar pedals,
except for my new Hilton LP Volume,
which is first now in this chain:

Boss TU-2 — Standard tuner/Bypass Mute

Dunlop CryBaby® Wah — Cant hardly play anything funky or a distorted lead without wanting to add a little expression!

MXR Distortion+ — Ive had this since like 1976. It still sounds great with tube amps!

Boss GE-7 — I got this as a gift recently and wasn't using it much at first, but now its an almost indispensable effect I find myself using on guitar as well as that sweet scooped warm steel tone out of a primarily guitar amp setup. Its noisy though without any mod, and this is where I revert to the POD type deal...nice quality eq and reverb presets etc.

Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble — Another essential effect I like for clean guitar.

Boss DD-3 — I treat delay as an integral part of the overall reverb spectrum. I dont use a reverb pedal, but mostly add reverb from a Fender tube amp live. The slapback delay is great for clean and dry and the long repeat with a wet reverb sounds good, but Im still always adjusting the reverb on the amp!

Thats the end of my pedalboard.
And this is just about the end of my post.
Should I bag the whole stomp box approach, get a POD or rack type deal and start over? Or add a reverb pedal?
Mostly though, my query is: What do you use to switch from several electric stringed instruments onstage quickly? Me, I'm now either muting tuner or volume pedal, then quickly unplugging guitar and switching axes.
I only use one amp live, but Ive lots of options there. Do you use multiple cables and inputs, mixers, switchers etc..
What do you do?

The POD is a fine unit, and it will do as much as all the effects in your rack, but it will not sound exactly the same as any of them. The effect sounds are very good, but they are somewhat different from those of the stomp boxes.

The best thing about it is that you can dial in the exact tone or tones you want and store it/them as a default, or one of several, that you can easily switch between, so you always feed whatever sound you want into the amp or PA.

Tommy Dodd sells PODs with several presets he programmed specifically for Steel. If you are going to buy a POD, I recommend that you buy it from him,

guitar rig 2 with the metal footswitch works great with my steel and two banjos on my macbook pro...for the money and features it can't be beat for space usage or effect quality...i don't use it all the time, but when i need it is pretty sweet...

Clete, I am a utility guy as well and yes it is always a juggling act. What makes my job a tad more difficult, is our band does full band dates as well as radio promotion acoustic dates. I play steel, fiddle, and harmonica on the full band dates. I play dobro, fiddle, and harmonica on the acoustic dates. Here is how I am dealing with it.

For my full band sound, I am running my steel through a LeMay modded Nashville 400. I am using a Boss GT-Pro in the effects loop. I am using a Morley A/B box which I find does not color the tone at all. I am using an Audix Fireball mic for my harp, which incidentally is a fabulous mic...I have more engineers asking me about that mic than any piece of gear in my arsenal. So, I run from steel to one input of the A/B box, output of A/B box to Hilton volume pedal, out to amp. My Audix mic is on a short leash with an adapter going from XLR to high impedence. This plugs into the other input of the A/B box. My cable that runs from steel to A/B Box is about 10 foot long and I unplug from the steel to plug into fiddle for songs requiring that instrument. I EQ my Nashville 400 amp for my steel tone which stays pretty consistent from night to night. Then I EQ separate patches on the Boss GT-Pro for harp and fiddle. Only issue with this setup is it requires a foot to operate the volume pedal. I do have a volume control on the Audix mic as well as my NS Violin, so I basically go to the designated patch, floorboard the volume pedal under my steel, and make any volume adjustments on the respective instrument.

The acoustic rig makes life super easy. I have a Pod X3 Live which is a floorboard unit with included volume pedal and onboard tuner. It contains an XLR input which works great for the harp. I plug one 1/4" guitar cable into the input and use it for my violin or my Fluger RGS resonator guitar. No amp needed, I pull it up in the monitor. I have literally been in situations where there were not enough monitors to go around. I plugged a set of those Sony earbuds into the headphone jack where I could easily hear what I was playing and the open nature of the headphone allowed me to hear what the other guys were playing as well. Our sound guy LOVES this rig, he says it makes his job incredibly simple. He says the sound of each instrument is natural and well balanced volume wise. I like it because I don't need to worry about an A/B box with this setup. Quick to set up and tear down, and no heavy amp to carry. Line 6 now makes a rack mounted version of the X-3, so if I had it in my rack in the place of the Boss GT-Pro, I could probably do away with the A/B box.

Hope this helps.

Joe Rogers

Thanks for the responses.
Chris,
I didnt expect the MacBookPro as an alternative, but I have one and love the sound of its effect processing for recording in Logic. I'll look into Guitar Rig 2, thanks.

Joe and Mike,
The Boss GT Pro and POD X3 also sound like contenders for stomp box replacements. Im going to spend some time listening to them next chance I get!
Also that Audix Fireball for harp. Thanks.

Well, I went and tried out the Line 6 M13 Stompbox Modeler when my MXR needed rewiring. Its so old the foam padding has turned to small particles of dust and theres no 9v external connection. I finally got it cleaned up, wired the AC leads and its working again!

What makes my old MXR Distortion+ sound good to my ear is that when drive is dialed to 0 and output to full, it gives a nice edge without losing the original guitar tone, similar to the Goodrich Matchbox I have. Theres no digital artifact like I hear when trying out the Line 6 M13 stompbox modeler. . It seems all the digital distortion effects are way overdriven in their stock preset settings. When AB'ing it with the MXR, I cant get a smooth low drive setting with the M13. Then again Im critically listening thru studio headphones. But I still hear the difference when driven thru different tube amps, and although the MXR doesnt sound particularly good with guitar thru a SS amp like my NV1000 either, its a little better than digital distortion.
General question:
Whats your take on distortion? Do you use a 2 channel tube amp for clean/dirty? What about your FX loop for delay/chorus etc.? What stomp box distortion works for you on PSG and guitar?

Clete, I haven't been able to try out the M13 though a friend said he would loan his to me to put it through the paces. I will say that for steel, good distortion seems to be the most difficult for me to achieve. I have tried out quite a few and the best for my ears is the original Sansamp (now re-issued as the "Classic" Sansamp). You can dial in just the right amount of overdrive/distortion you need, has true bypass when not in use, and retains the character of the steel tone when in use. Tech 21 makes different models of the Sansamp, but the original is still the best in my book. I have not tried it in an effects loop; I always hooked it up before going into the preamp.

As for delay and chorusing, I use the FX loop for those.

Joe Rogers

In this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkSnoeTWR4I

I'm using an old Electro-harmonix Big Muff on a loop with an MXR 6 band EQ unit.

Today I use a Pro Co Rat. Eventually I'll make another loop for the rat and the equalizer. I don't use distortion in my classical music trio, so it's not a priority.

Mike,
Thanks for the reply. I went and returned the M13 yesterday and picked up a Fulltone OCD (my bandmates saw the name and just said, "Thats You!". OK, so I am a bit obsessive and compulsive, but its a fairly good sounding stomper. I mentioned to the salesman that besides the MXR Distortion+, I used to use a Little Big Muff and the ProCo RAT. Back in those days though, I was strictly guitar and the drive level was usually up in the noon oclock area, as was the output level. I may try the RAT again, as I recall it was built like a brick!

Joe,
I'll keep my eyes open for the original Sansamp as well, thanks.