The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi. I own a SWP (steel without pedal) guitar and am interested in adding a pedal that will give me a bit more sustain. This gives you an idea of what I'm talking about:

http://youtu.be/IsmRhz1WGtM

Most postings here recommend a volume pedal, but does that add sustain?

Don

Well Don, an interesting question, with out a definitive answer. I do think the volume add's sustain unless you have it a full bore to start with. I watched the Utube presentation. Great action, two tings I noticed great vibrado. and the reverb, whitch adds to sustain. The pick and bar work were a pleasure to watch. But back to your question. Considering the tuning. C6th E7th ect. ect. what one string pull would best benifit the player in his presentation, and that would improve his particular technique. In the Pedal set up the three A,B,&C pedals give a veriety of possibilities. When it comes to a Lap Steel with a one string Pull. I think my choice would be the 5th string on an eight string set up. Hear is my reasoning.

Presently I have my insterment tuned from bottom up, E,G#,B,C# E,G#,B,E. It is a modified E9th tuning. 4th string from F# down to E, and the 5th string from D down to C#. If I leave the 5th string at c# I have that tasty minor in there and my one pedal pull would rase the 5th string to D. this gives me a double octive 4 string E setup Like I mentioned before Don it would be up to the individual player. but that would be my preference. Now if I change my tuning to C6tth.A7th, I would have to give that some thought.

Wayne D. Clark
Melbert 8 Counsol
Goodrich Pedal
Nashville 110
usnyn2nd@frontier.com

i think he means effect pedal. i would think something like a tube screamer or similar overdrive/distortion pedal would fit this style of music...adding more sustain.

chris ivey wrote:i think he means effect pedal.

This...^

I only started playing steel a few months ago after 30-something years on guitar and I didn't really understand the volume pedal for anything other than doing swells. But after being schooled by vets here and elsewhere, I understand its use for sustaining notes and chords as well. Get a volume pedal. Set the amp up loud and regulate and sustain with the volume pedal.

Chris, After blabbing on for two paragrafs I reolized the same thing, however I have seen Lap steels with palm paddles that do the same as a pedal on the PSG.. But your right, that is not his question.

Wayne

Damn, I like your playing, Don!
Does that rhythym machine provide a 'brushes' option?
I generally feel long sustain is overrated in most styles/cases, what uses would you find more to be beneficial in your playing?

To come back to the original question: while a volume pedal really doesn't add sustain, with the right technique (the one PSG players use), you can significntly increase the impression of longer sustain:

Set you amp twice as loud as you normally would in your playing session; now close you volume pedal down until you get your regular loudness level; when you've picked a note, and it slowly starts to fade, you slowly open up the volume pedal to compensate for that fade; it does take a bit of practice to keep an even volume level (without swells or fades), but this way you can significantly increase the illusion of sustain...

As for other pedals:
Yes, an OD pedal (particularly one of the Tubescreamer variety, or some other type that adds compression - for sustain increase stay away from OD pedals described as "open" or "transparent...) WILL increase sustain - but it won't be of any use if you want to play clean, not dirty tones.
Yes, a ompression pedal will also increase sustain - but it will also change your attack and overall tone - with comp pedals you either have to set them so subtle that the don't change your tone - but then they won't add a ton of sustain; or you set them for a lot of sustain, at the expense of having to live with that squishy "compressor tone" (and quite a bit of extra noise).

Ron Whitfield wrote:Damn, I like your playing, Don!
Does that rhythym machine provide a 'brushes' option?
I generally feel long sustain is overrated in most styles/cases, what uses would you find more to be beneficial in your playing?

Ron, that's Doug Beaumier playing in that video.

If I could only buy one pedal/effects unit, it would be a Boss VF-1 or ME-70. These units contain just about every Boss effect ever made, as well as many other interesting sounds. In a 1/2 space rack unit you have unlimited possibilities and the price is about the same as a boutique overdrive pedal.

Yep, picked that one straight away. That is Doug, man I could watch/listen to him all day, you too Mike!

Get a multi effects unit and a volume pedal. There are soo many things that add great sustain not least is the steel itself.
Good hunting!!
Jeff

Although I'm a pedal player, a volume pedal and reverb is all that's really needed. The rest is the player.

(I started out, years ago, on a D6 Oahu).

Roman Sonnleitner wrote:Set you amp twice as loud as you normally would in your playing session; now close you volume pedal down until you get your regular loudness level; when you've picked a note, and it slowly starts to fade, you slowly open up the volume pedal to compensate for that fade; it does take a bit of practice to keep an even volume level (without swells or fades), but this way you can significantly increase the illusion of sustain...

This is one of the best descriptions I've ever read on how to use a volume pedal to "create" sustain.

One caveat to this is that most PSG's use extremely hot pickups to aid in this technique whereas most lap steel use pickups wound much lighter, like standard electric guitar pickups. When you turn the amp way up, the S/N ratio will be different between the two pickup types. Depending on your guitar and amp, this may or may not be an acceptable trade-off.

Twayn Williams wrote:
This is one of the best descriptions I've ever read on how to use a volume pedal to "create" sustain.

Thanks!

If the lap steel has very low output pickups, you could use a booster pedal between the lap steel and the volume pedal!

1. For my money if you want sustain get a pedal that gives you compression. Your attack will change a little but for the better. Depending on your needs you can find good stuff for under $100.00
2. reverb pedal
3. ( I havent found the 3rd yet )

P.S.Great playing!

Re compression: If you use, for instance, an 8 string steel tuned with bass notes, the compression squashes the dynamic range of the instrument (downward compression) by reducing any signal above the threshold setting. This can suck the life out of your sound and it is why I do not like the cheap compressors of the pedal variety. More expensive units (much more, actually) might have multi band (which focus on specific frequencies)capability which allow you to work around this. Also, the more you try to increase sustain with a compressor, the more noise you will hear, as the noise and any other lower level signal is amplified (upward compression) while the higher level signals are reduced.

If I could only have one pedal, it would be this one:

Bob Russell wrote:If I could only have one pedal, it would be this one:

Hahahahah!

Hands down,for me at least; Keeley Katana.
http://www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=34
Not just a clean boost, but adds sustain. And the function of the pull knob is great. Somehow, I ended up with the prototype!

only one: gotta be a vol. pedal for me.

the gas pedal on this....

Don, thanks for posting the link to my Blues Jam video in this thread. In that clip I was going for an overdriven tone, so I used a Boss Blues Driver. And a Boss DD-6 delay. No volume pedal in that clip, although I normally use a volume pedal when playing steel.

Most of the sustain heard in that clip comes from the Blues Driver and the very strong pickup in that old Gibson lap steel. The Delay further broadens that sound... draws it out with repeats.

Roman Sonnleitner wrote:If the lap steel has very low output pickups, you could use a booster pedal between the lap steel and the volume pedal!

True, but I'm kinda obsessed with noise floor and tone suck, so everything that is put in-between the guitar and the amp is a potential source of hiss and signal degradation (i.e. tone suck). Even the venerable passive volume pedal is a problematic source of tone suck if there isn't some sort of decent quality buffer in front of it.

As for boosters, I recommend the Xotic RC Booster, ZVex SHO or ZVex Box of Rock (booster side). They're pricy but very quiet and clean and provide a good buffer (when switched on) for a volume pedal downstream in the signal chain.

If you're just looking for a buffer to place in front of the volume pedal -- which I always recommend unless you like the sound of the tone suck as in how some people like the sound of how cheap cables roll off high-end -- if you want to keep your original signal more or less intact you can use a pedal that doesn't have true bypass. I like the buffer built into the Tech 21 pedals and I dislike the buffers in Boss pedals. Oddly enough, I like the buffer built into the Digitech Bad Monkey but dislike the buffer in the Digitech Screamin' Blues, so go figger1

The Boss pedals aren't true bypass, but the only one I like is the switcher. LS1?

Well, after reading Mike Neer's entry I am
re-thinking my 'Pedal Choice' Thanks Mike..I went back and listened to my set-up, still happy but everything you said would be there was..SO WHAT HAVE I LEARNED?? 'Im learning more 'listening' than talking
Thanks Mike,
Steve