The Steel Guitar Forum

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Calexico's "Frontera" played by Paul Niehaus. That opening steel tone is one of the most memorable I've heard. Another variation appears at 3 minutes in.

Any guesses as to the setup? I've seen them live and I believe he was playing a Sho-Bud. Is that distortion?

sounds too me like a very heavy reverb, possible from and old Lexicon unit-and some well dialed in delay

the Eventide SPACE reverb could nail this-it's expensive, but I'd think you'd never need to look again-

love their early records very much....

here's Paul playing with a friend, William Tyler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvchLn__BDg

Woulda been nice to have heard the first one.
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I was fortunate to see Calexico this year in Boise - great show.

Here's a live video (not mine) of the same song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lke8X4b-gVQ

Just a lot of reverb from what I remember.

Shot from the Egyptian Theater in Boise:

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What a refreshing sound....excellent...thanks for talking about the steel part....found the video of them on Austin City Limits....couldn't turn it off...always appreciate good music know matter what style...and if they have a steel, they can't be all bad...lol

It sounds like some of the wild lead guitar settings on a Peavy Tube-Fex. I go over on it once in a while and it is wild some of the sound you can get. If it is not there someone may have the settings for it.
Good Luck in finding the sound.

To my ears it sounds like a fender deluxe on about 5.

Really cool song! I'm not sure of what Paul records with, but we've shared the bill on a couple of occasions around town and he was using a Sho~Bud Pro~I and a 60s blackface Fender Twin. His delay settings were spot on and added a "cool" factor to each song. Great tone for sure!

I think they have a Phaser in the circuit somewhere.