The Steel Guitar Forum

hi, shopping for a blues effect to use on my 12string MSA, in a band that does some of the new country and here steel sometimes the had a light hint of distortion, almost to the point of not being there. have beed told it was a blues pedal but don't want to have to start buying what ever and still not know where go start. any thoughts? thanks, fred

find someone with a pro=fex 2 and try some of the programs on it . There are seversal that will give you a blues sound .

Could be the Boss Blues Driver. Great pedal.

steel sometimes the had a light hint of distortion, almost to the point of not being there

This is exactly what Brad Sarno's Earth Drive pedal is designed to do. It can do heavier distortion if you want too. I have one and I like it.

Mike

Thanks for the suggestions, its tough to know where to start with so many different options. fred

Brad has samples of the pedal used with steel guitar on his web site. Although the "drive" might be turned up a little more than you might like, it gives you a good idea of the tonality of the overdrive.

http://www.sarnomusicsolutions.com/products/ed.html

Mike

One of these days, I'll get some Sarno gear. For now, my Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive sounds good.
And, as I came of age in the early 80s, I think blues on steel sounds great with a phase shift.

Lane, I went online and seen that the sparkle drive can take you from hard distortion to little or nearly any. And just a touch is what I want as the lead guitar will come on hard and heavy, and I would like a lot less than his. Do you think the sparkle drive might back off enough to give me just a hint? It sounds foolish to buy a effects unit to not give me to much. so call me foolish, I want the steel to always sound like a steel with a little something that sounds like someday it will step out with the big boys but not right now!
thanks, fred

Get the Earth Drive. Probably the best for steel.

Get the Earth Drive. Probably the best for steel.

David, I have no doubt your right, but just can't afford one.

Does your amp have a gain and a volume control?
Play with those to overdrive the amp slightly.
If your volume pedal is set low, you cannot overdrive the amp.

The Sparkle can give you squeaky clean boost, a little bit of hair, or pretty dirty. It won't get as dirty as my old Boss Tone, but it sounds pretty good rock and roll.

What the Sparkle Drive can do, as can any of the "modeling" multi-effects, is dial in a very slight amount of any level of distortion. This is something that no plain in-line box can do. In other words, you could set the Sparkle Drive to be howling & screaming - but only use that as 10% of you final signal, using it's blend control. That's what makes using the Digitech RP250 a no-brainer to me - like if I want just a hint of chorus to stereo-tize the sound, without BLASTING "I'm-Andy-Summers-ain't-the-80's-great-No-Nukes-Y'all" out of the speakers. Or flange, or OD...

SUBTLETY RULES, DUDE!

David:

I understand what you mean...every pedal should have a "mix" or "blend" control. However, the "drive" control on the Sarno Earth Drive is very effective, in my opinion, for achieving something close to that.

I've used the "mix" control all the time for other effects like delay, reverb, chorus, etc. but never found I needed it for overdrive. I wouldn't mix a stark clean sound with a bit of heavy overdrive (might work for you, and that's cool).

Mike

Michael, that's exactly how I use my Sparkle Drive. The Drive stays all the way up and the mix knob (marked "clean") takes it from a clean boost all the way round to rock and roll.
One of these days, I'll give an Earth Drive a whack

I also find the Sparkle Drive works quite well for pedal steel. The reason I think it works especially well for PSG is that with the blend control you can set it so that the clean sound is dominant in the attack of the note, and the overdrive component adds sustain as the clean portion dies away. Placing it after the volume control aloows you to "ride" the amount of break-up. The "clock-face" settings that work well for me are: Drive 9~10, Tone 9~10, Mix 10~11 and Vol 10~11.

FWIW I have had problems with the switches breaking, but Voodoo Lab has always repaired them for me gratis, no questions asked.

No slag on the Earth Drive, I am sure it is a great pedal too. I just haven't had a chance to play one.

I know that this isn't what you asked -- but in my mind (in my opinion) the key to a good bluesy tone comes form using drastically less bar pressure. Keep in mind that that much of the blues slide tone comes from using comparatively light slides with just enough pressure to get the note while avoiding bottoming the strings onto the frets. The overdrive just colors the tone and adds compression, but the "sound" is in the bar. I even lift the bar to use less pressure than bar weight. A little bar buzz goes a long way to "dirty" up your tone even through mild overdrive. Same thing with not muting behind the strings.

Good luck!

For Telecaster I use a Barber tone press (has blend knob) Sparkle drive, and OCD Drive with 18 volts in. gives me mild medium or hot with all points between.

For steel I use the Earth Drive.