The Steel Guitar Forum

No doubt someone on the forum knows what device is used to get the effect used on the break of Marty Robbins "Don't worry about me" I have a Peavey Tube Fex that I have hunted around on but haven"t been able to put it together. If any of you are more adept with the Tube Fex can you offer some help? Or direct me on what device to purchase. This forum is awesome !

I use the original Boss Tone for this effect. Kill most of the treble to get best sound.

The Boss Tones show up the Forum reguary.

Thanx,
Jim

I heard that it was actually an accidental equipment malfunction.

I used to simulate it with a Bosstone. Here's a
good article about it by Peter Cooper.

Equipment failure, as Kenny mentioned. For years, I've always heard that the bass player had a "blown" speaker and it sounded so unique that the folks at Columbia decided to go with it. To me, it really does sound like a bad speaker more than anything else.

Best regards,
Craig Baker 706-485-8792

cmbakerelectronics@gmail.com

C.M. Baker Electronics
P.O. Box 3965
Eatonton, GA 31024

Thiel Hatt wrote:No doubt someone on the forum knows what device is used to get the effect used on the break of Marty Robbins "Don't worry about me" I have a Peavey Tube Fex that I have hunted around on but haven"t been able to put it together. If any of you are more adept with the Tube Fex can you offer some help? Or direct me on what device to purchase. This forum is awesome !

You know it's not just the fuzz sound but that he's playing a baritone guitar/6 string bass on that solo. You won't replicate it with a regular guitar.

I believe it was the steel running through the blown amp. When played live later, Marty always had his steel player take the ride.
But yeah, it was equipment malfunction, and choosing to make whisky sours when life dealt a lemon.

Lane Gray wrote:I believe it was the steel running through the blown amp. When played live later, Mary always had his steel player take the ride.
But yeah, it was equipment malfunction, and choosing to make whisky sours when life dealt a lemon.

It was played by Grady Martin on his six-string bass through a faulty channel in the mixing desk.

He may well have used his steel player to do the solo live as he probably wouldn't have had a six-string bass player in his road band but it isn't steel on the original recording.

Never blown a speaker, but if I do, I'll save it for "Don't Worry".

Craig

Stupid aggressive autocorrect has apparently never heard of Mr. Robbins.

I was at a steel show and I heard that sound duplicated with a "Rat" effect pedal.

Erv Niehaus wrote:I was at a steel show and I heard that sound duplicated with a "Rat" effect pedal.

Yeah Erv that is what I use for the tune. C6 neck and a Rat.

I remember doing it many years ago with a fuzz and the bottom strings of my C6 neck. Never had to play the song since so I don't remember which fuzz pedal I used.

On my extended E9th, I had a low E and the F lever lowered it to C#. It was perfect for the first notes of that signature solo, through the Bosstone distortion unit.

It never sounded remotely like a blown speaker to me. It's a clipping effect, almost a square wave. Blown speakers don't do that. They are far less predictable.

I remember my friends and I arguing about what the instrument was. The Nashville folks went to Leo Fender and asked him to develop the effect, and "Fuzz tone" was born. Serendipity!

I was told it was a bad pre-amp tube.

i think link wray was the blown speaker innovator.

Yeah, Link would use a razor blade and cut small slits in his speaker! Necessity is the mother of invention.

I appreciate the response and the humor. I watched several videos where Matry is singing this song with several different steel players and each one is using the effect. Which specific Boss Tone pedal do you use ? The distortion pedal? Boss makes quite a few different pedals or combination pedal effects .

Not made by Boss. Boss Tone, made in the 60s and 70s by Jordan and Sho-Bud.
Now available under the name Mahoney Buzz Tone.
It's what Buddy Cage used with NRPS and Bobby Black used (sparingly) with Commander Cody.
See
www.effectsdatabase.com/model/jordan/bosstone

Jack Aldrich wrote:I remember my friends and I arguing about what the instrument was. The Nashville folks went to Leo Fender and asked him to develop the effect, and "Fuzz tone" was born. Serendipity!

Pretty certain that the first commercial "Fuzz tone" was the Maestro from Gibson. Leo was into "clean," not "dirty" back in the '60s.

I have the reissue Lane was talking about the Mahoney Buzz Tone, thru a Session 500 it sounds pretty close...highs at about 3...mids about 5 and lows about 8...

I have the reissue Lane was talking about the Mahoney Buzz Tone, thru a Session 500 it sounds pretty close...highs at about 3...mids about 5 and lows about 8...

Mine was the original Jordan Bosstone that Lane mentioned above. I also had one of the Maestro fuzz boxes. This was all before I went to work at Mesa/Boogie and discovered how wonderfully musical distortion tones could be. Until then I just thought of distortion as a noisy sound effect.

Thiel, check out this from Buddy Cage, starting at 1:41 and going til about 2:13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK4r5oPa81Y
This is the Boss Tone. It's not as versatile as most modern overdrives. It pretty much only does this one thing. But if you like this thing (and apparently B0b doesn't), it does it well.
Or in the words of one famous review (and I'm not in the mood to look up the original source), "Those who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."