The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi, I was wondering If any of you have tried the Electro Harmonix Key 9 stomp box on your steel. I play at church and we are without a piano player. And I am thinking about getting one to have some piano sounds temporarily. Any thoughts? Thank you.

While at a local shop I tried the Key9 and B9 side by side with a lap steel. For me the difference in tracking was pretty stark, the B9 was much more responsive and had a more convincing sound. I don't know if organ sounds are going to be the sound you're after but the B9 does have a 'cathedral' setting, just sayin'.
Maybe other folks have had better results?
Cheers- CS

I have not used the piano unit but own the C9, which uses the same tracking algorithm.

It does not work at all with steel or B-bender unless you only play "static" notes. It completely loses tracking when you move a bar or bend a note, with volume dropping to nearly nothing and a "ragged" sound as you move or bend.

You have to be deadly accurate all the time to make it work. It's not worth even fooling with.

The trick is to use a compressor in front of it. That keeps the note from dying too quickly. And don't use any vibrato on the bar. Like...none. For me, it takes 3 pedals for me to make a convincing organ sound. I turn the rotary sound off on the B9 and use a Strymon Lex. Can be very convincing if you voice chords like an organ. And with the click up high, you can get that clack sound of the keys if you pick percussively. The illusion completely falls apart if you try to play leads though. Just my 2 cents.

I think he's looking for a piano sound, not organ.

Wow ,thanks guys for posting, I kind of thought it was not going to work. But at least I know before I bought it. Yes I am looking for Piano sounds.LJ

Larry,
I think the Key 9 will do the job for you.
But you need to play your guitar like a piano to sound authentic, no slides or apparent pedal changes.
The way to make the Key 9 sound best is to think piano.

"The way to make the Key 9 sound best is to think piano."

My late buddy, Jerry Brightman was a master at this concept! But he used a synth.

I have no experience with the EHX unit, but the ones similar to this that I have seen emulate or model electric piano sort of like Rhodes etc. Never seen one that has a realistic acoustic piano sound.

For that, you need a synth, and a guitar converter to midi interface. A cheap one is the Sonuus G2M V3, which is what Jerry used, to connect between steel and a synth of your choosing. There are some older hardware synths and many software synth programs to access via PC.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/G2MV3

The G2M is what I'm using to interface to an older Alesis Nanosynth hardware device. The sounds are pretty good, but it's completely monophonic with the G2M. Single piano notes only...no Jerry Lee etc....maybe an arpeggio in moderate to slow tempo...blocking ea. previous note.

It's a lot of fun, and the sound is realistic, but it has it's limitations.

FWIW, there are several demos of the Key9 on youtube. You might check out some of those and see if this unit will work for your application.

They need to come out with a Piano-9.

After converting your guitar signal to MIDI, what else are you using to create the sounds you're looking for, such as piano? I can see how you could send it to a computer program to create most anything, but what will use the signal in a live situation?

I use an Alesis Nanosynth. It's a sound module from the 90's. Midi controller[s] into that. Use the NanoS's audio outs to connect to amp/sig. chain etc. The synth module has the piano and all the other sounds and you're using a midi controller to access the sounds. In my case, either steel or guitar into the G2M guitar midi converter or the keyboard midi controller in the photo.

There are computer based software things to use with a laptop but I did not want to drag a pc around with me, so I looked around 'til I found a suitable sound module. Old technology, I know, but it works just fine for what I do.

Photo shows the G2M guitar midi converter [upper right corner] and the Alesis underneath. [The SE70 on the left I can use for steel and guitar effects either with or without the midi rig.]

There's also a switched midi patch bay so I can plug in the keyboard midi controller and use either one to drive the synth module.

I have a C9 which I use at gigs with 6 string guitar. Sounds pretty authentic, but it is imperative that you have new strings on your guitar for best results.