The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm pretty new to to the forum and playing pedal steel. I have recently joined a band and been playing with them for about 6 months and am looking for some basic effects pedals.

The 2 main recommendations I'm looking for is
#1 boost pedal - We are playing Fire on the Mountain by Marshall Tucker Band and naturally I start it. They suggested I get a boost pedal to help our sound system get my guitar out for solos and such. What pedals should I look into buying?

#2 a tone pedal - this one is not as urgent, but just looking at what effects pedals help with Alan Jackson and George Strait typa country music pedal steel sound.

Thanks all! I play a GFI pedal steel tuned to E9th.

What amp are you playing through?
Your boost should come from your right foot. If you're running a typical big power steel amp, turn the master volume all the way up, and the gain to 4 or 5.
If that's not adequate for your leads (some might think your band is a bit loud), get either an Earth Drive or a Sparkle Drive; they can both do clean boost.
What do you mean by a "tone pedal"? Most of us just use our hands and the amp. BUT it can take a few years after you have learned to play before you get a tone you like out of your hands. If you're playing through either a steel amp or a Fender Twin, you will be able to get "that sound" from your steel and amp, but you'll have to work on getting power out of your right hand.

I’m running a Peavy Bandit 112. I got this amp from a buddy for my 6 strings and started using it when I got my pedal steel (mainly because it is the only amp I have shy of a little acoustic amp).

In practice we just go straight from my volume pedal to the sound board since we mostly just practice with our in-ear monitors. We talked about me bringing my amp to the show and running it through there. What would your recommendations be? The first show I will be playing with this band is January 13 and they have never had a steel player in their band, so we are all kinda experimenting on what’s best practice.

I think if I’m understanding your answer to the second part, basically keep practicing for the next couple years and get a good amp, right? That is good advice; I’m just curious what gear and gadgets other steelers are playing with out there.

Steel pickups are kinda heavy on the midrange, and usually you need an amp for tone shaping.
If you're gonna regularly go direct, I'd recommend a preamp.
Unless the player uses a preamp with a bit of reverb (and preferably cabinet emulation) I've VERY rarely heard a steel sound good direct.
Some people here have reported sounding good through a bandit, but it's gonna have to get miced or use the line out, and just use it for tone shaping and its reverb.
An awful lot of the people who sound good use nothing but guitar, volume pedal and amp

Where in Wyoming are you? If you are along Interstate 80, I could loan you one of mine for a couple weeks (I often head across there as I drive for FedEx Ground).

Pedal Steel, a bit different than normal guitar, in that with pedal steel, you very rarely would ever use your volume pedal at full volume. If you are using full volume pedal , then you most likely need to turn up your amp.

Now, it is a pedal steel GUITAR, so really you can use any effects that you like the sound of, some will react different, mainly because most pedal steel guitar pickups are way hotter than electric guitar pickups.

here are some effects i was using a few years ago...it has changed since then, but it really depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for more volume, or a boost, these days the fulltone 2B, is a cool buffer/boost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzEhsS-2EBU

have fun.

gordon