The Steel Guitar Forum

For those who occasionally use distortion for blues on PEDAL steel, what do you use? It seems like the distortions I use on slide guitar or lap steel guitar do not quite cut it for pedal steel. Not "earthy" enough.
Not really been happy with the distortions from some multi effects I have tried either. Maybe I am setting them wrong.

Any you folks have a go-to pedal or even multi effect pedal to give you a decent distortion on pedal steel?

Thanks
K

I have the latest Ibanez Tube Screamer and so far it's not that great as it seems very grainy and raspy at the lighter distortion settings. I'm using it with the re-issue Sweetwater Princeton Reverb, 12" speaker. Have had the best luck with setting the amp volume low and setting the Screamer's gain to overdrive the amp's input stage.

I like both the Sarno Earth Drive and the Voo Doo Labs Sparkle Drive. Alot will depend on the guitar and amp you're using.

I use an original Hermida Audio Zendrive, before the volume pedal. It sounds perfect to me with every amp or pickup I've used it with. I also use a Sarno Solar Flare sometimes. Its' sound is in the same ballpark I think.

My favorite that I have used is a Damage Control Liquid Blues pedal. Has 2 12ax7 tubes. But, it's footprint is about 3 of the normal Boss pedals.

X-otic effects BB Preamp with a compressor before it, both before the volume pedal. The BB has a very “organic” sound to me. I set it about 1/2 way or a little less on the gain, then boost the compressor to drive it more when I want it nasty. I don’t care much for the germanium “fuzz” type, but an earthy overdrive works for me.
I also have a Fulltone Plimsoul which is pretty good.

Through many years, I have tried several units. My favorite is the Goodrich Steel Driver III. A plus is that it has the Goodrich 7-A also built in the unit.

This is my favourite. Old school and quirky but I love it.



https://mahoneyguitargear.com/product8.htm

Bobbe Seymour was using a RAT in one of his lectures. Sounded good to me, so I bought one.I don't use distortion any more, so I sold t, but I did think it was a good unit. Liked it much better than the Boss Tone.

I have three different pedals, but I keep coming back to the Golden Cello. It just sounds the best with my 'Bud.

An Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini works for me. Usually a subtle amount is all I use.

If you have a typical pedal steel amp with a 15 heavy duty speaker, IMO, you won’t find a distortion pedal that will give you that “Bad to the Bone” vibe

I have tried many distortion/overdrive pedals to no avail. If anyone has any suggestions I’ll always keep an open mind.

Without wanting to go off topic, one of the reasons I went for the Buzz Tone/Boss Tone is because it plugs into the guitar and therefore goes before the volume pedal.

With the more traditional floor pedals, are you still connecting so the distortion is before volume? If not, then as you swell the pedal, doesn't the sound get more distorted rather than stay the same in distortion level and get louder (which presumably is what we usually want?).

I'm constantly buying and selling pedals, but the only one I will never sell in my Sarno Earth Drive. Pretty much my favorite dirt pedal ever.

Take a look at the list of users on their site: http://www.sarnomusicsolutions.com/products/ed.html

The Earth Drive is the ultimate boost/overdrive pedal, designed to retain your instrument's natural character while providing an organic, full-bodied, yet transparent sound. Use the Earth Drive as a clean boost to add warmth and smoothing, or turn up the drive knob and get a wide spectrum of overdrive harmonics and singing sustain. The Earth Drive has a huge range of boost control with its volume knob, while the tone knob helps you perfectly dial in the treble response. Whether you play bass, pedal-steel, electric piano, electric guitar, organ, whatever, the Earth Drive is quite possibly the most useful and versatile drive pedal you've ever heard.

Earth Drive!!

It’s not strictly a distortion pedal, but I always come back to the original Sans Amp

Love my Sarno Earth Drive, it's the best of any I have tried by a long way ... very creamy but has some bite.
A very close second would be the Benado Steel Dream NutraDrive.. also very creamy !

Can anyone tell me what the Sarno solar flare is similar too. Like the OCD or Rat?

Another vote for the ProCo Rat. I've had old ones and new ones and I couldn't tell any difference in sound, but some users swear the old ones are better.

I also use a Rat. I also have an old (70s) EHX Big Muff. Some day I'll A B them and see if maybe I like the Big Muff more. But for now the Rat is in my
Pac-a-seat, and the Big Muff is in a drawer.

I think these two are classified as overdrive pedals, but the Hotone Bad Horse, a copy of a Klon pedal, and a Skyline Grass pedal, which is a Dumble style pedal, both work great for pedal steel. I've been using a Rat pedal on guitar for years but it just seemed too much for pedal steel. The Bad Horse puts a little edge on it and you get a mild distortion out of it when you turn the gain up all the way. The Grass pedal clips really well and reminds me of a LP through a Marshall stack type sound. I love the Bad Horse the best for 6 string cause I can use the Rat for more distortion, but the Grass pedal gets pretty much all of the distortion I would ever want to use on a pedal steel.

The Wampler Dual Fusion produces just about every imaginable distortion tone including those with little gain or distortion. It does it in a way that keeps or even increases dynamics and touch sensitivity.

https://wamplerpedals.com/shop-wampler/ ... ual-fusion

I prefer version 1 that can probably be purchased used.

The Zoom MS-100 and MS-50 stomp boxes have some pretty good models of the RAT pedal as well as many others. I haven't had a RAT for a few years, I just use the Zoom when I need that sound.

having gone thru many many pedals i have stayed with
1. sarno earth drive
2. menatone red snapper
3. vemuram jan ray

all three have their own voice