The Steel Guitar Forum

Im tired of flats
Im going to devote a couple days to improving my volume pedal technique, Right now its the worst hangup I have next to fingers that dont remember but that will come in time, It really stinks not to know more about this seemingly useless necessity of the trade :

From the looks of the topic title, I could use some help on my spelling too

Bill, what i was told to do and did, was to just put my foot on the volume pedal and just forget that it was there. in time as you say it just seemed to come up or down at the right time without me ever thinking about it.
hang on you will get it

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Mullen SD-10 3&5 / nashville 400
Hilton volume pedal

Actually I've been just putting my foot beside it.(and forget it was there)
Thats why im going to try to find out more of its alleged use, In the lap steel days as a kid we had to have it for the wah, we dont want that anymore, I have enough sustain to cause headaches...

<SMALL>I have enough sustain to cause headaches... </SMALL>

That is what I'd call a "nice problem"!

It is curious that if you are trying to play just about anything except "Mansion on a Hill" or "The Way to Survive", you just don't need 14 seconds of sustain. Normal music rarely uses anything more than dotted whole notes. It was a macho thing for sax players and opera singers to hold long notes (whatever fat ladies call "macho"), and guitar heroes duplicate it by standing in front of an amp while it feeds back, but I'm not entirely sure that those are "normal music" either...

Calvin<><>
That was very good advice!!
Bill

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Bill Mayville
Le Grande 111 D-10 (05)
Mullen D-10 (04)
Jackson S 10 Very Nice

Sounds like the easiest lesson I ever had
I mean Bobbe Seymoure slides thru 5 chords and 3 slants on one stroke of a thumb pick
but if I play PSG as long as he has I will play at my own 110th birthday party....

On the other hand, So can Bill Mayville

thanks Bill , i think your the one that told me about the volume pedal about 3 years ago

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Mullen SD-10 3&5 / nashville 400
Hilton volume pedal

<SMALL>...you just don't need 14 seconds of sustain.</SMALL>

Curiously enough, some very famous players back in the '60s used hollow bars on their pedal steels...to reduce sustain! The idea that you <u>need</u> a lot of sustain on a steel is a "learned" behavior, not unlike the penchant lead players have developed for mild distortion. Rarely today do you even hear a guitar on a recording or in a band with nice clean tones. When you do, though, it can be rather refreshing.

All good stuff,

just put my foot on the volume pedal and just forget that it was there.


I'll do as im told for once too , its real easy to do nothing,
Just seems like that pedal is the most misused thing in the PSG world and nobody ever talks about it,

...you just don't need 14 seconds of sustain.

I cant imagine where I would use more than 2 seconds of sustain let alone 14 seconds.......

I've concluded (for now...give me a couple of months to change my mind) that the volume pedal is an unnecessary type of mechanical compressor. With proper technique, you can do with your left hand, though not entirely, of course, what you can do with your right foot and volume pedal.

Al

Yabut

Then why does it have to be the size of the acellerator pedal on a 1963 Emeryville ?

the volume pedal is very useful when playing with a band. It can be used to adjust your volume to blend with the rest of the band also to increase your volume when you have a solo part and want to be on top of the mix. It also give you the ability to adjust volume to the dynamics of the song your playing. I also use a volume pedal when playing six string for the same reasons, hands free control of volume.

Thanks too you too R..
Im not necessarily looking for everyone to agree with me that its useless, I mean like everybody has one,I have one, like everyone has a car..
Does everyone that has a car know how to use it ?
Not to my liking..!!!
I played six string finger and flat pickin lead in bands for 30yrs when all my fingers allowed,I could control volume by touch, didnt need a pedal !
I Wonder if thats possible on Steel without playing it 30 yrs ?
For me it dont seem too likely right now

Bill. I like the analogy of car/gas pedal and steel/vol pedal.
I sure hope you dont drive with your gas pedal keeping time!

Bill, sell the volume pedal - the space created in the Pac-a-Seat will hold a nice-sized Hoagie, and we'll all be happier .....

You have a pacseat ?
I have a sawed off barstool

Just a note on that pedal,
All kdding aside....
When I played lead for 25 yrs it was zaktly that,LEAD ! period ! Youre ready to cover any mistake by the singer or others and theres nobody to cover for you..
3-4 pieces,Lead, Singer plays rythm, a drummer and mebby a banjo or fiddle if youre lucky..You pick the takeoff, backup the singer and do a bridge and mebby more at your choice if theyre just getting wound up on the dance floor, Most smaller places cnat afford a lead guitar and PSG both.. All I intend to play is lead again on PSG.
To backup the singer I will need to master that pedal..whether I like it or not.
To hide in a mix and peep out over the top once in awhile was not a luxury I ever had and do not intend to learn !

Yeah'n
Merry Christmas Everybody

I also use it for "gutting." And of course for poppin' up and down in the mix. I find them to be quite useful.
JB
Performance Steel Guitar
http://steelguitaramericas.com/

With my volume pedal to the floor it is just loud enough to pop through for a solo or noodling between the vocals. Other than that, I might do some "swells" but that's getting pretty rare. I then back off into the mix. I can't use my volume pedal to make my guitar sound like it's crying like some guys do with the volume pedal, it just sounds sad!

<SMALL>I can't use my volume pedal to make my guitar sound like it's crying like some guys do with the volume pedal, it just sounds sad!</SMALL>

I thought that was what Pedal Steel guitars were for, to cry ..........

"So cry on, Steel guitar cry on" ?

Or if I needed to play in a mix like modern Nashville to cover up those new American Hero singers, couldnt I just put the reverb tank on a pedestal and let the drummer beat it for the same effect ?
Verily..I fear after all I shall need that pedal

Well, mine also makes ME cry. As long as it doesn't make people laugh I'm happy.

Atta Boy Fred..
Were likely gonna get flamed for not starting another topic on crying steel,
Ya figger I been playing PSG for 2 months whilst everybody else been playin a hundred years or more so the fact I can make a 73
MSA cry so nicely on that evil 3 and 4 string mashed at the fifth fret likely had more to do with Reece than me, He just knew I was gonna do it and made it that way

Yeah'n
Merry Christmas again too
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