The Steel Guitar Forum

Is that a flanger on the steel on the first two verses of He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones? I'm being asked to play it just like the record and I don't want to buy the wrong toy.

If it is a flanger, what's a good flanger in today's market?

You need a Phil Baugh style pedal guitar to play it just like the record. It sounds like a phase shifter pedal to me.

I listened to ONE version that came up first on Youtube, a studio version.
A brief Google search shows the song as being released in 1980.

I don't hear a phaser.
It sounds like a flanger or chorus to me.
Not listening on headphones, it sort of sounds a little more "metallic" than a chorus, which would point to a flanger.

The basic difference between a flanger and a chorus is that a flanger uses regeneration or recycling the effected signal back to the input.
Therefore, if you have a flanger, and it has a regeneration control, and you set that to OFF, you now have a chorus.

Keeping in mind that I'm not "cheap" but rather, um, "thrifty".......

In the past year I've become a big fan of foreign mini/micro pedals.
I put together an entire pedalboard last year with mostly these foreign Amazon bought mini-pedals.
Some of the companies that make mini-flangers are Koogo, Donner and many many more. There are new companies that pop up seemingly every day.
One of the more notable flanger clones is the Mooer E-Lady. It is supposed to be as close to a clone of the old Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress from the 70's as you can get.
I have one, as well as an old EHX EM, and I can tell you that if they aren't identical, they are very close. I have a Koogo flanger on my board right now, which is a rebranded copy of the Mooer E-Lady.

A lot of them look almost identical, and that's because they are. In fact, some companies actually use other companies' circuit boards. If you open them up the boards are actually stenciled with a different company.

My recommendation, especially if this is an effect that you won't be using very much, is to pick up one of these cheap pedals.
I don't think that you'll be disappointed.
The Koogo is about $30 on Amazon.

If you want go non-Amazon or American, I'd try a JHS or an Ibanez.

If you live near a big city, prowl around Craigslist for a while. You might turn up something cheap.

I hope this helps.

So how do I practice that Hughey shiver?

I don't think the first verse is steel guitar at all. It sounds like Phil Baugh on a 6 string guitar rigged with the MSA pedal setup.

No, it's not steel guitar on the first verse.....Yes, it's Phil Baugh with a standard 6 string guitar with a unique foot pedal arrangement as Darvin states.

One can get those notes on a pedal steel with the right pulls and lowers.

I'm pretty sure any pitch based effects are phasers v. flangers.

I used a chorus when doing this song.

...might be chorus...flange, phaser and chorus pedals were all popular in this era.

The first verse is really what I need to get right. The first and fourth fill phrases have what sound like whole tone drops and then raises on a lower string, all done with a pedal, not with a bar slide The second and third phrases seem to be bar slides, which should be simple enough.

I may try to get those lower string pedal drops on the C6th neck (boo wah pedal), and then switch to the E9 neck for the rest of the song.

I'll probably go to the local Guitar Center and pick up a flanger and a phase shifter, as I can return whichever one doesn't do the job.

Ken Metcalf wrote:So how do I practice that Hughey shiver?

That's Pete Drake on steel and Phil Baugh on the front end using his Peavey guitar and pedal string pull invention.

Among your options, you can tune your 10th string down to A and use your A pedal for the B>A lick. I just checked it out and found that I'd need to tune the pedal a bit -- the change in tension screws things up. All doable unless the band and the setlist does not allow for 30 seconds to prep for the song.

Is it an invitation to forget what you've done and make an error in the middle of the song? You bet. Calls for presence of mind.

I can totally get the sound I want for this song with a phaser. Close enough for me and close enough for an anal 'just like the record' type.

Paul -

"I may try to get those lower string pedal drops on the C6th neck (boo wah pedal), and then switch to the E9 neck for the rest of the song."

'exactly what I used to do to obtain correct notes

Ron

...or if you have a 12 string, you're all set.

Jerry, There is possibilities with a 12U.
I play some times in a house band, With open mike, Be Prepared.
I play/mess around some with "He Stopped Loving Her Today" on a 12U, Set up Jeff Newman's tuning. Through a Quilter Tone Block 202 with using Vintage voicing.
The 9th B, 10th G# and 11th E with some bar shiver and proper volume pedal control has possibilities.

If you're talking about the guitar fills in the first verse, it's Phil Baugh most likely using the built-in phase shifter in the Peavey Session 500.
Using pedal 5 on his 6 pedal Peavey guitar. (It raises the note a whole step). His first lick...

[tab]
3__________________0_____________
4_______________0________________
5___0(5_-_0_-_-________0_-_0(5___
6________________________________[/tab]

I've wondered about this for years - yes the Phil Baugh pull string but what effect on that ? My guess is some fancy triple chorus rack that might have been a favorite in Nashville studios at the time, but I don't know what. You can get in the neighborhood with a couple of chorus pedals or a flange and chorus, but that particular tone is real lush, I don't think it's just a phaser.

Set today and listened closely to "He stopped Loving Her today". About the first minute of the song. To my ears, Up to the chord progression, What ever instrument is being used, Is going through some sort of Lesley unit. Giving the long smooth note changes, Edging on organ noting.