The Steel Guitar Forum

I would like to see the day when the lead channel on an amp no longer means distortion. Just my thoughts, no rant, no accusations or disparaging remarks.

It seems to be accepted that for regular guitar a little crunchiness adds to the flavour. Steel players will always have to look to specialist manufacturers for squeaky cleanliness.

"distortion" is a misleading word.
e.g., my favorite amp, The Milkman all-tube Pedal Steel Mini, at 40 watts, does drive the power stage into saturation when pushed...but it is more an "angels singing" sound that what you mean by "distortion"...
Solid-states are a different beast, of course...

Now, when I was a boy....

Guitar players followed Leo's lead and craved his "tremendous distortionless power" as noted in the Tweed Hi-Power Twin catalog description.
BUT
They (we!) were pea-green with envy of the sustain that sax players got and we weren't real pleased with the musical anemia induced by taking a solo at the same volume we were stuck with comping behind the sax player or the pomaded guy singer. Hence Link Wray poking holes in his speaker, and the Ventures' fuzzed-out "Two Thousand Pound Bee".

And here, I think, is where we went a little off the rails; what we really wanted was sustain but it never occurred to us that sustain is different from distortion and we could get it with a volume pedal.

So all these years we've been stuck with distortion, and the thrash-metal consequence.

Bill Duncan wrote:I would like to see the day when the lead channel on an amp no longer means distortion. Just my thoughts, no rant, no accusations or disparaging remarks.

This is incomplete. It needs for you to finish the thought:

"I would like an amp that has a normal channel that sounds normal and a lead channel that sounds .........."

Without that, I don't understand where you are going with this.

Jon Light wrote:

Bill Duncan wrote:I would like to see the day when the lead channel on an amp no longer means distortion. Just my thoughts, no rant, no accusations or disparaging remarks.

This is incomplete. It needs for you to finish the thought:

"I would like an amp that has a normal channel that sounds normal and a lead channel that sounds .........."

Without that, I don't understand where you are going with this.

Jon, not going any particular place. Just thoughts after viewing some reviews on items that interest me. Vast majority of times when a guitar, amp, or pedal is reviewed the person plays with and describes the creamy tones emitted.
One man's creamy tones can be another man's distortion.

Bill, I more than agree. Finding a decent sound sample on YouTube is a effort in futility. The few clean examples are always brief followed by a useless trash metal noise that many seem to find pleasant. I threw my amp down a flight of stairs and it made the same noise. While some overdrive can be used tastefully it's not how the examples are demonstrated. That's my 2 cents worth.

Bill Duncan wrote:I would like to see the day when the lead channel on an amp no longer means distortion. Just my thoughts, no rant, no accusations or disparaging remarks.

Volume knob, Volume pedal?

It's an established convention in the guitar world, lead means LOUD, which a little bit of saturation, even at the *same loudness level* will sound louder, and is expected during guitar breaks. Its an opportunity for a steel-exclusive amp to capitalize on the nomenclature that matters to steelers. What would be the better channel names? Rhythm and lead? Clean and Solo? 1 and 2? Green and Red? All these have been used in the guitar world.

James Holland wrote:It's an established convention in the guitar world, lead means LOUD, which a little bit of saturation, even at the *same loudness level* will sound louder, and is expected during guitar breaks. Its an opportunity for a steel-exclusive amp to capitalize on the nomenclature that matters to steelers. What would be the better channel names? Rhythm and lead? Clean and Solo? 1 and 2? Green and Red? All these have been used in the guitar world.

I like “clean” and “dirty”.

*

[quote="Donny Hinson"

I like “clean” and “dirty”.

There is no accounting for taste. I like clean and clear.

I haven't kept up with what they're doing these days but Mesa was making two channel amps where each channel had multiple voicings available including the option of two clean channels.

I guess amps are like martinis.

Bill Duncan wrote:[quote="Donny Hinson"

I like “clean” and “dirty”.

There is no accounting for taste. I like clean and clear.

Steelers usually want clean, while most guitarists want overdrive, crunch, distortion, or fuzz in almost everything. I sure do miss the stylings of Leon Rhodes and Jimmy Capps, because it seems like every country player today wants to sound like Brad Paisley.