The Steel Guitar Forum

I have been trying to find a distortion pedal to use with my Telecaster through my Peavey Nashville 400. I recently purchased a Big Muff distortion pedal by Electro Harmonix and played with it a little here at home and cant find the type of sound I like with it yet. I want to get the kind of rock sound that Vince Gill has on some of his older records. Its kind of hard for me to explain but maybe some of you can give me an idea of what you use with this amp and guitar combo. Any suggestions will be appreciated.I can still send this unit back to Musicians Friend for a refund. Thanks in advance.
Bill Bailey
Kingman, Az

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When I saw Vince five years ago, he was playing through two Rivera combo amps. It appeared to me that one was set up for a clean tone while the other was in mild distortion.

Bill, my guess is that you are hearing natural tube distortion and not a stomp box.

I play neither a Tele or a Peavey for rock, but the pedal that I do use is an Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer.

Bill, first thing, send back that Big Muff; it's just for fuzz, and won't get any kind of natural overdrive sound, especially through a steel amp.

I'd try something with a tube in it, like an Ibanez Tube King, or maybe one of the newer digital amp modeling devices. Remember, your Peavey is closer to a P.A. than a Fender Deluxe, or Marshall or something.

Sorry I haven't been able to suggest anything in the Big Muff price range, but all the cheaper stompboxes I can think of would sound buzzy or fuzzy through your rig.

As mentioned the Ibenez TS-9 is good. The Boss SD-1 is good for the money, also. These are not going to sound like Vince's natural tube distortion, but give a pretty good approximation with some dialing in.
Lefty

Thanks guys,
The Big Muff will be on its way Monday. I will try the Ibanez TS 9 I think?
Bill Bailey


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<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bill Bailey on 22 October 2000 at 07:01 PM.]</p></FONT>

Ever tried the Mesa Boogie V-twin pedal?
Or the Pod? Or the Korg Pandora PX3? JJ

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STEELDAYS 2000
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The one thing about distortion stomp boxes is they sound the best when kicking the input of a tube amp to get that growling sound espesially with a speaker designed to move air. The typical steel guitar amp has a higher wattage and a transistor type preamp and a very efficient clean speaker and does not respond the same way with a distortion stomp box as a guitar amp.
I have tried all types of distortion boxes and have yet to find one that rocked like the one I used on six string lead. Just my opinion!

I would be surprised if you came up with a stomp box that realy gives you the sound your looking for with the Nashville 400. I play a Tele, and I fought the same problem, I tried several good stomp boxes and my Alesis Quadraverb GT. I decided to leave my Nashville 400 hooked up to my Steel, and use a real guitar amp for my Tele. The Nashville is great for those clean fat Jazz tones, But IMO, it does'nt cut it when you flip to the bridge pick-up, and try to get that salted down raw Tele sound! Just my Opinion, and you know what they say about them. Good Luck

Loose the Muff for sure. I have use my old beat up Boss overdrive pedal through a session 500 with some measure of success,but like Len said ,a speaker on a steel guitar amp is not going to respond like a speaker designed for guitar.If you are playing gigs with one amp for steel and six string like I had tried at one point you will find yourself spending more time tweaking your sound than playing your instruments.The nashville is a great steel amp but I would really try out as many different guitar amps that I could in order to find the sound you are looking for.If you can find a amp with good "bones" in it ,you will rely a lot less on stomp boxes.Give a peavy classic 50 with 4-10's a try MHO

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sho-bud,session 500,american standard strat,shecter tele,peavy classic 50
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by gary darr on 23 October 2000 at 10:21 PM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by gary darr on 23 October 2000 at 10:24 PM.]</p></FONT>

The Boss Super Overdrive is good for mild distortions, although they seem to vary a bit. I've got 2 and they both sound great but one is a lot more mellow than the other. I use them with steel but through a 75 watt Fender valve amp.

I really like using the Boss Blues Driver. It has a real nice subtle overdrive, all the way to pretty heavy. It's part of my pedal board for my guitar rig and I play Tele through it all the time.

Thanks to all who gave me their input here.
I have ordered the Ibanez TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer effects pedal through Musicians Friend. It sells for $139.99 and if this don't do it for me I will try the guitar amp route. I will post my opinion of the new effect when I have had a chance to play with it. Take care.
Bill Bailey
Az


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<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bill Bailey on 24 October 2000 at 08:05 PM.]</p></FONT>

To echo some of the comments here, I doubt that you will get that mildly distorted Vince Gill tele sound through a Nashville 400. That sound isn't a pedal, it's the sound of a tube amp being worked out. A twin will do the job, or any number of other tube amps (the Peavey classic 30 is a nice one). THe TS-9 is good to give the tube amp a little boost, but it won't make a Nashville 400 sound like a tube amp.

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