The Steel Guitar Forum

I took a gig this summer with a local singer songwriter playing several fairs, festivals, summer concert series in nearby towns, a few club dates, etc.
After the first gig or two, I was asked if I played guitar.
I said yes, as a matter of fact I've been playing guitar longer than steel.
"Can you rock out?!... cuz we have some songs where we need you to rock out!"
Sure thing.
So I went ahead and brought an electric six string (a new MIM Fender Strat I picked up earlier this year...with whammy bar!) and my old late 80's multi effects (Roland GP-8), and let it rip.
So after a gig or two of that, I got tired of lugging the extra guitar around, and started working on some cool multi-effects patches for steel.
Did you know Distortion and Overdrive are two different things?
My Distortion has a "Turbo" parameter, too.
Very cool for steel!
Chorus and/or Phaser are great on pop country ballads. Compression is cool on alot of things (great for clean country chicken picken too!).
I can use the expression pedal to take the EQ treble parameter patch from -50 to +50 for the ol' Speedy West Doo-Wha trick, or many other things.
Pre-progammed effects o-rama.
Anyway... there are a few songs that fall into the "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" catagory (for lack of a better term), that the distort-o steel kicks @rse on!
I have a patch that sounds just like Sneaky Pete when he hits his "wall of sound distortion", David Lindly's "Runnin' On Empty" tone, and a few others I just came up with by messing around.
So I guess I'm thinking an effects unit is just like the change lock on my S12U... If you have it, you can either use it, or not use it. If you don't have it, you can only not use it.
For what it's worth, at the Jerry Garcia celebration last Sunday, I also used a MuTron III+ (auto-wha) and pretty much blew the guitar players off the map!
I went back and gave another listen to the instructional "Use of Effects" lecture Buddy Emmons gives at the end of the "Buddy - Live in Denver" CD.
Helpful info as he uses all this stuff and more!
Rawk Awn!

On the other hand, I have a straight country set coming up with a group, (opening for Wayne "The Train" Hancock) where I will use a Fender 400 and an RV-3.



<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Pete Burak on 12 August 2004 at 02:34 PM.]</p></FONT>

I use a Boss GX-700 with my Stereo Steel amp and have many effects I can get when/if I want/need to. I also have an IVL SteelRider MIDI unit with a Roland JV-1080 sound module loaded with four expansion boards and a PCM card. They're in a separate rack case that I only take along for the gigs that are less than 100% traditional country.

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Jim Smith jimsmith94@comcast.net
-=Dekley D-12 10&12=-
-=Fessenden D-12 9&9=-
-=Emmons D-12 push pull 9&9=-
Stereo Steel rig w/Boss GX-700
IVL SteelRider w/JV-1080

I've got a TubeFex that I wouldn't want to be without, just for it's delay, tube EQ and reverb effects alone, but I also make good use of a Tube Screamer for lead solos.

For many years I used nothing but an amp with reverb. Lately I've been getting into a lot of effects, though. My latest toy is an envelope filter, which basically changes my volume pedal into a very controllable wah pedal. I use the Rotosphere a lot, too. And of course my Boogie is easily overdriven for that sweet tube clipping distortion.

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<font size="1"><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)</font>

For a long while I was playing with just the Amp reverb for steel but now I use Boss DD-6 for Steel and MXR distortion for Geetar. The Boss Digital Delay is small, very portable and has many nice effect changes.

Bronco Billy
Zumsteel U-12

b0b, have you tried the envelope filter into your Rotosphere yet? You can get some very cool Rusty Young - Poco - B3 sounds that way.

Jim, That sounds like a great tip. Who manufactures the Rotosphere?

I've put my steel thru every box I could afford starting with in the '70's an echoplex , Cry Baby Wah Wah,, a 1st generation Maestro phase shifter, Jordan BossTone Fuzz, MXR 10 Band EQ, MXR Dynacomp Compressorand an E-Bow; in the 80's an MXR Flanger, a <a href-"http://guitargeek.com/gearview/21/">DigiTech 1st generation 1 second Digital Delay/Sampler</a> (replacing the Echoplex), a Tube Screamer Distortion box, a no-name-brand-that-I-can-see "stereo" choruser stompbox, and an IVL SteelRider; in the 90's a Digitech StudioQuad, a rackmount multi FX unit with a boatload of reverbs, delays, other tricky stuff and the ability to chain up to 4 FX or split it's functionality into a stereo chain for steel and another for MIDI accompaniment. (My MIDI rack is another story entirely)
Now I have a 1st generation POD updated to I think v2.0, the DIgitech Quad, a Tube Screamer and the Digitech Delay.

I think the only things I haven't used regularly at some time are an octave splitter and an envelope filter/auto wah...or a Ring Modulator

For almost 20 years I was "addicted" to having a compressor between my guitar and the volume pedal. When I got my U12 in 1998 I went "cold turkey" from compression and learned how to play again using only my hands and the volume pedal to control 'sustain'.

After thirty years of using/abusing FX, I find myself most gigs plugging in just the tube screamer (used one or 2 songs a night for a crunchier rock tone) and the stompbox digital delay (used intermittently for variety and ambience from rockabilly slapback to long textural swells- I don't dial in a setting and use it all night), but primarily playing the straight steel thru the amp reverb. Sometimes the E-Bow comes out for a tune.

But I have that same 30 years of experience to draw on if something "unusual" seems to be called for either onstage or in the studio, and I am not dogmatic "fer or agin" the use of FX.

They are just tools, and when used judiciously (or even radically) can add to musical expression....
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 13 August 2004 at 09:38 AM.]</p></FONT>

b0b,
With my MuTronIII+ Envelope Filter (auto-wha) set to trigger in the "Down" direction, I've found it sounds very B3-ish, like a percussive B3 style playing back-beat punch-fills against a walking bass line, for example.

The Rotosphere is made by Hughes & Kettner. You can check it out here: http://www.hughes-and-kettner.com/scripts/products.php?mode=prod&id=14 It is the best Leslie simulator I've ever used, next to the B3's in my MIDI rig of course.

I paid my dues in the skull orchards of San Diego County from 1975- 1986. The various bands that I played with were basically 4 piece bands. We would play more “Country Rock” than “Country”. I would use various effects on the “Country Rock” songs, saving my pure steel sound for the “Country” songs. The pure steel sound would include Amp reverb and a little analog delay. Later, it would be digital delay. The “Rock” and “Country” rock songs would include the effects de jour. By that, I mean whatever effects I had at the time. The guys I played with told me I was an equipment junky. At the time, I had a bypass box that took the effects out of the pure steel circuit. This bypass box was designed by Fred Layman. He had an article in Tom Bradshaw’s Steel Guitarist magazine and it detailed exactly how to build it with an equipment list. It might have been the neatest piece of equipment that I have ever owned.

I'm using a GT-6, which has all this stuff in it. Very cool unit-I haven't yet really even scratched the surface with it-but for hairy distortion, I use the old Cage favorite, the bosstone. Been using it on Cadillac Ranch, as well as a few other rockers.

JB

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Fulawka D-10 9&5
Fessenden D-10 8&8
"All in all, looking back, I'd have to say the best advice anyone ever gave me was 'Hands Up, Don't Move!"
www.johnbarnold.com/pedalsteel
www.buddycage.net

http://www.nrpsmusic.com/index.html

I really like my Pod xt.

The models I use the most are the Bassman Tweed with the new 15" speaker model.

The different reverbs range from funky springs and plates to cathedral.

You can also have it be "dry'.

Echoplex ( although I don't know about those old german multiheaded ones) is pretty authentic.

Fuzzes and overdrives abound but without the pedal board and vp aare pretty usless. I have a Boss Turbo for that though I rarely use it.

The blackface and tiny tweed models can give you that cave man sound.

Delay's range from digital models to stereo, and I use an auto pan effect to break up the monotony.

I've got an envelope follower which up til now I've only used on 'Chicken Truck', but the song doesnt' seem to be coming back..

Those that worry about too many effects, I assure them that my Pod actually has none, and consists of a big copper wire running from one jack to another...

I personally don't use chorus except VERY sparingly, and rarely use a flanger as it tends to flatten notes.

Up til about three years ago I used basically none for more than 20 years.

I think I'm allowed..



EJL

Hey John,
I have been thinking about getting a GT-6 myself, the only thing that bothers me, it seems a bit awkward to use for steel because of its size... I know Cage puts his effects board on the right side on the floor in a 90 degree angle, but his is just a row of stompboxes, whereas on the GT-6 you have that expression pedal far right that you can´t even physically reach with your foot... what do you think?

Regards, JH

As little or as many as it takes for what is going down at the moment... (I always have Line 6 Delay, Modulator and Filter box with a dedicated rack verb. Close at hand are a couple of compressors, Tube Screamer, Sparkle Drive, Full Drive etc...)

I got an Adenalinn II just because it was such a weird idea for a gizmo. Its been coming in very handy on a bunch of gigs lately. Its always fun to watch band members start looking around the stage trying to figure out where those seriously nutty sounds are coming from. For rocking out screaming solos its the bomb.

www.rogerlinndesign.com/index.html

BTW: Dave, I've got a little CD coming out soon with 10 minutes of ring modulated steel guitar madness on one track. I was way into my ring modulator for a while.

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Bob
intonation help


<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bob Hoffnar on 16 August 2004 at 03:33 PM.]</p></FONT>

I use some spring reverb and a Fulltone Fulldrive II overdrive unit.

DZ

My usual chain in the POD XT is subtle use of the LA-2A compressor model, Tubescreamer model for overdriven stuff, Stereo Delay, and Reverb, using the Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120 amp model, and 421 mic model.

I've do use chorus and phaser from time to time, depending on the song, etc. More often then not, in the case of the chorus - I decide that I don't really like the sound with it, as well as I did without it...

I love to experiment,

David Spires

I just listened to Bobby Black's "California Freedom". Anyone who thinks they're doing something new with effects should hear this. Bobby tried just about everything back then, and the album is a tour de force of tasteful steel effects.

It's available from the Forum Catalog.

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<font size="1"><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)</font>

Over the years I have also used everything in the book. My current rig includes a digiteck 2101
with as many effx as you can create in any combination. I like to create unusual sounds for use at just the right moment in a song. Just as a drummer uses "ghost notes' and timing changes to add push and color. I dont think just adding an effect
through a song is musical. used wisely they can be your friend.


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Mullen S12
Acoustic 165 100W tube
71 Tele, Regal 45, Gretch
Lap, Columbia Lap, Sho Bud S10 lap, Line 6 flextone 3, JBL d130,

I use my Pro Fex II and my Goodrich 7A super sastian match box.i use a Nashville 400 with two Deltalite speakers and the sound is Awsum
Sam White

If I'm playing rock music, I'll use a fuzz and/or a chorus. You can't play rock without effects, especially overdrive/fuzz. That's what rock's all about! It'd be like trying to play bluegrass music without a banjo and a fiddle.