Pedal steel sound?

Not sure where this ? should go, but does anyone know how to get pedal steel sound from a standard electric?

Skip ahead to 1:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yltq0HheHdg&feature=related

I hear a loud clean amp, compressor, volume pedal, and technique.

I hear a loud clean amp, compressor, volume pedal, and technique.

Exactly. Emphasis on the volume pedal at the 1 minute mark.

Exactly. Emphasis on the volume pedal at the 1 minute mark.

Both of these guys are dead on. In general, a little reverb helps, too.

I hear a loud clean amp, compressor, volume pedal, and technique.

+1, with 90% of it being technique.

A volume pedal is an absolute must when bending the third string. Good luck with your practising.

Volume pedal? Yes and no! There are a lot of things I play on pedal steel (Kline U-12 & '59,'64,'67,'74 Shobuds) that never use the volume pedal. And don't "pump" it too much. As for compressors, use a very transparent one. I use a Meek VC-3 for steel sounds on 6-string. Also,,, steel pickups are generally wound to around 18-20 K,, a lot more oomph than even a very hot humbucker! Keely Katana helps there. Reverb? Definitely! Delay? Sometimes. Technique? All the time!

A volume pedal is an absolute must when bending the third string. Good luck with your practising.

Not necessarily. Check out Danny G in this clip - NWi7-qa8sU4
Also check out players like Arlen Roth and Jerry Donahue.

Great Gatton clip. Doesn't even remotely sound like pedal steel though.

Great Gatton clip. Doesn't even remotely sound like pedal steel though.

Sure. No solid body electric is going to really. It's more the style that he is adopting here that is steel-esque. I have seen other clips of him where he gets scary close to a steel sound using nothing more than his Tele and volume pot with the pinky on it. He 'stole' a lot of steel licks off of Buddy Emmons when he was playing with him in the late seventies.

Not sure where this ? should go, but does anyone know how to get pedal steel sound from a standard electric?

Skip ahead to 1:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yltq0HheHdg&feature=related

Don't listen to other guitar players, listen to steel players and try to copy them. Also., look for some pedal steel instruction on youtube, they will slow things down and you can translate the notes to guitar and go from there. Lots of pre bends, and a little volume/tone knob work goes a long way. Listen to Ralph Mooney(Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, countless Capitol Records sessions), Norm Hamlet (Merle Hagard), Hal Ruggs (Loretta Lynn) for some good steel that is not too complicated, able to be translated to the standard guitar. This guy taught me a lot about steel guitar sound, which I was able to incorporate into my guitar playing...

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WaParker 4 nailed it.

Great DG clip!

Thanks for responses. So the volume pedal would be used create the swells?

Swells ? Sure they are nice and sound kool, but that is not why Steel Players use a volume pedal...

A seasoned Steel player, for the most part you won't even recognize that they are using a volume pedal. Typically the V Pedal is set at about 50% to achieve normal volume..the rest of the Pedal is used for extended sustain of chords or notes...

Beginner players have way too much swell, one of the practice techniques recommended is for new players to put their right foot on a block of wood for a month or so, maybe longer...this prevents it from moving with all of the other physical things going on...feet moving, knee's moving, both hands moving..all while trying to stay on pitch !

Volume swell may be used as an effect but it is not a typical Pedal Steel thing, quite the opposite, players need to be able to NOT swell and control it... proper right foot technique is to be able to prevent the swell from occurring.

Most of the great Telecaster bending things we hear are artifacts from Pedal Steel phrasing , not necessarily Pedal Steel phrases. They began with the influence and turned into another kool technique for guitars which many think are actually Pedal Steel licks !

t

Most of the great Telecaster bending things we hear are artifacts from Pedal Steel phrasing , not necessarily Pedal Steel phrases. They began with the influence and turned into another kool technique for guitars which many think are actually Pedal Steel licks !

t

Yep!

In the original video mentioned, you can see at about 1.40 the volume pedal being used to swell in. I had to practice to get this usable sometimes. I find I have to get to the chord a little early to get the swell where I want it.

Even after watching the video until the end and and after read the text below I'm still not sure that there is no pedal steel guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBRCEHuJ210

Even after watching the video until the end and and after read the text below I'm still not sure that there is no pedal steel guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBRCEHuJ210Huh? Bender equipped tele + talent in that video.

Thanks for responses. So the volume pedal would be used create the swells?

Yes. You can see the guitar player's leg moving as he works the volume pedal in the video. Alternately you can use the volume control (on certain guitars like strats) to achieve the same effect. I've known some players to use an auto-volume effect as another alternative to the volume knob or pedal but it's not my favorite.

As for the rest of the tone - try using a combination of mild reverb and a short to medium delay (140-180ms or so, 20-30% mix, zero repeats) to fatten up the notes.

The reason we use a volume pedal is not to swell so much as it is to sustain. By riding the pedal, you can boost the volume as it drops off. I can always tell a new player because they swell too much. :-)

He is playing it on the guitar, there is no steel guitar in any of the clip. I don't believe he has a bender either, and if he does he didn't use it, he was just using a simple string bend at one point.

edit: Sorry, you were commenting on a different link. I see that guy in the other clip is using a bender.

Indeed, the later link is Steve Piticco - cool and talented Tele player.
There's other clips of him on youtube and you can see him use the bender then too.
Talented guy. I can't get bends to go that smoothly to 'just fit' in the piece (yet..).

Although I can't say with 100% certainty, I don't think Steve P uses a Bender, he is very strong on the bottom 3 strings. Mansion on the Hill is primarily played on the 6,5,4 strings...no Bender there...I met Steve a few times in Saint Louis, I think I even picked on the guitar in the video, in which it has no bender. Steve is truly a gifted player with an immense knowledge of the fretboard and the tuning...he is also a Pedal Steel player so he is joining the two worlds together....easily he is one of my favorite Tele pickers today...really nice laid back guy as well... but, as I said, it's been a few years and possibly he is using a Bender now but he don't need it , in fact I prefer a picker like Steve who employs bend phrases without a Bender...

t

I hear a loud clean amp, compressor, volume pedal, and technique.

Yeah what he said. You need to seriously know how to work the volume pedal - timing is everything. Something I've never been able to get the hang of... :cry:

-Jagg

Do not "pump" the volume pedal. You'll sound like a beginner! V-pedal use is fairly subtle, and is used much more often to extend a note as it decays, than to do "swells."

That said, here's the great Lloyd Green, doing lots of swells to effect the beginning envelopes of notes;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj-UNCLlGUU&feature=related

I can't see these videos right now so I can't comment on exactly what you are looking for. But some of my better steel sounds come frmo bends. Try fretting the B on the 13th and the G on the 12th, picking both and doing a quick upward bend on the G and back down while not bending the B.

You can get a -B- bender that mounts to your tele or strat bridge these days. Simply replace a bridge saddle and it's like a mini whammy bar for one string.

Rollingbender.com

Hipshot;

Not sure where this ? should go, but does anyone know how to get pedal steel sound from a standard electric?

Skip ahead to 1:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yltq0HheHdg&feature=related

Same frikkin' 4 chords everyone's been writing with for over 20 years!!! The guitar player is using a pedal that simulates volume swells, that's all......listen to anything by Arlen Roth, he's the king of REAL pedal steel bends!

helpful to use long echo + compresor + volume pedal and tremolo arm for matching Hawaiian guitar and pedal steel sound .... Here's an example where it works very well and no b-bender ... I think it was Hank Marvin was trying to in the past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DiQmHaAmZg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdcQT2Rpuqw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZHfOtuTjm0&feature=related

I agree that it is mostly technique and volume pedal on the original posted question, and the discussion has pretty much confirmed that.

But this discussion reminded me of Ray Benson's technique on "Top of the World". He doesn't use pedals, just his pinky on the volume knob. And he gets some pretty slick glissando-sounding licks. It also adds quite a bit of soul to the sound. He's been doin' it that way for years and that is technique.

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Check out his solo at 3:18. (although the whole song is pretty good).

Admittedly, I have seen him live and he does, in fact have a steel player in the band, but even he only plays an old Fender (no pedals), so even his bends are done with the slide bar, and not the machinery of what we have come accustomed to calling pedal steel guitar.

Gimmicks are sometimes fashionable, but quickly fade, especially if over-used. But talent and technique have to be developed over time and they are nice to hear nowadays with all the electronic trickery that is force-fed to us via Country radio.

This discussion has been a good one and I appreciate Esquire JR for bringing it up. I hope he got the answer he was seeking from everyone involved in the discussion.


Edit: I found a better shot of it in this video. Solo starts at 1:55, but good frontal shot of technique at 2:00.

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helpful to use long echo + compresor + volume pedal and tremolo arm for matching Hawaiian guitar and pedal steel sound .... Here's an example where it works very well and no b-bender ... I think it was Hank Marvin was trying to in the past.

a better example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIkH9VLfiNs

Although I can't say with 100% certainty, I don't think Steve P uses a Bender, he is very strong on the bottom 3 strings.
...in fact I prefer a picker like Steve who employs bend phrases without a Bender...

t

I stand corrected t.

In some videos of Steve it 'looked' like he was pushing the neck down when I heard the bend. So I assumed there was some a strap button actuated bender on the guitar.
But from how you describe it, it must just be his technique to get those bends. I'm going to go back and listen again. He's a great player.

Sure. No solid body electric is going to really. It's more the style that he is adopting here that is steel-esque. I have seen other clips of him where he gets scary close to a steel sound using nothing more than his Tele and volume pot with the pinky on it. He 'stole' a lot of steel licks off of Buddy Emmons when he was playing with him in the late seventies.

Great Gatton clip. I hadn't seen that before, thanks for puttin' it up. A couple of weeks ago I saw a clip, I'm not sure if it was here or on TGP, of Pete Anderson doin' steel licks on a Tele. He was using an Aqua Puss and If I hadn't been lookin' at the vid I would have sworn it was a steel and not some guy playin' steel licks on a guitar. Very authentic.

The steel pkayer on the AATW sittin on top of the world clip looks and sounds like he stepped out of 1949. Awesome.