do any of you play pedal steel?

The part where they talk about playing in tune VS being in tune seems to be key with pedal steel.
I find that really listening rather than looking at position or watching a tuner makes a big difference getting it right.

The other thing ...have some hillbilly sensibility when playing. I don't mean that in a negative way, rather that you should try and find that laidback vibe...especially for country music.
 
miroslav said:
The part where they talk about playing in tune VS being in tune seems to be key with pedal steel.
I find that really listening rather than looking at position or watching a tuner makes a big difference getting it right.

The other thing ...have some hillbilly sensibility when playing. I don't mean that in a negative way, rather that you should try and find that laidback vibe...especially for country music.
Click to expand...

I have the "hillbilly sensibility" thing down!
Lol.
Seriously though, I was immersed in steel guitar as far back as I can r3member. My mother was a huge fan of ray price, farron young, Johnny bush, mel tillis, and Merle haggard. Her best friends husband played drums for a Maryland based band called "the Stringdusters". They had a steel player that went on to play with earnest tub and twin fiddle players called the Justice brothers (one of them went on to play with farron young I believe). They were the house band for a club called The Hunters Lodge" in Maryland not to far from DC. The after hours jam sessions there are legendary, with the likes of Wille nelson, earnest tubb, ray pride, haggard and most of the other big names in country music in the late 60s and early 70s. Anyway, I heard steel players upon steel players ...the band practicing,....records of nothing but steel guitar instrumentals, non stop classic country that was saturated in steel. Steel guitar ruled with the crowd my mother hung with and I was raised on that stuff.
I believe if I ever got a steel and figured out what to do with the levers and pedals I would developed pretty quickly because all the licks are internalized in my head already.
 
jimistone said:
I have the "hillbilly sensibility" thing down!
Lol.
Seriously though, I was immersed in steel guitar as far back as I can r3member. My mother was a huge fan of ray price, farron young, Johnny bush, mel tillis, and Merle haggard. Her best friends husband played drums for a Maryland based band called "the Stringdusters". They had a steel player that went on to play with earnest tub and twin fiddle players called the Justice brothers (one of them went on to play with farron young I believe). They were the house band for a club called The Hunters Lodge" in Maryland not to far from DC. The after hours jam sessions there are legendary, with the likes of Wille nelson, earnest tubb, ray pride, haggard and most of the other big names in country music in the late 60s and early 70s. Anyway, I heard steel players upon steel players ...the band practicing,....records of nothing but steel guitar instrumentals, non stop classic country that was saturated in steel. Steel guitar ruled with the crowd my mother hung with and I was raised on that stuff.
I believe if I ever got a steel and figured out what to do with the levers and pedals I would developed pretty quickly because all the licks are internalized in my head already.
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sell one of those guitars and throw some more money at it and go for it, I will cheer you on. Remember, if there is a heaven, angels don't play harps, they play pedal steel.
 
I already sold my Les Paul to help my daughter out with college spending money. The only guitar I have that's worth enough to fund a pedal steel purchase is my '66 strat that I bought in 1976. I couldn't part with it man...too much history there.
 
jimistone said:
I already sold my Les Paul to help my daughter out with college spending money. The only guitar I have that's worth enough to fund a pedal steel purchase is my '66 strat that I bought in 1976. I couldn't part with it man...too much history there.
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Just build one. How hard could it be? :D
 
I would like to build one with all electronic relays for the pedals and levers and make it midi so you could plug it into synth modules. That would be cool.
 
contact scottysmusic.com all the info and contact numbers are on that site... they specialize in Pedal Steel guitars and have many connects ... tye deal world wide distributing in Japan and most of europe , australia etc... over 80 countries or better... thay may have someone willing to collaborate if you ask. they know anybody who is anybody in the world of steel guitart...they dealt with the best of the best through the byears including buddy emmons, speedy west, paul franklin, etc through the years...you name the biggins they know em as well as from beginners -intermediate-local-pros international pros.... you need it they got it.. look up also Scotty's International steel guitar convebtion... held every year labor day weeknd in St. Louis Mo. Scotty himself placed pedal steel guitars on the worlds map of steel guitar industry
 
Leave Scotty out of it... ;)

I should have the track done today.
I recorded a few passes on Tue/Wed....but then left them alone for a couple of days.
I was just getting over-saturated...you know, when you just keep doing it over and over, you reach a point of diminishing returns and it starts sounding worse with each pass instead of better. :D

Last night I sorted out the recorded passes, and will just do some tweaking today to finish the track.

If you hate my pedal steel offering...then you can call Scotty. :p
 
miroslav said:
Leave Scotty out of it... ;)

I should have the track done today.
I recorded a few passes on Tue/Wed....but then left them alone for a couple of days.
I was just getting over-saturated...you know, when you just keep doing it over and over, you reach a point of diminishing returns and it starts sounding worse with each pass instead of better. :D

Last night I sorted out the recorded passes, and will just do some tweaking today to finish the track.

If you hate my pedal steel offering...then you can call Scotty. :p
Click to expand...

I appreciate your investment of time in my song miroslav. That means a lot to me. Hopefully I will have an opportunity to return the favor on one if your tunes.
 
Mines coming along but not as done as miro's, from the sounds of it.I imagine it'll be done by the weekend, if'n sumpin' shiny doesn't catch my eye.
 
I finished my pedal steel yesterday. Beat you!! :p

I didn't realize you were still doing the lap steel track.
Good...Jimistone now has more mixing options, and he can mix/blend between the pedal steel and lap steel tracks however it best fits, 'cuz my pedal steel playing was/is certainly not all clean or fancy.
I actually had to comp from a few passes because I just don't have the proficiency yet to play the whole length of the song without tossing out some clams 'n worts. :D

Here's a pic of my rig and the signal chain I used:

PedalSteel.jpg

The pedal steel went to a Dunlop MXR Comp pedal, with some medium compression and it adds some nice sustain, which works well for pedal steel.
Then over to a Barking Dogs Very Tone pedal, which was actually in bypass. I just used it to add some volume, and even in bypass, it seems adds some bight pop the tone.
Then from there it went DI to my Langevin Dual Vocal Combo, using it's preamp section EQ to brighten and also roll off some lows, and then into its opto-limiter section for final peak smoothing.
From the DVC straight into my converter and my DAW (Samplitude ProX)

I just set up right in front of my mix position, and I could sit there watch the DAW screen and trigger Rec/Play and make adjustments without ever getting up form the pedal steel.
 
Looks complicated...the setup and the instrument. But then again, a pedal steel for me is only extra storage space provided I put a board on top.:)

I helped a buddy fix his. once, it was a 2 day affair. But I sure as hell cant play one.:confused:

cant wait for the tracks.
 
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