Effects to emulate pedal steel?

[Das Poop]

Hey guys,

I'm doing an alt country-ish track where I'd like the guitar to sound a bit more like a pedal steal than a twangy guitar. Any suggestions on what effects can help emulate some of the volume swells that are more characteristic of the pedal steel?
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Thanks!

 

[goodbyebluesky]

You can make a temporary lap steel by tuning your guitar to an open tuning (thats a big secret to the sound) and jacking the action up to avoid fret buzz. Play with a metal slide and use a volume pedal, even if its just a floor modeler (like POD Live) you have set up with the pedal controlling volume. Then work that pedal just like the Nashville guys do while playing.

 

[ez_willis]

Hey guys,

I'm doing an alt country-ish track where I'd like the guitar to sound a bit more like a pedal steal than a twangy guitar. Any suggestions on what effects can help emulate some of the volume swells that are more characteristic of the pedal steel?
\
Thanks!

If it were me, I'd post the song in the Collab Forum at Recording Project and let one of them track it on a pedal steel.

 

[jeffree]

You can make a temporary lap steel by tuning your guitar to an open tuning (thats a big secret to the sound) and jacking the action up to avoid fret buzz. Play with a metal slide and use a volume pedal

Exactly. And two other tips: Cut the high freqs quite a bit to keep the sound round and smooth, and try some light delay (2-3 repeats) for more fullness. Oh, if if you don't have a volume pedal, just use a gate to slow down the attack--if you like a softer entrance. I do.

Best,
J.

 

[mikeh]

The two main techiques to make a guitar sound like a pedal steel are:

1. Proper use of note bends - to simulate the pedal bends, you need to learn how to bend only cetain notes in a chord (as an example, playing the b sting and g string - but only bending the b)

2. Volume swells - while this can be done with a volume pedal, most guitarists that I've seen do steel sounds well simply use thier little finger on the guitar's volume knob.

I've worked with some players who got very realistc steel sounds in standard tuning, using no slide - simply with bends and swells.

I think a good sustain/compression pedal can be very helpful to hold the notes.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Lots of reverb ...... use a volume pedal if you can possibly get your hands on one ....... some compression so you can get long sustain while keeping it really clean.

 

[Das Poop]

Thanks for all of the great tips, guys!

I don't have a volume pedal, so I'll either need to try the volume knob or perhaps a gate to soften the attack a bit...can't wait to try some of this out!